I have weeks before I leave, but everything in my room is already sectioned off into areas. Under my window, clothes are in stacks, and in a box next to my bathroom door my lotions and flat-iron and every bottle of hotel shampoo I’ve ever taken greet me each morning. It’s not that I want to leave now—I’m not in any kind of rush—I just don’t want to be packing this stuff last minute. I don’t want to forget anything either. And it gives me something to do when I’m at home, other than just sitting here, thinking about what I can’t change. Because leaving is inevitable.

When Emma plops down onto the old beanbag in the corner of my room after her shift, she isn’t amused by the prospect of my seeing Zander. “It’s a horrible idea, Liv.”

She’s right, that’s what I’ve been thinking ever since he texted me. What a dumb idea it is to meet Zander. But at the same time, it seems ridiculous not to see him before I leave. We’ve been friends since we were kids, and I’m just going to move cross-country without giving us a chance to talk? So I decided it’s only fair that I treat this decision like I have the rest of the summer.

“I’m going to decide the same way I decide everything,” I say.

“With logic and reason?” Emma is curled up on the beanbag in her Cherry Pit dress, and she looks like she might just take a nap.

I pull the coin out of my pocket. Coin flips have started to feel like my thing with Aiden, and it feels weird to use one for this.

“Sorry, I was thinking of someone else.” Emma shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “With a coin flip. Obviously.”

“Heads, I meet him tomorrow,” I say.

“And tails, you find Aiden and you fix this.”

“He left.” I flip the coin on my thumb and catch it in my hand. “I’m not chasing after him.” The words send a little ache through me. Another boy to chase; another person walking away.

“I mean,” Emma shoves a hand into the beanbag, pushing it under her butt, “you sort of gave him a reason.”

“You were the one who pitched the summer fling idea!” I launch a bed pillow at her. “No strings! Nothing but fun!” I throw her words back at her. “Now I’m the bad guy?”

“That’s when I didn’t know Aiden Emerson was totally into you. Like in it to win it into you.”