Chapter 15: : Chapter 15

107 Days Before the Trip, 4:05 p.m.

“Stop hooking up with him,” Jocelyn says. “It’s going to get bad.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, frowning.

“Just what I said. You like him, Court. And that’s not good.”

“I don’t like him,” I say, rolling my eyes. “We’re just, you know, hanging out.” It’s been a couple of weeks since I first kissed Jordan, and after a couple of days of me trying to blow him off, and him being very persistent, we’ve been hanging out a lot lately. And by a lot, I mean, um, a lot. As in, like, every second that we’re not at school, we’re together. And even when we’re in school, we’re texting. Or hanging out at lunch or during our unstructureds in the library. Or passing notes in math. It’s really not that bad, though. I mean, school is almost over. So it’s not like we have a ton of work we should be concentrating on or anything.

“You like him,” Jocelyn says. “I can tell from the way you talk to him. And it’s not good. When people start liking people, that’s when someone has the ability to get hurt.”

“I’m not going to get hurt,” I say, shrugging. We’re sitting in Jocelyn’s living room, watching my DVD set of Laguna Beach and talking about nothing.

“Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying.”

“You should talk,” I say, picking up a pillow from my side of the couch and throwing it at her.

“Totally different,” she says. “I’m not nearly as emotionally attached to B. J. as you are to Jordan.”

“I’m not emotionally attached to Jordan,” I lie. The truth is, I kind of am. Emotionally attached to him, I mean. At first, it was just fun. I liked kissing him, and being around him, and holding his hand. But then it turned into something different. I talk to him. I tell him things I’ve never really told anyone, like about how I’m afraid once I get to college everything will be different, and I won’t be smart anymore, and I’ll end up flunking out and my parents will disown me.

“Well, whatever,” Jocelyn says. She grabs the remote and turns up the volume on the TV. “Just be careful, Courtney. Because he is most definitely not emotionally attached to you.”