Page 40 of The Do-Over Girl

I findmyself in the hallway near the girl’s room, the same one where I first found Nash with that awful girl seventeen years ago, and I shudder with the memory, but it fades immediately like a fleeting waft of briny air.

Then I notice Mia standing against the wall in a corner, and she’s alone, looking at her phone. There’s an unhappy look on her face, and my heart plummets.

“Is there something wrong, Mia?”

She shakes her head automatically, but I know she’s lying.

“Is it about Dylan?”

She laughs, but her eyes glisten with unshed tears. She nods. “He’s worried about us, about leaving Andrews Point and going to different colleges…” She looks down. “He says that’s probably what broke up you and Coach.” She peers up at me for confirmation.

I don’t have to think about it for more than a heartbeat because I know it’s true. It’s what made that last dance so volatile because it was the time for turning the page and heading out into the unknown.

“Essentially, yes, we were afraid of our future taking us in separate directions, afraid of leaving our cocoon of happiness so to speak, and it made us vulnerable to…things that we would have normally handled.”

“What happened?”

I shake my head. I can’t tell her. It’s Nash’s story as much as it is mine, and we’ve never talked about it. I haven’t even thought about the details of what happened in all these years, not really, not beyond the crushing emotional fallout, how I felt the next day.

But maybe I should revisit that night because maybe Nash wasn’t so bad, not the only one at fault.

I found him in the hallway near the girl’s room with a girl. She was holding onto him, and it looked like he was holding her back. When I approached, he sent her into the girls' room and told me he was consoling the girl because Archie brought her to the dance and then broke up with her.

He said it was nothing. I believed him.

We both agreed that Archie shouldn’t have done that, but he said it was an argument that escalated, and he had no choice.

When the dance ended, we were on the dance floor. The music stopped, and I said, Let’s go. We had a big night planned at a hotel. I’d just gone on the pill, and we were going to make love raw for the first time…

17 years ago at the graduation dance in the Andrews Point Academy gym…

The music stops,and we stand there staring at each other, anticipation thick and clogging my throat.

He says, “I’m afraid there’s a change of plans, Kali. I can’t go to the hotel tonight. I have to take Archie’s date home, and she lives over an hour away.” People around us obviously heard him and are looking at us. I’m shocked and a little embarrassed.

“What?” I keep my voice low. “I don’t understand. Why can’t Archie take his date home?”

“It’s a long story, but he can’t. He’s back with Patty. They’re already gone.” His face is set, and disbelief gives way to profound disappointment

“The girl can get another ride.” I’m almost in tears because I see our beautiful night slipping away.

“There’s no one else. I promised Archie I would take her home.”

The girl comes up to him—the same girl from the girls’ room earlier—and my heart leaps into my throat. She hangs on him, plastering herself to his side. She’s tipsy, and I don’t like the way she’s looking at Nash.

Everyone around us is watching and listening, and I reach out to take his arm. “Let’s go somewhere private to talk.”

Nash resists. “Kali, I need to help her.” The girl clutches at him.

“What about our night?” I whisper.

“Nash, I need to go,” the girl whines. “I don’t feel so good.”

“I’ll come with you,” I volunteer, but the girl blocks me, pushing me away.

“Don’t you get it, Kali? He’s with me tonight.”

The words ring in my ears, and the crowd around us gasps.