Chapter 24

“Come on!” Mathias gripped my shoulder. I somehow felt it in my pants. “Don’t do that.”

I slipped away from his touch. “Do what?” When I opened the back door and chucked the mop like a javelin, Devon laughed. “I’ll pick it up later.” Then I smiled too. He had that effect on me. “Don’t let me forget.”

“Don’t jump ahead a year, Reed.”

“Oh.” I picked up my coffee and sipped. Blech. “Just a thought,” I said.

“It isn’t going to make a huge difference in the rest of your life if you wait.”

“I’m already almost eighteen,” I argued.

“So am I.”

“You are?”

“I flunked kindergarten.”

“Really?” That came from Devon.

“Yup. Too shy. Can you believe it?” Mathias asked me. “Somehow I managed to hold my pee until fourth grade, though.”

Devon giggled, then gagged on milk shake.

“You okay?”

He nodded and took another sip.

“My birthday is in September, but still, I enter senior year at eighteen, just like you.”