After about fifty minutes, we’re down to one missing key. Time is running out. We need to find a code to open the remaining lockbox.
Alex and I are running around the room, yanking open drawers, moving beakers, and checking behind bookcases, searching for anything that might be a clue. With two minutes to spare, I pick up the photo of Albert Einstein. I turn the frame over to remove the back, finding a folded sheet of paper with three more random numbers. Would it match up with the other sheet of paper that said 5_8_7_?
I dart across the room to the original numbers, press the papers together, and hold them up to the light. Alex appears above my shoulder to stare up at it. 5-6-8-3-7–7.
Alex punches that number into the final lockbox. It opens. I yank the key out, stick it in the safe with the other eleven keys. It swings open.
“We did it,” I shout.
His arms come around me in a hug. My body stiffens at first, but he feels so good, I slowly begin to relax against his chest. Our hug feels warm, and soft, and safe, with a strong electric buzz.
“We saved all of the hospitals and schools from that asshole robot,” Alex says.
I chuckle into his shoulder as he pats my back. “Yeah, we’re a pretty good team.”
The door slides open. Natural light floods in. We peer out to see Max in front of a group of kids from school staring at us, our arms still looped around each other.
“You did it!” Max says. “You got out.”
“Dude, were you hooking up with Lulu Wells?” Ryan asks.
“You hooked up with Alex in the escape room?!” Max whisper-yells at me.
“I can’t believe Alex made out with that hippie,” Marcie Wallace says, giving Alex a wistful look.
I shake my head. “Guys, we didn’t hook up in there. We were too busy escaping.”
My classmates mutter, “Yeah, right” and “I call BS.”
Then something happens that I never expected: Jonah approaches Alex, going in for a fist bump. “Nice one, man.”
I narrow my eyes. Is Jonah kidding me? Any interest I had in him suddenly disappears.
Alex looks him up and down, refusing to answer the fist bump. “Get out of my way, Jonah.”
Jonah’s face reddens as he shuffles backward, melting into the crowd.
“This is not how I expected today to turn out,” Max murmurs to me. “It’s like your life became a reality show.”
“Can we go check out the gift shop?” I say, feeling uncomfortable about what just happened. Not only about Jonah’s comment, but about the hug. I can’t believe how good it felt to be in Alex’s arms. But he’s a jerk, right?
I look back at him. He’s busy telling Ryan about how Isaac Newton was proudest of being a virgin.
“You and Isaac have a lot common,” Ryan tells Alex, deadpan, and I snort with laughter.
Alex gives me a grin, his brown eyes twinkling, seeing right through me, as if he knows how conflicted I am about him. How can one person be so annoying and yet so charming?
April
Freshman Year
Mom pulls her car up in front of the movie theater in Murfreesboro, the next town over from Manchester.
“What time should I pick you up?”
“Ben’s parents are giving me a ride to a party at Tina Hardaway’s house,” Grace says. “Mom and Dad are okay with it.”
Max unclips his seat belt in the back seat. “Lu and I might get food afterwards, Mrs. Wells.”
Mom looks at him through her rearview mirror. “Is that code for going to the party?”
“Nah, I’m serious,” Max says. “I need some Rocky Road.”
“We’re just gonna go across the street to the mall, Mom.”
“Okay, okay,” Mom replies. “But if you want to go to a party, I don’t mind as long as we can pick you up before your curfew at eleven. Your father and I just need to know where you are and how to reach you.”
I shift in my seat. Max and I don’t get invited to parties. Especially not at the house of Tina Hardaway, a senior on Grace’s dance team.
After giving Mom a kiss goodbye, I follow Max and Grace into the theater. There are so many kids from school here, the lobby might as well be the cafeteria.
We pick up our movie tickets and head to the concession stand.
“What can I get for you?” the concession stand worker says in an overly chipper voice.
“Twizzlers, please,” I reply.
“A large popcorn and Milk Duds,” Max says.
“Water, please,” Grace replies. “Oh! There’s Ben.” In a flash, she abandons us, throwing her arms around his neck as he meets her with a kiss.
I sigh, watching them.
“What’s wrong?” Max asks.
“I’m jealous.”
“Don’t be,” Max says under his breath as he passes his dad’s credit card over to the concession worker. “She could do so much better.”
Max has his reasons for disliking Ben. He told me all about how Ben’s friends bully him in the locker room. And while Ben never joins in, sometimes he laughs.
I can’t help agreeing with Max—Ben is not good enough for my cousin. She’s kind, gets far better grades than me, and is a great dancer. Ben, on the other hand, has basically refused to acknowledge Max’s and my existence since he started dating Grace.
“Yeah, Ben’s a dick,” I say to Max as I pass a ten-dollar bill to the worker. “But I just, like, want to make out with somebody.”
“Me too,” Max says wistfully.
I give him a look. Max has at least kissed a guy—someone he met last summer in Kentucky at church camp—but my experience with boys adds up to zilch.
I take Grace’s water from the counter along with my Twizzlers, turning around. Grace is tugging Ben my way, even though it looks like he’d rather have an invasive medical procedure than be seen with me.
“Hi, Ben,” I say. He nods and scrubs a hand through his hair, focusing on a display for some upcoming Pixar movie.
“Doesn’t Lulu look great tonight?” Grace asks. “We gave each other makeovers.”
He glances at me again, but doesn’t respond. “I’m gonna talk to the guys for a minute, babe,” Ben says, kissing the top of her head and vanishing into the arcade.
Max watches Ben walk away with narrowed eyes. “What, does he think we have a disease or something?”