More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
With my eyes closed, my hand traverses the obstacle course of cups, food wrappers, and ChapStick tubes on my nightstand to find my phone.
Relatable af
my struggle to adjust to the disorienting letdown of adulthood.
“Teddy?”
Teddy = Theo for surrrreeeee
He smells so good I want to yell, like firewood and a hint of something sweet.
1. Yum 2. Kudos for using anything other than ocean
I flip to my and Theo’s senior portraits, which are side by side. Shepard and Spencer: a match made in alphabetical hell.
Not a Smith in sight
The door swings open, and there he is, phone in hand. He puts his mouth up to the speaker, his eyes on me, the tiniest smirk pulling at his lips. “It’s nice.” His voice echoes all around—here in front of me, through the Ring. It sets my teeth on edge, that backward velvet feeling vibrating through me.
Theo is all spice, no sugar. Strange that he wears it on his skin.
It’s okay if this scares you. It scares me, too. But I’ll do it anyway.
Maybe it doesn’t have to be my best to still be enough.
“I get it, Shepard. The risk isn’t worth the reward.
:(
When I found it, I was so taken aback by the price that my fingers tripped over themselves to fill out the booking information.
Pleasssseeee tell me theres about to be not enough beds
“Oh,” Paul continues, the smile clear in his voice, “and don’t worry, Teddy. I’ll make your eggs over easy the way you like them.”
Yessssssssss
He sighs, dragging his mouth along my cheek, until it gets to my ear. “Tell me a secret.” “I don’t want to be done with this in two days.” As soon as that last confession is out, the relief pours through me like adrenaline. “Tell me yours.” He pulls back. “I don’t want to be done with this at all.”
The door swings open—no knock—and my dad stands there instead. He holds up his phone, my TikTok account on the screen. His expression is tight, cheeks pale. “Noelle,” he says, in a voice I rarely hear from him. “What the hell is this?”
We knew this was coming
“Yeah, it’s just—it’s kind of funny, because I knew about Paul.”
OMG
