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“What? What are you talking about?” The distress in Nicole’s voice is the incentive I need to slip out of my hiding spot and creep closer to the door.

“. . . the whole damn campus,” Lucas growls. “What the hell does she think she’s doing?”

“Damn it! How the hell . . .” Nicole trails off, and I start forward, stopping as she raises her voice again. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

“Sure, because you’ve got this all under control, right?” He goes quiet for a long moment. “Tell her I said to be—”

“Leave her alone, Lucas,” Nicole snaps.

He lets out a heavy sigh. “We might not be together anymore, but I still care what happens to her.”

“That’s funny.” She laughs but the sound is frosty. “None of this would’ve happened if you’d kept it in your pants.”

Tired of hiding like a coward, I poke my head out. The tension between them makes the hair on my neck stand up. “What’s going on?”

Lucas glares at Nicole before shooting me a stiff smile as he backs toward the food court. “Ask Nicole. She’s got it all under control.”

“Nicole?” I slide my gaze to my best friend.

She looks even squirmier than before, if possible. “Nothing. It’s not important.”

“It sounded pretty important.” I follow Lucas’s lanky frame, but instead of getting in line for breakfast, he keeps walking, shoving through the glass exit doors and stalking toward the quad.

“It’s . . .” She won’t look at me, and instead, studies her iPhone. “He’s stupid.”

“Nicole.” I cross my arms and stare a hole into her forehead.

“Okay, fine.” She begrudgingly pulls her gaze from her phone to look at me. “Tyler’s been talking about your disastrous date. He . . . I think he posted something on TikTok, and now the whole baseball team knows.”

“We already knew that. You said Tyler told Jeremy.”

“Lucas isn’t happy about you going out with Tyler.” She goes back to studying her phone.

“Tough shit. He had his chance and couldn’t keep it in his pants.”

“That’s what I told—” Eyes locked on her screen, Nicole freezes, every drop of color draining from her face. “I, uh, need to find Jer.”

My insides clench. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I need to talk to him. Like . . . now.” Distracted, she gives me a quick one-arm hug. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Nicole takes off at a sprint.

I head toward my first class, trying and failing to ignore the snickers and stares as I pass through the academic quad. So Tyler told a few people. I told Nicole. Why shouldn’t he tell his friends? And it’s not as if he shared every embarrassing detail. Nicole hadn’t heard about my impromptu swim in the stream. And sure . . . he chose the absolute worst place for a date, but he doesn’t control the weather.

“Hey, Kennedy.”

My head snaps up, and I’m suddenly staring into the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen.

“Elijah O’Neil.” His name tumbles out on a breathy sigh, and my face goes up in flames.

“That’s me.” He chuckles, running a hand through his dark hair. “Where you headed?”

“Uh . . .” I catch my lip in my teeth, my mind going blank.

“Let me guess.” He pans down the front of me. “You have sociology next?”