“What are we supposed to do?” Laurel asked, not willing to admit that she didn’t want to go back either.

“Maybe we can take shifts. One of us, one of them,” David said.

Chelsea rolled her eyes.

“Someone would have to stay all night,” Laurel said. “Which my parents would probably let me do, but—”

“Staying up all night isn’t really your thing,” David said, voicing Laurel’s concern.

“I can text my mom,” Chelsea offered. “I told her I’d probably spend the night at your house anyway — makes total sense after a big dance. And she never checks up on me.”

Laurel and Chelsea both turned to look at David. “I’ll think of something,” he mumbled. “What about Ryan?”

“What about him?” Chelsea asked, finding something interesting to examine on the steering wheel.

“He’s going to wonder why you keep running off at strange hours. You can’t always use Laurel as an excuse.”

“I don’t think he’ll notice,” Chelsea said.

“You can’t just assume that,” David retorted. “Don’t underestimate him. You always underestimate him.”

“I do not!”

“Well, he’s going to notice something if you suddenly start being “busy” all the time. And he’s going to want to spend time with you over the break. Especially after you ditched him almost every day last week to study for finals,” David said.

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Chelsea said ruefully, leaning back against her seat and meeting his eyes at last.

David just shook his head. “I don’t understand you. You were so worried about him when Yuki or Klea or whoever slipped him that memory elixir and now it’s like you don’t care at all.” He kicked the dirt at his feet. “Why don’t you just break up with him?”