Free This Ordinary Life by Jennifer Walkup

too.”
    â€œHey, Jasmine! I heard your radio show this morning. So awesome. You’re so incredibly good at it. I would completely choke up and have no idea what to say.”
    â€œThanks,” I say with a genuine smile as I slide into the desk. I scoot slightly closer to Trina. I may have to work with him, but if I don’t look at him or smell his cologne, I can pretend he’s just any guy in our group.
    â€œYeah.” Sebastian deadpans. “I loved the Taylor Swift song.”
    Gulp. Okay, maybe not just any guy.
    â€œThanks so much, Sebastian, that is so nice of you to say.” I keep my voice sweet as sugar and, I’m going to admit it right now, even if my pulse is off the charts fast and even if being near my ex is sort of making me want to both fold up and cry and stand up and scream, I kind of love the way his face turns tomato red in anger.
    I’m a mess.
    Trina looks back and forth between us. Obviously, she isn’t a link in the Easton High gossip chain.
    â€œSo, what question are we working on first?” I ask, feigning sudden interest in
The Invisible Man.
I did finish it, so I should be able to contribute, but really, I just want Sebastian to get that dark look off his face.
    He taps the edge of his notebook with his pen. I watch his fingers, considering how many times I’ve held them, how many times they’ve massaged my neck or rubbed circles on the back of my hand. Damn it. The ache of what he did swells again, like it did the day I found him with that girl, and I’m momentarily blinded by it. But Taylor Swift had it right. I honestly do not want him back, even if questions about how it all went down bob endlessly in the sea of my emotions.
    Trina sighs. “You guys are always so smart and ahead of the game. I’ve totally had my head up my ass the last two weeks with the Hello Summer carnival thing.”
    Sebastian rolls his eyes, just barely. He hates all school events so this is no shock. But I realize suddenly that thanks to him, I’ve missed out on plenty, too.
    â€œWhen is it?” I ask.
    She lets out a sound that’s a cross between a squeal and a yell, her magenta lips wide in shock. “Oh my God, you are coming, right? You have to come. It’s the last Friday in June. Last day of junior year, but together one last time. You guys can’t miss it. You’re totally a who’s who of our class. You’re like the longest running couple of our year, probably.”
    I clear my throat and look down at my paper. If I could broadcast a radio show from my head to hers it would say:
Hello listeners this is your newly single and liberated DJ, Jasmine Torres! Ix Nay on the Oyfriend Bay conversation.
    But of course, being Trina, bless her heart she is as nice as she is dumb, she completely missed any type of signal Sebastian and I are giving off. I can’t believe she
still
hasn’t heard the rumors. Girl lives in her own world, that’s for sure.
    â€œSounds fun!” I say, which is a total lie. I hate carnivals. I can think of about a million reasons not to spend the afternoon in the school parking lot playing dumb games and eating greasy food. Of all the fun school events I missed when I was Sebastian’s girlfriend, it would have been awesome if the first one I’ll probably go to was something I actually wanted to do.
    â€œAnyway,” I say. “Let’s get started on these questions.”

8
    W ES AND I text no less than ten times before we figure out exactly where our coffee non-date is happening.
    Since it’s not a date, I’m not nervous. I mean, I’m meeting him for coffee. In a bookstore. Well, the bookstore’s coffee area. Whatever. Nothing to be nervous about.
    I wear a yellow polka dot sundress and my beaded leather sandals. Yep. My favorite outfit.
    Which still doesn’t make it a date.
    Thankfully I was right about Mom having the night off. I give Danny his evening