15

EARLY MORNING BEFORE SCHOOL, JOSH is chiseling ice off his windshield when I run out to
my car. Daddy’s already scraped the ice off mine and started the engine and turned on the heat. By the
looks of Josh’s car, he’s not going to make it to school on time.
We’ve hardly seen Josh since Christmas; after all the strangeness with me and then the breakup
with Margot, he’s been a ghost in this house. He leaves a little earlier for school now, comes home a
little later. He never reached out to me when all the video stuff happened either, though part of me
was relieved for that. I didn’t want to hear I told you so from Josh about how he was right about
Peter.
I back out my driveway, and at the last second I open the window and lean toward it. “Do you
want a ride?” I call out to Josh.
His eyes widen in surprise. “Yeah. Sure.” He throws his ice scraper into his car and grabs his
backpack, then comes running over. Climbing in, he says, “Thanks, Lara Jean.” He warms his hands
on the heating vents.
We make our way out of the neighborhood, and I’m driving carefully, because the roads are icy
from the night before.
“You’ve gotten really good at driving,” Josh says.
“Thanks.” I have been practicing, on my own and with Peter. I still get nervous sometimes, but
each time I get in the car and drive, it’s a little bit less, because now I know I can do it. You only
know you can do something if you keep on doing it.
We’re a few minutes from school when Josh asks, “When are we going to talk again? Just tell me
so I have a general idea.”
“We’re talking right now, aren’t we?”
“You know what I mean. What happened with me and Margot was between us—can’t you and I
still be friends like we were before?”
“Josh, of course we’ll still be friends. But you and Margot have been broken up less than a
month.”
“No, we broke up in August. She decided she wanted to get back together three weeks ago, and I
said no.”
I sigh. “Why did you say no, though? Was it just the distance?”
Josh sighs too. “Relationships are hard work. You’ll see. After you’ve been in it with Kavinsky
longer, you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
“Oh my God, you’re such a know-it-all. The biggest know-it-all I ever met, besides my sister.”
“Which one?”
I can feel a giggle bubbling up inside of me, which I push down. “Both. They’re both know-it-
alls.”
“One more thing.” He hesitates, then keeps going. “I was wrong about Kavinsky. The way he’s
handled this whole video thing, I can tell he’s a good guy.”
“Thanks, Joshy. He really is.”
He nods, and there is a comfortable quiet between us, and I’m glad for the bad weather we had last