“Are we there yet?” The laughter in Kevin’s eyes said he was teasing—and that he knew he was starting to get on my nerves.

I should’ve never made that offhand comment about him getting a spanking if he didn’t behave on the trip. So far he’d asked “Are we there yet?” a dozen times and asked me to pull over at every rest stop we’d seen.

I was starting to see why there were so many memes about road trips and children.

“If you don’t stop driving me crazy, I’m going to pull over at the next rest stop and get that plug out of my suitcase.” Kevin stilled at my threat, not sure how to respond.

He’d needed to be so good on trips when we were little that it was his first time getting to act out on a car ride. He was having the time of his life. Driving me nuts seemed to be the goal, but I thought he’d have fun being a pain in the ass about it even if I hadn’t reacted so entertainingly.

“I’m dead. Just leave me here to rot.” I’d thrown myself on the couch as soon as I’d walked in the door, and going any farther seemed like too much effort. It was only early afternoon, but I was ready for the day to be over.

Maybe the entire week.

I heard Jeremy come out of the bedroom, but looking at him would involve moving, so I wiggled a foot in his direction. I could hear the grin in his voice, and I felt his hands start removing my shoes. “I thought you said you wanted to go out and party tonight. Didn’t I hear something about celebrating your freshman year being over and wanting to do something crazy?”

“No. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Whoever was saying something insane like that clearly didn’t remember how exhausting finals are. Someone should stop him from saying stupid shit next time.” It wouldn’t have been that bad if they’d been spaced out, but somehow I’d managed to have five finals in two days. Plus the ones I’d already had the week before.

If I didn’t love Jeremy so much, I would have walked away and completely denied knowing him. Trailing after him as we wandered through the big bedding and bath store, I couldn’t help but shake my head. I might look like a puppy following his master, but Jeremy just seemed nuts.

The list was perfectly reasonable, especially for a planner like him. The fact that it was like two pages long was understandable considering we were starting college with almost nothing. Googling thread counts and debating different kinds of cotton was not.

It had to have something to do with how stressed Jeremy was and how much we still had to organize, but his obsession with sheets was starting to draw attention. I just wanted stupid brown sheets to go with the comforter I’d picked out. I didn’t care what they were made of or how long they’d last—I had high hopes that we’d wear them out quickly.

I’m not sure Jeremy cared either, but this seemed to be what he was focused on, so I tried not to roll my eyes as he asked me for like the thousandth time how I thought the higher thread count would wash.

“I can’t believe in a couple more days we’ll be ninth graders.” The excitement was clear in Gavin’s voice, but I just shook my head. Gavin couldn’t believe lots of things. Ten minutes ago, he couldn’t believe summer was almost here, and five minutes ago, he couldn’t believe Sara Maddison might like him.

“I’m not sure it really counts until the end of the summer.” I knew it didn’t count because that’s what Jeremy had said this morning.

Jeremy thought it was stupid and that you couldn’t claim the next grade until summer was actually over. So no matter what Gavin said, I knew it didn’t count. Unlike most big brothers who were lame and obnoxious, Jeremy knew everything.

Well, almost everything. There were a few things I was hoping Jeremy didn’t know. At least, not yet. Not until I was ready to tell Mom and Dad….Or until I knew what to tell them. I was afraid he’d already guessed, but he wasn’t the kind of brother who would go running to our parents.