Chapter 13

Riley’s POV

My phone’s alarm blasted me awake—proof that even in the best-packaged motivation app, the snooze button is the devil incarnate. It was Friday morning, which in my world was synonymous with “the longest day of the week,” even though my Friday schedule was a clone of Monday’s and Wednesday’s. Cue existential dread.

My face jerked up off the plush carpet of Noah’s bedroom, and I blinked into the semi-darkness. I hadn’t planned on camping out here the night before, but one thing led to another, and suddenly I was horizontal. Noah wriggled beside me—no, on me—and gave my cheek a slobbery greeting. He licked my face with canine enthusiasm that felt suspiciously like he was auditioning for a horror movie. I groaned and attempted to disentangle myself from his tail.

My fingertips fumbled at the zipper of the suitcase I’d plopped next to his bed. Why pack the night before when you can play zip-and-unzip charades at dawn? After a few minutes of comedy-lev