Sumner Comes First

Sumner is near the end of her senior year and still a virgin, a fact that bothers her more as graduation gets closer. She makes a bet with Corbin, the boy she has been fighting with since they were kids and who happens to be her older brother's closest friend, that he will teach her what she needs to know before she walks the stage. They set terms for the arrangement, calling it a series of lessons in love, with rules about what counts and how far it goes. The early lessons play out like their old rivalry, full of dares and points scored off each other. Sumner keeps track of what she has learned and reports back with the same sarcasm she has always used on him. Corbin treats it as one more contest to win. Neither expects the sessions to change anything between them. They start meeting outside the terms of the bet, in his car, at his apartment, away from her brother and from the friend group that has watched the two of them bicker for years. What was staged starts to feel real. Sumner catches herself waiting for his texts. Corbin stops keeping score. Neither has told her brother, who still thinks they can barely stand each other. If the bet comes out, it exposes what they have actually been doing under his roof and with his best friend. Sumner and Corbin have to decide whether to keep seeing each other in secret or end it before it costs them her brother's trust, their standing with everyone who knows them, and the version of themselves that used to be able to walk away from each other without a second thought.