It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

Theo tilts his head. “You’re asking me if your brother is nice? Shouldn’t
you know?”
“I just met him.”
“Yeah, me too,” Theo says. “And you’re asking me a loaded question.
Kids are mean sometimes. You know that.”
“Are you saying Josh is mean?”
“There are different kinds of mean. Josh is the better kind of mean.”
I’m not following at all. Theo can see that, so he expands. “He’s like a
bully to the bullies, if that makes sense.”
This conversation is making me uncomfortable. “So Josh is… king of the
bullies? That sounds bad.”
Theo rolls his eyes. “It’s hard to explain. But I’m sure it’s not surprising
that I’m not the most popular kid in that school. I’m on the math team, and
I’m…” He shrugs off the last word. “But I don’t have to worry about kids
like Josh. When you ask me if he’s nice, I don’t know how to answer that,
because he isn’t nice. But he isn’t mean, either. Or at least he isn’t mean to
the nice people.”
I don’t speak up immediately because I’m trying to absorb all this
information. I might be more confused than I was before this conversation.
But it does make me feel good to know that Theo isn’t scared of Josh.
“Anyway,” Theo says, zipping his backpack. “You and Lily. Did it fizzle
out already?”
“No, we’re just busy. I’m going to a wedding with her tomorrow, though.”
“You finally gonna kiss her?”
“If she wants me to.”
Theo nods. “She probably will as long as you refrain from saying anything
cheesy, like, Look at the ships, let’s lock lips!”
I grab one of the couch pillows and throw it at him. “I’m getting a new
therapist who doesn’t bully me.”