What?
And what’s this talk about Mexico?
“Kellan.” I want to move toward him, but I’m afraid the boyfriend will punch me again. “What’s he talking about? You were with me this weekend.”
His so-called boyfriend looks equally confused.
Kellan sighs. “I’m not Kellan,” he explains. “Wait, no, IamKellan.” Twisting a hand through his hair, he heaves a sigh. “For the past few weeks, I haven’t been here. It’s my brother you think I am.”
“Sebastian?” For a moment, I wonder if this whole thing is a prank. The way Kellan and this guy look at each other though... you can’t fake that. “I’m pretty sure you’re not Sebastian.”
“Not Sebastian,” comes a familiar voice behind me. “Noah.”
I turn. There’s Kellan standing in the doorway to the locker room. And there’s Kellan standing across from me against the lockers. The Kellan in the doorway wears a dirt-streaked uniform and cleats. The Kellan against the lockers wears jeans and his signature Hawaiian shirt, which I didn’t notice until just now. Both have dark brown hair and brown-black eyes.
Street-clothes Kellan groans. The back of his head bumps the locker, rattling the metal. “Fuck.”
“You gonna tell me what’s going on?” I demand.
“Sure, sure.” A dramatic sigh.
From the corner of my eye, I see Jason poke his head into the room. He takes in the scene: the Dumont twins, the scary-looking buff guy, and myself. He does a double take when he passes over Kellan and his brother. “Uh.” He swallows. “Coach is looking for you, Max.”
“Tell him I’ll be there shortly.” Yes, I’m captain of the team, and yes, Coach has seniority over me, but this situation is too fucked up to walk away from now.
“Sure thing.” With one last look of confusion, he leaves.
Street-clothes Kellan touches his hands to his chest. “I’m the real Kellan. But for the past three weeks, you’ve been seeing my twin brother, Noah. He was doing me a favor for a short time. That’s all.”
At first, the words don’t process. I’m still looking at Kellan, but he’s telling me he’s not the one I’ve been hanging out with. Noah. That’s who I’ve been seeing. His brother.
Identical twin brother.
Slowly, I turn to look at who I thought was Kellan but who is actually a completely different person. Noah Dumont. I recall Kellan speaking of his brother in passing, briefly.
Laughter fills my lungs. Short, disbelieving laughter. “Oh, my God.” There is nothing funny about this situation, so I don’t know why I’m laughing. Maybe it’s because I need to feel like I have control. “You—”You’re not Kellan.
Kellan’s—no, Noah’s—face is grave. “Max.”
All this time. All this time I thought I was falling for Kellan, and I wasn’t. I was falling for someone I had never even met before. The dark wardrobe. The fact that he likes Zelda and knows how to code. The reserved demeanor. The fact that he’s terrible at soccer. The high walls built around him, and the vulnerability hiding behind them.
Noah Dumont.
The guy I love.
A liar.
He steps forward. “I can explain.”
When I lift a hand, he stops. “Don’t come near me.” My voice shakes. Everything falls away—Kellan, his boyfriend—and Noah is the only person I see. He’s beautiful. And he’s wrecked me, torn my chest so wide open that I know there’s no healing from this. I can hardly get the words out. They taste like acid in my mouth. “So when were you going to tell me the truth?” I say, voice slow and dangerous, brimming with barely controlled rage.
I’m remembering every little thing. Kissing him and touching him and opening up to him and, though he couldn’t have known it, giving him my heart with the trust that he’d keep it safe. But he’s stomped it into pieces at this point.
It’s impossible for me to be sure whether my feelings are true or if I was manipulated into feeling a certain way. If you don’t have trust, what do you have?
Nothing.
Noah stands there, distraught. Another lie? Was it always his intention to trick me into falling for him? Was that part of the joke? To make me look like a fool?
