“Okay, okay, so I wrote, ‘Reece Walter’s bookish babe of a sister who may have her head turned by a baseball but not by a boy, has snatched the new boy from every hopefully single lady at Driftwood High. Who would’ve expected? Brielle Walters said it, she showed us the pictures, but Brooks Mason is here to stay, and he’s already spoken for. Back off, babes, Brielle with the catch!’”
I exchanged looks with Claire and then stared at Jenessa. “Wait. Pause!”
Jenessa looked up from her phone, brown eyes wide with pleasure. “Yeah?”
“Youposted that?” I didn’t even know what to think.
“Yeah!” Jenessa was cluelessly proud of herself.
Of course, I really couldn’t blame her on one hand. I mean, Ididmake a big deal of my pretend boyfriend, Brooks Mason, and she had no clue that he actually existed and would show up at school. But then—neither had I. On the other hand, why on earth would she think I’d appreciate her blasting out my photo to the school, let alone announcing my dating status? The idea of evenhavinga fake boyfriend was to get my friends to tone down all the guy-stuff, not amp it up with posts on social media.
And why did everyone care anyway?
Oh wait.
I looked up as my brother came toward me.
That was why. Reece Walters. Okay, high school football captains are the stereotypical popular guys of every romance ever written or filmed. But in our high school, my brother—the starting pitcher of our baseball team—had the same level of status. It was nauseating how girls turned into piles of goo around him, and Reece was totally oblivious to them. He was in love with his baseball and glove. So it was like a school thing—who would finally get to date a Walters? Of course, let’s be honest, it wasn’t me most people were interested in.
But apparently, Driftwood High took what they could get, and what they’d gotten was Jenessa’s totally inappropriate, butting-into-my-life social media post.
And, it helped that Brooks Mason was soooooo good-looking. I mean, that’s why Imadehim up that way. To be a distraction so I could go about my life.
Why, God, whydid you have to give me an imagination that thought up someone you’d already made?
I often found myself whining to God.
I don’t think He minded.
At least I hoped not.
“Well?” Reece approached us, only this time his casual grin was missing. “Who did it?”
I snapped out of my stunned silence and looked between Jenessa and Claire.
“Did what?” Jenessa faked ignorance.
Reece cocked his head to the side. He opened his mouth to say something, but then a few more girls hurried over to our little circle. A couple of guys, too.
“How onearthdid you snaghim?” one of them asked.
“Is he going to try out for the team?” A guy directed that question to Reece.
“He plays baseball?” Another girl.
“How did you two meet before he ever came to school?”
“What position does he play?”
“Does he have a brother?
The questions! They kept coming! I wanted to scream. To run away. How was I ever going to get out of this mess now? I mean, confessing my deceitful sins to a few friends and my all-forgiving aunts was one thing, but to my entire school? Heck, no! That would be mortifying! I’d have to move. To like—Iceland, or something. And there was no way—absolutely no way—that Brooks Mason wasn’t going to hear about this.
If he hadn’t already.
“I—I—” Yep. I was stuttering. I shot Reece a desperatesave melook, and he just shrugged.
I could feel them. The betrayal of tears welling up in my eyes. I was screwed. I was in such trouble. I was a liar and a fake, and I was going to be found out. Brooks would hate me—I wouldn’t blame him—but worse than that, I’d probably ruin his entire entry into Driftwood High as the new guy. I’d put a complete stranger in the middle of high school drama, which was exactly what I’d been trying to avoid in the first place!
