“Yeah?” I asked.
“Umm, you have a problem.” His voice was muffled from the other side of the closed door.
“What?” I bolted upright.
“Aunt Elle is here.” There was a laugh in his voice. “She wants to meet Brooks.”
“So tell her she can’t. I don’t even know where he lives.” I reconsidered. “But don’t tell Aunt Elle that part.”
The door opened a crack and Reece stuck his head into my room. “Actually, Brooks is here too.”
“What?” I jumped to my feet.
“What?” Lia squealed from my phone. I snatched it and stuffed it—and her—into my back pocket. There was no way I was going through this drama without my BFF.
Reece gave me that smile a brother perfects at a young age when they’ve pulled one over on you. “Yeah, I invited him over after school. We’re going to work out in the basement together. I mean, if you’re going to date him, I need to get to know the guy.”
“Reece!” I glared at him.
“Reeffe!” I heard Lia shout from my back pocket.
Reece shrugged. “Better come before Aunt Elle goes downstairs by herself to meet Brooks.”
Oh gosh. This would be awful! I had to intercede before this got any worse. I glanced into my mirror and noticed my hair was a mess from burying my face in my pillow.
“You coming?” Reece opened my door wider.
“I look like crap.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
“What’s new?”
I chased him down the hall and in typical Reece form, he evaded my flying palm intended to slap the heck out of him. We barreled down the carpeted stairs and both of us landed on the floor with a thud just as Aunt Elle was poking her fun-loving, well-meaning, but super nosy nose into the doorway that led to the basement.
“No!” I shouted.
“Here she is,” Reece announced.
Aunt Elle pulled back. Her blue eyes were wide in puzzlement as she looked between us. Reece edged past her, pointing to the stairs that led downward to where he and Brooks would be working out.
“I’ll just be downstairs.” He shot me an annoying look. “With Brooks.” And then Reece hurdled down the stairs, leaving me as Aunt Elle’s captive.
She was my dad’s sister. She looked a lot like my dad, only she wasn’t at alllikemy dad. Dad was rational and logical and would honestly be furious if he knewwhat I’d gotten myself into. Aunt Elle? She was going to love every moment of this.
“So, he’s here! Why didn’t you tell me your boyfriend wasmovinghere?”
“I—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Aunt Elle waved off my incomplete sentence. “I was in the car when Patty Templeton called me.”
Mrs. Templeton. Study Hall, Mrs. Templeton. I’d forgotten she and Aunt Elle were—what did they call themselves?—bosom buddies? It was someAnne of Green Gablesthing they had going. Anyway, of course. It made sense. Mrs. Templeton would have called Aunt Elle. Aunt Elle would have come straight over. She would tell Mom, and Mom would tell Dad, and—
“Elle, you can’t—” I started, then bit my tongue. How did one go about swearing their aunt to secrecy from parents—and live to tell about it? And how did one hide a boyfriend, who wasn’treallytheir boyfriend, from their parents? I was so grounded. And I knew if Dad found out, he’d take my phone away, which meant he’d take my only connection to Lia away, which meantcatastrophe!
Wait.
Breathe, Brielle.
I had to put this into perspective. Aunt Elle knew that I was dating a guy named Brooks. She believed he’d just moved here. She didn’t know this was all really fake, that I was essentially lying about it all, and that the whole thing was a major con designed to get her and others off my back about being boyfriendless.
