Knocking on my bedroom door interrupted my growing hysterics. I dropped my phone on my bed, not bothering to end my call with Lia.
When I opened my door, Reece stood opposite it, his hair standing on end, dressed in his customary basketball shorts and t-shirt. But this time, he was wagging his phone back and forth in my face and looked genuinely concerned.
“Have you seen this?”
“Of course I have.” I stepped aside and he came into my room, closing the door behind him.
“Dad is going to kill you.”
“Ididn’t post it,” I retorted.
“Maybe not, but your whole AI scheme has been outed. Like, Dad just barely likes Brooks as it is, and when he sees this, he’s going to lose all trust in your integrity.”
“My integrity,” I repeated and rolled my eyes. I moved past Reece and flopped onto my bed. “It wasn’t meant to be a big deal. You’ve heard Aunt Tracy—Aunt Elle—they drive me nuts with the whole ‘you need a boyfriend’ thing. As if books and baseball aren’t enough? And then Jenessa—and even Claire—it’s like you have no identity in high school unless you’re dating someone or in some sort of dysfunctional relationship. The fake Brooks was meant to be a diversion tactic. Not viral news for people inRussia!” I squealed the last part because I was scrolling comments again and saw someone post something from Moscow. Lia’s camera was shrunk to the bottom corner of my phone, and I saw her eyes widen.
Reece collapsed onto a papasan chair in the opposite corner of my room, his hairy teenage legs draped over the side. “Like I said—Dad is going to kill you.”
“Did you tell someone?” I demanded answers. “About my AI boyfriend?”
“No.” He crumpled his face in offense.
“Did you tell anyone Brooks and I aren’t actually dating for real?”
“Of course not.” Reece picked at a loose thread on his t-shirt. “He’s a good catcher. I want him on my team. I don’t want to smear his reputation and make people not trust him.”
Ouch.
That hurt.
I’d made myself into a sort of liar, and unintentionally recruited Brooks into it also. Now we both ran the risk of losing our integrity if our fake dating scheme was outed, and I could only be thankful people thought my whole AI thing was romantic.
“How did this happen?” I moaned, falling back onto my pillows.
“You’re at 221,000 shares now,” Lia informed me.
Reece sat up straight in the chair, his eyes brightening. “Is that Lia?”
“Hi, Reece!” Lia called.
Reece launched himself across the room and snatched my phone from my hand. “How’s Canada?”
“It’s still the greatest country on earth,” Lia quipped.
“Nice try,” Reece retorted.
“Oh my gosh!” I interrupted, hearing myself and wishing I didn’t sound so whiny. “My life is exploding, and you’re playing country wars?”
“We’re not at war,” Reece corrected. “We’re incompetition. There’s a massive difference.”
“Besides, Reece knows he’ll lose,” Lia laughed.
“We didn’t lose in 1776,” Reece retorted.
“Learn your history, Reece,” she tossed back. “Your revolution didn’t end in 1776; that’s when you all declared yourselves on paper.”
“Whatever.” Reece didn’t seem bothered by being corrected. He just grinned.
“Guys!” I interrupted. I grabbed my phone back from Reece. “What do I do?” I didn’t like that my eyes burned from trying not to cry out of sheer panic. Dad would be angry. School would be a pit of gossip on Monday. And there was no way now that Brooks and I could walk out of this unscathed, so wehadto keep up the facade. At least he’d get his extra credit on that project. Boy, would he ever. The whole project for Mrs. Templeton would be the most insane look into a viral relationship ever created for Lit. “What do I do?” I bit the inside of my lip. I looked at my phone and Lia’s wide-eyed, empathetic wince. I shifted my attention to Reece, who was biting his pinky fingernail and then flicking it on my floor.
