My phone buzzed. I looked down, my blood chilling when I saw the Romanian words lighting up the text bubble.
Stefan: When does your visa expire? Dad is asking when we can expect you home.
“Everything okay?” Kat asked, wrapping her fingers around my arm. “You suddenly went bone white.”
I managed a little guffaw. “It’s just my cousin, trolling me.” I tapped out a quick response.
Irina: I’ve had to extend for six months. Failed a class last semester, have to take it again.
I hoped he wouldn’t ask too many more questions, that my lie would be enough to hold my uncle at bay until I had a better plan in place.
Stefan: They’re going to want some sort of proof
Stefan: Have you got any?
Stefan: I want to help you stay to finish your degree, but you’re not making it easy
“Câcat!” I muttered, gnawing on my lip. He was right, and it wasn’t just my uncle who would want evidence. I really hadn’t thought this plan through.
Irina: Leave it with me. I’ll try to get a letter from the head of the faculty.
I put my phone under my pillow, smiling brightly up at Kat, who frowned at me.
“Is everything alright?”
I hitched my grin higher. “Yeah! Just cousins being cousins, you know what it’s like.”
Her lips twitched, and I was sure she was seeing right through me. She opened her mouth to say as much when I snatched my phone out again.
“Shit! I have, like, five personal videos to film tonight! I totally forgot.” I patted the bed beside me. “Want to stay and listen to me tell the story of my first period—in Romanian—to some dude who probably thinks I’m describing all the ways I want to suck his cock?”
Kat’s face twisted comically. “Uh, I think I’ll pass, but thanks for the offer. And hey, if you ever need ideas, I have a tonne of horrendous period stories you could use.”
I reached out and squeezed her hand. “Thank you … but I have enough awful tales to last me a lifetime.”
I dropped my eyes to my phone then, pretending to be engrossed in something on the screen. If Kat saw the haunted look that I just knew was lurking in my expression, she’d push me for details.
But after a long silence, she left the room, the door shutting quietly behind her. I closed my eyes, exhaling. I didn’t need to drag poor Kat deeper into the sordid web that was my life, but sometimes my mouth ran away with me, and dropped tiny little pearls of truth along the way. And one day, Kat would string them all together, and she’d know too much.
My phone buzzed.
Fuck.
If it was Stefan again …
I cracked an eye open, holding my breath.
It wasn’t Stefan.
It was a Tickle notification. And when I clicked through, both my eyes snapped wide open.
Ru_Snack_XXXplores, come party with us as we celebrate 300 million subscribers …
CHAPTER SEVEN
Porn Stars in Party Clothes
HENRY
