“And if you’re Nick Carmichael,” Jennie added, unaware that Luke had yet to officially meet Nick, “you spend the entire night playing air hockey or video games in Mortimer’s common room with your friends.”
Charlie chuckled. “Soaccurate.”
I giggled too, the image easily coming together in my head. Nicholas Carmichael, hair rumpled and sporting his usualsweatpants with the ugliest Patagonia pullover known to man (some tribal pattern in a bunch of clashing colors: teal, red, brown, and a mustard yellow), lounging on the Mortimer common room’s giant sectional couch, an Xbox controller in hand. Nick liked to hunker down and relax on the weekends with his best friends, giving no shits about the Bexley social scene and disappointing his own fans. If a girl didn’t have a crush on Charlie, chances were she liked his twin, despite his lack of public appearances on Saturday nights.
“And what about you guys?” Luke asked, twirling noodles around his fork. He’d gone to the make-your-own stir-fry station for dinner, and the result lookeddelicious.I’d been eyeing it for the last several minutes, debating whether or not to ask for a taste. “What do you do? I’ve heard some people talking about a dance?”
“You want to hang out tomorrow night?!” Nina gasped as if Luke were Harry Styles, saying he would much rather spend an evening with us instead of on some yacht crawling with supermodels.
“Well, to be honest,” Luke said, “I’ve already gotten a bunch of invites for tomorrow. The football players on my floor are practicallybeggingme to come to their poker game…” Charlie snorted next to me. “But maybe I’ll consider gracing you with my presence if I like what I hear.” He shrugged as we giggled around him.
“Okay, so this is what we do.” Nina clapped her hands, smile a mile wide. “We—”
“Shh!” I interrupted. “Don’t tell him a single thing, Nina Davies!”
Nina shot me a confused expression, but kept her mouth shut.
Reese caught my drift, saying to Luke: “Asthrillingas that poker game sounds, I’m assuming youwillbe hanging out with us tomorrow, right?”
He sighed. “Yeah. I don’t want to rob them completely this early in the year. So, yes, if you don’t mind, I’ll join you.”
Reese and I exchanged evil grins. “Awesome,” she said. “But you have to promise that you’ll participate inanyandallactivities we do. Okay?”
“Reese…” Charlie warned, but she waved him off.
“Okay, Luke?” she repeated, her face the portrait of innocence.
“We’re not pulling a bank job, are we?” he asked.
“No, that’s not on the agenda as of now.”
He nodded. “Then, sure, I’m in.”
Charlie groaned as I picked up where Reese left off. “Meet us in your common room at 8:30 tomorrow night.Sharp.We have a tight schedule.”
“Do I get any clues?”
The girls and I shook our heads.
“Carmichael?” he asked, turning toward Charlie.
“Just go with it, Morrissey,” Charlie advised. “It’s best to just go with it.”
As promised, Luke was waiting for us in Brooks House’s gigantic common room the next evening. The hangout spot was pretty much empty, most guys having taken off for whatever was in their night’s lineup.
Sprawled out on one of the room’s couches, Luke had a phone pressed to his ear. “No, Bec, it’s nothing like TV,” I heard him say in a hushed voice. “There’s actually legit schoolwork and rules here.”
“Luke…” Nina singsonged, and when he turned to look at us, his eyes grew large behind his glasses.
“Becca, I have to go,” he told his sister, the youngest Morrissey. Luke also had two older sisters. “Tell Mom I said hi,” he added before hanging up.
“I know, we lookamazing,” Reese remarked when it was clear we’d rendered him speechless.
“Do people really go all-out on the dance’s theme?” he asked, rising from the couch and shoving his hands in his gray sweatshirt’s center pocket.
“No,” Nina replied. “But we do!”
“And so are you,” Jennie said.
