Mel’s gaze drops to my hand resting on the table, still scraped across the knuckles. “That doesn’t look very ‘end of story,’” she says softly.
“It’s fine,” I shrug. “Looks worse than it is.”
Noah studies my face for a second. “Man… I don’t want to be rude,” he says slowly.
Kiara finishes for him without missing a beat. “You look like shit.”
I don’t answer and she leans back in her chair, arms folding. “Jacob looked worse, though.”
“Good,” I say.
Another silence settles over the table until Liam finally speaks, voice careful. “But what actually happened? After the fight… I mean. When you two went home.”
My chest tightens. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
There’s silenceagain. And I can feel it starting all over. Kiara glancing at Noah, Liam subtly raising his brows, Mel watching all of it like she’s waiting for someone to say the wrong thing first.
This is insufferable. I’m gonna blurt it out. There’s no point hiding it now anyway.
“I need to tell you guys something.”
Four heads lift at once. Noah’s eyes narrow slightly. “What kind of something?”
“Me and Maddy…” I swallow, keeping my voice low enough that no one else in the café can hear. “We weren’t really dating.”
They all glance at each other, confusion spreading across their faces.
“We faked it.”
Kiara’s jaw literally drops. Mel freezes with her pen mid-sentence. Liam stops chewing mid-bite—which is honestly the most shocking part and Noah raises his eyebrows.
“EXCUSE ME?!” Kiara shouts.
“Shhh,” I hiss automatically, glancing around the café.
“Are you serious?” Mel whisper-shouts.
I nod. “Yeah, we faked the relationship. It wasn’t real.”
“Okay, hold on,” Kiara says, leaning back, then immediately forward again like she physically can’t stay still. “You’re telling me you two pretended to date? For what? Fun? Science?”
I rub a hand over my face. “She wanted to make Jacob jealous. I wanted people to stop setting me up. We thought if we faked it… it would solve both problems.”
They all give me a look that very clearly sayswhat the fuck.Which, honestly, is fair—because saying it out loud like that makes it sound like we’re absolute psychos.
Liam lets out a low whistle. “Damn. I’m kind of impressed.”
Mel shoots him a glare. “Liam.”
“What? The commitment alone—”
“Not the point.”
She turns back to me, her expression softening. “Ryan, why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because it was supposed to be just a couple weeks,” I mutter. “And telling you would’ve made it messy.”
My eyes flick to Noah. He’s been completely still this whole time, just sitting next to me with his arms crossed, and no expression on his face. I’m mentally preparing for him to kill me and personally walk me to the gates of hell.
