Chapter 26
Brooks
Something was up. I don’t know what, but the entire vibe at school was off.
When one of the girls who usually angled for my attention gave me the cold shoulder, I knew something had happened.
I yanked my phone from my pocket. I hadn’t gone on it this morning.
Somehow, I had a feeling I’d find the answer there.
“Don’t do it.” Reece came alongside me and gave me the command with a voice that made me really sure I wanted to see what was going on.
I flicked my screen on. A ton of notifications clogged my screen, and they were still popping up.
“What did Jenessa do now?” I knew it had to be her. Leader of the newly christened “Broo-elle Fan Club”, she’d dubbed it.
“It’s not what Jenessa did,” Reece said, steering me toward the guy’s locker room, where it was quieter for the moment. “It’s what you did.”
“Me?” I reared back. “What’d I do?”
Reece shot daggers at me with his eyes. “You and Brielle. You discussed your relationship in line for french fries!”
“So?” I asked. Then it dawned on me. How did Reece know that? “Nooooooooooo,” I dragged out my horror at the realization.
“Yessssssssss,” Reece replied.
The locker room was thankfully empty. I collapsed on a bench. “What—who—how?”
“Well, someone overheard you guys talking about fake dating. They heard Brielle mention she was lying to our dad.”
I stared at Reece and could tell he wasn’t finished.
“And they recorded it.”
That was it. I officially hated cell phones.
“Who?” I launched to my feet. I was ticked now. That was an invasion of privacy. It was—cruel. It was—yeah, I was ticked.
“Does it matter? It’s been shared so many times.
” Reece couldn’t emphasize his irritation any more clearly than he already had.
I couldn’t tell if he was mad at whoever posted the eavesdropping video or at me.
“The point is—you’re out, no matter who posted it.
You’re officially out. Fake relationship, fake Valentine’s Day chocolate, fake tulips, fake everything. ”
I was thumbing through my phone. I found the video.
It was hard to hear Brielle and me over the noise in the restaurant, but it was there.
All of it. Which meant, buh-bye extra credit project—unless I could read Pride and Prejudice stupid fast—goodbye Friday nights at the Walters’ home, farewell to recruiters thinking I was a “young man of integrity”, and—well, I doubt Dad would care.
He’d probably be glad if I got kicked off the team.
“I doubt Coach will be happy with you,” Reece stated bluntly. “It’s not like a school offense or anything, but it doesn’t make anyone trust you.”
No. It didn’t.
I was a fake.
Brielle was—
“What about Brielle?” My head jerked up from my phone.
Reece shook his head, his expression grave. “Yeah. Good luck with that.”
“What do you mean?” I could feel a knot forming in my gut.
“The last I saw my sister, she was running into the girls’ bathroom to puke and sob simultaneously.”
I threw my head back and closed my eyes, groaning. “Not cool, not cool, not cool,” I kept saying.
“Nope,” Reece confirmed. “It’s about as bad as you can get on the scale of high school drama.”
Brielle
I was going to puke. I leaned on the sink, holding the sides of the porcelain bowl with my hands. Claire rushed into the bathroom after me.
“It wasn’t me!” she cried. “I didn’t post it.”
She hadn’t even been there, so no duh.
“Jenessa? Maybe.” Claire was willing to throw Jenessa under the bus if it spared her.
“It doesn’t matter,” I waved my hand in the air. “It was posted.”
How could we have been so dumb? To discuss our relationship status in public?
For me to say I was lying to Dad? I can’t believe I even made it to school without finding out.
Usually, I was on the phone with Lia up until Reece pulled into the school parking lot.
But this morning, I’d still been all twisted up about last night with Brooks.
The almost-kiss. The discussion about trusting each other. And now this?
“Omigosh! Brielle!” Jenessa flounced into the bathroom, her brown eyes wide. “What did you do?”
“What did you do?” Claire shot back.
Jenessa eyed her with disbelief. “Nothing! I didn’t post that.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I mumbled. I stared into the mirror. I looked like death.
“Well, someone did,” Claire tried to defend me.
“I’ve always been on Broo-elle’s side. I would never out the two of them.”
“They don’t have a side to be on!” Claire cried, not realizing what she was really saying. “They’re not even dating!” Then she realized it. She clapped her hand over her mouth and stared at me.
Jenessa stared too.
I swear, even the toilets were staring at me.
“Are you okay?” Claire reached out and patted my back like I was a toddler.
I moved away. I didn’t want to be touched.
I just wanted to disappear. This whole thing was so stupid.
So unnecessary. Me and my bright idea to make up a fake boyfriend.
But how was I to know he’d turn out to be a real guy?
And how was I to predict he’d agree to keep up my little charade, and then it’d become something more tangled, and that I’d develop feelings for Brooks, and that I’d deceive my own parents and let them think we really were dating when we weren’t?
Teen Writers would see the clip. They’d know it’d all been faked and that I’d pretty much lied through my whole interview. And then Brooks’s comments about integrity . . .
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” I wailed. I needed to sit down. I hurried into a stall and plopped onto a toilet.
Claire and Jenessa hovered around the door.
“Do you want us to call your mom?” Claire offered.
“No,” I shook my head. I’d have to deal with that later tonight, I was sure of it.
“Do you want me to go get Reece?” Claire tried again.
“No.” He was probably doing damage control for Brooks so people didn’t hate the baseball team’s new catcher.
“Do you want me to get Brooks?” Jenessa offered.
“No!” Claire and I retorted in unison.
Jenessa held up her hands. “I was just trying to help,” she said.
There was no help.
The worst part of it all was that I couldn’t talk to Brooks. Ever again. I couldn’t look him in the face. I couldn’t—I couldn’t ever be honest with him. Because our entire relationship was based on a lie.
The truth was, fake dating was a scheme destined to fail.
We’d failed.
Epically.