Chapter 26
twenty-six
I woke up to sunlight streaming in on my face.
I guess I’d forgotten to close the curtains last night.
My back was hurting too, like I’d been sleeping in a weird position.
I groaned and rolled onto my back, shivering at the cold.
That’s when I realized that I was most definitely not in my bedroom.
More importantly, someone’s arm was over my waist.
I almost screamed as I rolled over until I realized the face still soundly asleep right next to mine was Cole’s.
My heart was pounding in my chest, but I took a few deep breaths, putting my hands over my face, and looked around.
The wooden walls made it obvious where we were.
Somehow, he and I had fallen asleep in the treehouse last night.
After he’d given me the cupcakes, we’d just sat up talking and kissing for so long that we lost track of time.
As I dug into my memory, I remembered laying down as we chatted about birthday wishes and his baking endeavor that day and how I was feeling about Dad coming to the party that night.
I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face, then laughed a little into them.
Who would have guessed that good little Imogen Novak would have a boy sleepover?
At least it wasn’t in my actual room. I knew how hard it would be to sneak him out if we were there.
“Imogen!” a voice called from the backyard, from far away.
I frowned and propped myself up on my elbows.
The voice came again. “Imogen, where are you?” It was Ainsley.
She must have gone into my room and realized I didn’t sleep there.
Or, hopefully, she thought I had just made the bed and went out for a run or something.
Even though the track team wasn’t in season right now, they often went out for runs in the morning.
But I had time. I sat up quickly and shook Cole’s shoulder.
He grumbled and rolled over in his sleep.
I shook him harder, wishing I had the time to appreciate what it was like seeing him wake up first thing in the morning.
The way his cute little bedhead and his eyes fluttered open as he looked at me with confusion.
I was pretty sure there was even a little bit of drool on the side of his mouth.
“What?” he mumbled, clearly half asleep.
“We fell asleep,” I said. “It’s morning.
We fell asleep in the treehouse, and you need to get out of here before my sister finds you.
” That was probably a bit too much information for someone who had just woken up.
But he sat up and continued rubbing his eyes, not seeming to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
It took him a minute—a couple of yawns, multiple blinks later—before he looked around and said, “We fell asleep in the treehouse?”
“Yes,” I said impatiently, “and Ainsley’s out there calling for me.” As if on cue, she called again, “Imogen, are you out here?” and I gestured at the thankfully closed window.
“She’s not going to think to look up here,” I said, running my hands through my hair that had dried all weirdly because I had laid down on it. I grimaced, figuring I’d probably have to wash it again today. “But we need to get you out of here. It’s not like you can hide up here all day.”
He shrugged. “Maybe I can. I mean, I’ll hide up here while you go inside and deal with all this, and then I’ll sneak out afterward.”
“And if my mom sees you sneaking by while I’m in the house?” I asked. “You really think she’s gonna believe you were here for good reasons?”
He swore under his breath. “I know.”
I sighed and dropped my head onto my knees.
“Okay, you know what? Here’s what we’ll do.
I’ll go down and talk to Ainsley. I’ll tell her what’s going on, and she’ll help me sneak you out or whatever.
” Or she wouldn’t. It was hard to say. It was a pretty major secret that I’d been keeping from her, and I wasn’t sure how she would react to it.
Or maybe she wouldn’t react at all. She was my best friend.
She would do anything for me, and I trusted that completely.
But she would also probably be upset that I kept this from her, especially since she’d been there since day one when Cole and I had met at the coffee shop.
She had been the one so curious about him.
She would kill me if she knew I had been talking to him, that I had all the answers, and knew he hadn’t gone to juvie like she had wanted to know, and the story behind why he’d been expelled.
So many little secrets that he’d entrusted me with.
Until now, I never dreamed of keeping anything from Ainsley.
But they weren’t my secrets to tell. Still, I could have told her I was talking to him.
I should have told her. It had just been so easy to lie about one thing that it bled over into other things too.
Once you started keeping one secret, the rest just seemed to tumble along with them.
“Give me a minute,” I said, “and make yourself look somewhat presentable, please.” He stared at me as he rubbed at his eye again.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, you look a little...” I tilted my head back and forth, trying to figure out a polite way to say it.
“A little rumpled, let’s say.” His clothes were a mess.
His hair was everywhere, and he had gunk in his eyes.
Sure, I probably looked just as bad, but at least it was my own treehouse that I was in.
I left him with that insult as I climbed down the ladder.
“Imogen!” Ainsley yelled as soon as I hit the ground. I jumped and spun around. She was running at me from the gate at the side of the house.
“What are you doing back here? I’ve been yelling for you for ages.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
She looked me up and down. “Were you sleeping in the treehouse? I thought you were out for a run or something.”
“Uh, yeah, well, I...” I stammered. I needed to tell her the truth.
It was the only way that made sense and the only way I could get her to help me with getting Cole out of here.
But part of me wished she hadn’t seen me come in so I could sneak back inside and just claim I had been out for a run like she suspected.
Although, given that I was dressed in pajamas, that would have been difficult.
I’d have to get all the way back inside, and by then, what difference would it make?
“I’ve got a bit of a situation,” I admitted.
She frowned. “What kind of situation?”
I twisted my fingers, trying to figure out the best way to start. “You know that hot barista?”
She stared at me. “What situation, Imogen?” she repeated. “What about him?” she asked.
“He’s kind of... up there.”
“What?” she screeched, and I clamped a hand over her mouth and shushed her. The last thing we needed was for Sebastian and Lavender to come running out here wondering what was going on.
“Listen, nothing happened, okay?” I said. “He just came by last night to wish me a happy birthday and he brought me a cupcake.”
“He brought you a cupcake?” she asked, except the words came out all mumbled because my hand was still covering her mouth.
“Yeah, well, we kind of...” I sighed and looked away, trying to think of the best way to say it. “We’ve kind of, sort of, maybe started dating.”
Ainsley’s eyes widened. Then, the next thing I knew, she was licking my hand, and I yelled, “Ew!” and pulled it back. I glared at her, even though I knew she’d only done it to get my hand off her face.
“You’re dating him?” she hissed. Then she looked up at the trapdoor of the treehouse again, like she thought he was going to poke his head out and say he’d been listening the whole time. Which, I guess, he might have been. Who knew?
“Well, we haven’t really put it in so many words,” I said, “but, I mean, we kissed, and...”
“You kissed?” She grabbed my cheeks in both hands, holding my head still.
“Imogen Novak, you had your first kiss and you didn’t tell me?
” And just like that, the shame of everything—talking to Dad, sneaking around with Cole—started to crash in on me.
I hated keeping secrets from her, and right now all I wanted to do was tell her everything.
Every single little thing that I’d been holding back from her.
But instead, I just nodded as much as I could with her hands on my face and said, “I’ve missed talking to you, Ainsley, but lately it feels like we just never have the time. ”
She sighed and dropped her hands back down.
“I know,” she muttered. But then she lifted her gaze again to the treehouse.
“I guess we have more pressing issues to deal with right this second. Mom’s inside making pancakes for our birthday, so we have to sneak past the kitchen window without her seeing. ”
“How?” I asked.
She paused, chewing on her lip, and eventually said, “How would you feel about involving Sebastian in this?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why?” I asked, my voice low.
“Well, because he has almost definitely used to sneak Tiffany out of here all the time whenever he didn’t want us to know they were back together,” she said.
Tiffany was his horrific ex, and now that she mentioned it, it did make sense that he would sneak her around.
We’d all hated Tiffany and thought Sebastian was out of his mind every time he went back to her after their epic break-ups.
I debated it for a second, considered how likely it was that Sebastian would try to fight Cole for sleeping over, then sighed and nodded.
“Fine, we should. But bring Lavender too. If Sebastian decides to try to fight Cole, I don’t really want to see who would win.
Might as well have people to hold him back.
” Lavender and I hadn’t spoken since our argument the other day, but I figured she’d be willing to help with this. The Novak siblings stuck together.