Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
The way Leo was looking at me, I knew I’d landed the look.
He coughed a little before heading for the door. “Alright, well, we’ll see you there.”
When he was gone, I squeezed past Riley and Giana into the bathroom and went back to my lesson on the perfect cat eye. But I barely got two words out before Riley cut in, smacking the tube out of my hand.
“Bitch, we don’t care about the eyeliner. What the hell was that?” She pointed to the door Leo had just exited out of.
“What?” I asked with a shrug. “He needed shoes.”
“Oh, I think what he needs is a healthy dose of you in that dress,” Giana argued.
My cheeks flamed so fast I hoped my makeup hid at least a little of the red I knew was finding my skin. “Shut up.”
“You shut up and tell us everything,” Riley said.
I screwed up my face at the paradox of what she’d said, but they were already dragging me to the bed. They sat me down and stood above me, arms folded and waiting.
“You guys are being so weird, nothing is going on,” I said.
“Bullshit,” Riley shot back. “You can’t have one of my teammates look at you like that and feed me the lie that it’s nothing. Zeke and I kept our shit hidden for weeks before anyone knew. I know what hiding it looks like.”
“Ditto,” Giana said, holding up one finger. “And you don’t even have the guise of pretending you’re dating to cover you.”
I sighed. “It’s… nothing. Really. We haven’t done anything.”
Riley arched a brow. “But you want to?”
My heart squeezed. ”It’s complicated.”
“Welp, no time like right now to unravel it,” Giana said, and she hopped into the bed with me. “Spill.”
I was already opening my mouth to make up some lame excuse or brush them off again when something kicked me hard in the chest. It came from the inside out, like the very essence of who I was refused to let me flee.
And I realized that I wanted to tell them.
I’d never told anyone — mostly because I didn’t feel close enough to anyone to tell. But here were two girls who’d become my friends — my best friends — and they were asking. They wanted to know what was going on. They wanted to help.
So, I took a deep breath, and I told them everything.
I told them about that summer, about how I’d fallen so hard and completely for the version of Leo I knew online. I told them about his texts and our late-night phone calls, about the times he wished so badly to know who I was. Then, with a tight throat, I told them about the day I revealed myself, how he’d rejected me, and finally, how I’d blocked him and killed any connection we had left. My voice grew a little shakier when I told them he had no idea who I was now, that my appearance had changed so much thanks to braces, my skin clearing up, and how I’d grown into my curves.
Various reactions crawled across their faces as I spoke, from shock and excitement to anger and hurt and everything in-between.
When I finished, Riley took a deep breath as Giana hopped up from the bed. “Okay, wait, so let me get this straight.” She held up her hand and ticked off fingers as she said, “You two were basically in love as teenagers, you told him who you were and he rejected you, then the dummy didn’t even remember who you were when you moved in across the street, then you ended up becoming roommates, and now he’s been being nice to you, giving you his jacket to wear and buying you candles and looking at you like he wants you so bad he has to sit on his hands to keep from acting on it, and through all this,” she said with a wave of her hand around the room. “He still has zero idea who you are?”
I shifted on the bed. “I mean, I think love is a strong word for what we had when—”
“Bah,” Giana said, waving me off in a huff. “Whatever it was, it’s strong enough that it’s had you in a grip all this time. And maybe Leo, too.”
“I’ve never seen him date anyone seriously,” Riley added.
I snorted. “Yeah, but that’s because it’s Leo. He’d rather bang anything with tits and legs than be locked down.”
“You sure about that?” Riley asked, and the three of us fell silent, considering.
After a moment, Giana clasped her hands together under her chin with her lashes fanning over her big eyes. “God, this is like—”
“Do not start listing off your smutty book tropes,” I warned her.
She pressed her lips together, face turning red like she would burst if she couldn’t get them out.