Falling For My Nemesis

turning his gaze away.

“Idiot,” Ethan muttered like it didn’t even faze him, but I could feel him tense slightly beside me, and when I turned my gaze back to Carson, he was watching me, gauging my reaction.

“Mia, you start,” Carson announced.

“What? Me?” I pointed to myself. “But I—”

“You gotta pay to play. Come on,” Carson said, grinning.

I wanted to punch him in the nose he looked so smug. Of course he wasn’t going to let me blend into the background. That would be nice. This was his way of reminding everyone I was there.

“Fine.” I clutched my cup out in front of me and shot Maddie a look of apology as I said, “Maddie, truth or dare.”

She didn’t seem to mind as she bit her lip and debated, then said, “Truth.”

“Okay. . .” I hedged, mostly because I couldn’t think of anything. After a long silence, I went with the only thing I could think of. “Is it true you and Pete Wolfe went skinny dipping at his going away party during the summer?”

Maddie laughed, eyes sparkling. She looked confident as she said, “Well, I had to give him something to remember me by, didn’t I?”

Alrighty, then. . .

Maddie took a sip of her drink as she scanned the room, looking for her next victim, while I had the luxury of relaxing since the rules stated she couldn’t turn around and choose me.

When her gaze landed on Ethan beside me, I wondered if he was nervous, but he looked fine. “Ethan, truth or dare.” A grin snaked over her girlish features, and suddenly, I had a bad feeling about this.

With confidence, he said, “Truth.”

Maddie merely grinned wider. She didn’t seem displeased in his selection. “Have you ever liked Mia as something more than friends?”

I snorted. Nice try.

I glanced to Ethan, shooting him a look. The question was so ridiculous, it was laughable. Ethan and I had never been anything more than the best of friends.

Beside me, Ethan cursed. “Yes.”

I froze, and my heart banged against my ribs.

I misheard. It was the only explanation.

Slowly, I shook my head as if to clear my hearing, then turned to him, sure I had gotten it wrong. Ethan was the peanut butter to my jelly. We just worked well together, were always on the same page. But we were never anything more than friends. Not even close.

I heard someone snicker and mutter, “Oh, snap.” And then the room grew utterly silent. Probably because I stared at the side of Ethan’s face— now fire-engine red—for what felt like a millennium, waiting for the “gotcha moment” where he laughed and said he fooled me.

Finally, he turned to face me and rolled his eyes as he leaned in, so no one else could hear, and whispered, “Relax, Mia. It was when I was like ten or eleven and for like two months.”

When he straightened, I squinted at him, like my narrowed lids could detect lies. He was telling the truth. I knew this because Ethan had a tick. When he lied, he blinked and scratched his nose.

I nodded as if this made perfect sense, although it was still news to me, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Ethan and I never kept secrets from each other, much less one like that.

“Okay, my turn,” Ethan said, and he pursed his lips, his expression serious, which I found weird because he had acted as though this whole party was lame and now all of a sudden, he was into it?

His gaze locked on Olivia with a devious glint in his eye. I knew he couldn’t stand her, so this would be interesting. “Olivia, truth or dare.”

She looked him dead in the eye, and said, “Dare, of course,” like we were wimps for choosing truth.

“Kiss my brother.”

My jaw dropped. Even a flicker of surprise ran through Olivia’s eyes before she turned her cat-like gaze on Carson with a grin. I watched Carson’s response. It was no surprise he seemed unfazed. He merely smirked and sauntered across the room. Leaning down, he gave Olivia a chaste kiss on the lips, then pulled away.