“Something’s definitely up.” Charlotte nodded in agreement. “What happened this weekend? Why didn’t you answer our texts about your time with Gabriel?”
I gulped hard and it felt like everyone within a five-mile radius could hear it. She’d zeroed in on the topic at hand and I was defenseless as a weaponless orc in the Battlegrounds desert arena. My shoulders crumpled as my will to withhold the truth flattened to nothing.
“He...kissed me.” I uttered the words in a whisper. It felt like a death sentence.
And sure enough, my friends reacted to the news as if I’d just dropped an atomic bomb.
“He...he what?” Lexi jumped forward, clapping her hands with excitement.
“Oh my goodness, it’s really happening.” Charlotte followed Lexi’s lead with the jumping, tugging on my arm as she bounced. “I was totally shipping you two, from the moment Mr. Hart made you partners in class. I knew there was chemistry there.”
I grabbed them both by the arms and my worried gaze bounced between them. “No, you don’t understand. He told me I was amazing. And then he kissed me. This isn’t a good thing.”
They stopped jumping and confusion ran over their faces.
“What?” Charlotte blew a stray strand of hair out of her face. “Why isn’t this a good thing?”
Tensing all the muscles in my face, I tried to hold back the quiver in my voice as I looked for the right way to put this. “Because...because he’s obviously doing this to torture me. Somehow he found out about me catfishing him and he’s paying me back. I’m sure he and Michael are just dying with laughter. I mean, why else would he do it?”
It had taken me a single hour of tossing beneath my sheets Saturday night to come to that conclusion. There was no way Gabriel actually liked me. First of all, I was so not his type. Not that I paid much attention to who the Corrigan brothers dated, but I knew they weren’t girls that looked like me. If anything, the twins went for girls like Lexi and Charlotte. Small girls. Girls who put on makeup every day and did something with their hair besides running a comb through it.
And then there was the fact that he’d basically been in every terrible memory of school I had since middle school. A background figure, playing the part of the silent bodyguard. What was to stop him from taking an active role in making fun of me? This whole thing had to be some kind of massive joke. Payback for daring to dream of being the best gamer in this year’s tournament.
I wasn’t going to be naive about it anymore.
“Oh, Bethy.” Lexi’s eyes slanted down with sympathy. She patted the side of my arm and tsked with her tongue. “You can’t really believe that.”
“Of course I do. It all makes sense now. That’s why he’s been so nice to me. He was laying the foundation to their prank. I mean, it’s genius, really. They really upped their game with this one. Try to make me fall for one of them and then publicly reject and humiliate me? I couldn’t have come up with anything better.”
“No way.” Lexi crossed her arms over her chest, anger flaring in her voice. “You can’t seriously think he’d sink that low.”
“Why not?” I stared at her, my heart thudding painfully in my chest. “That’s pretty much what I was planning to do to them, except without the whole falling for me part. It’s the perfect plan. Utter public humiliation.”
Desperation clawed at my throat, making it hard to breathe or swallow. I shifted my feet, blinking back the angry tears that threatened to spill. Emotions didn’t come easy to me. I had two settings: sassy or sassier. This whole hurt and humiliated dimension of emotion was definitely not my fave.
“Girly, I think you’re missing the obvious here.” Charlotte bit her bottom lip when I forced myself to look at her. “There’s no way he and Michael found out about the catfishing. It’s just not possible.”
I exhaled a hesitant breath. “You really think so?”
Lexi nodded, her top bun wiggling. “There’s no way. Char and I would take that secret to the grave. And you didn’t tell anyone either, right?”
“No...”
“Well, then, he must really like you.”
I sealed my eyes shut and shook my head. Even if Gabriel hadn’t found out about the catfishing, it just didn’t make sense. Why me? Why the girl his brother hates? Why not any of the other dozens of girls at Rock Valley High who would gladly go with him to the Winter Ball and swoon as he swept her up in his arms? That girl wasn’t me. I wasn’t the dress and swooning type. He could have anyone.
Closing my eyes was a mistake. Every time I did, I felt the tingling sensation of his lips against mine again. Soft and gentle. So very unlike the fearsome boy I’d seen skating down the rink like his life depended on it.
“I just want to forget about that stupid kiss,” I said breathlessly, opening my eyes to banish the memory from my thoughts. “I just want to go back to the plan and dominate the tournament. Prove to them all that girls can win. Why can’t I just do that?”
“You can.” Charlotte gently cupped my elbow and leaned closer, sympathy shining in her eyes. “You can, Beth. But is that what you really want?”
“I don’t know.” I threw my hands up in the air. “Why can’t guys just come with a floating marquee over their heads, telling us all of their thoughts, so this wouldn’t be such a guessing game?”
A wry smile popped on Lexi’s face. “Because I’m pretty sure none of us wants to know everything going on inside their heads. It would be too disturbing.”
Maybe that was true, but I would’ve given anything for a marquee of Gabriel’s thoughts on Saturday. Was that kiss for real? Or was it just another way for Michael to get back at me?