Unwritten Rules (Rules 1)

“Yeah. Blake.”

I expect her to be as excited as I am, but boy, am I wrong. Color drains from her face as she looks away. What just happened?

“What’s wrong?” I ask, worried.

“Nothing. I didn’t know you were that close with Kendrick’s friends, that’s all.” She looks away, obviously lying.

“Kass. Seriously, what is it? Did I do something?” I step closer. If there’s one thing I learned from all the summers I spent in Florida when I was a kid, it’s that both Kendrick and Kassidy are horrible liars.

“No, of course not. Don’t worry about it.” She is one stubborn girl.

“Kass.” I glance at her severely. She knows I’m not going to let it go.

She sighs. “I didn’t think he’d move on so fast.”

“Wait, what? Who are you talking about?”

She remains silent for a while like she’s trying to decide whether or not she’s ready to say more.

“Blake. I’m talking about Blake.”

My face must give away how clueless I am because she doesn’t wait for me to ask another question and carries on.

“Alex and I were never a thing. Never,” she adds. “I was dating Blake. Kendrick didn’t want Blake to date his sister, and I get that, but… Blake and I loved each other, or at least I loved him. Kendrick approves of Alex a lot more when it comes to girls, so I pretended to date him, constantly asking Kendrick to drop me at Alex’s only to end up going to Blake’s.”

My eyes widen. I’m unable to form a sentence. He literally lied straight to my face. And I thought he was such a great guy.

“What happened? Why did it end?” I ask Kass, hoping for his sake that he didn’t do something stupid like cheat on her.

“Alex said he was done lying. That we could either break up or tell Kendrick. And, well, Blake chose option number one. He refused to give me a solid reason. He said we should go our separate ways, and he sure didn’t seem to feel guilty about lying to his best friend for six months.”

Six months? That’s a heck of a long time to be lying to your good friend. I can’t help but feel a bit disgusted that he would hurt Kassidy like that. Clearly, he doesn’t care about the bro code Kendrick asked him to respect.

“How long has it been since he ended things?”

I can tell she’s fighting the tears. “Three weeks.”

I cover her hand with mine, feeling her pain. I get that she’s heartbroken. It’s so recent.

“Well, you know what? You’re coming with me tonight.”

She raises her eyebrows. “What?”

I look at the clock, mentally making a list of all the things we have to do before 9:00 p.m. comes around the corner.

“'You heard me. We’re going to that party together, having fun, and showing this guy what he lost.”

THE SOUND OF A CAR HONKING is all we’ve been hearing for the

past couple of minutes. Will, Kendrick, and Blake’s impatience is growing by the second. Those guys clearly never had to wait for anything in their entire lives.

Maria calls out our names for the millionth time and tells us the boys are leaving without us if we’re not outside in two minutes. It took everything to convince her to let us go. She only agreed because we promised to be home before midnight.

Standing in front of the ceiling-high mirror in her room, Kassidy is staring at her reflection. She looks perfect. I feel proud knowing I have something to do with it. I did her hair, her makeup, and even chose her outfit. She needed a little confidence boost, which I was happy to provide. She deserves better than this.

“You ready?” I ask, opening the door.

She nods, unsure. Next thing I know, we’ve entered Blake’s car. Blake seems a bit taken aback when he sees Kass hop in his car but doesn’t comment. Instead, he shoots me a smile that I make sure not to return. Kendrick says something about Alex meeting us at the party. The ride there is painfully silent. Will tries to crack a joke or two, but it’s no use. Nothing and I mean nothing—not even his ridiculous sense of humor—could make the awkward tension go away.