Page 20 of The Charade

Sofia turned on her heel, the back of her skirt swishing with the movement and drawing my eyes to her long, toned legs.

I used to love that her skirts hit higher on her legs than the other girls at school since she was five-foot ten and her legs were so long.

But now they just taunted me.

I tore my gaze away from her legs and focused back on Ava.

"Ex-girlfriend?" Ava asked, a knowing look on her face.

"Yeah."

And if I was the type of person who shared his personal details with people he barely knew, I might even admit that Sofia had been the one to dump me, in order to explain my agitated behavior.

But since that wasn't me, I simply left it at that. There was no need to let Ava know just how weak I could be.

7

Ava

"I guessI better get to lunch," I said to Carter as I gathered my notebook and textbook into my arms, figuring it would be weird to stay any longer now that it was just us and our teacher left in the classroom.

"Wait." He reached over and touched my arm. "Where are you going?"

"Huh?" I stared at his hand for a moment, surprised at the warmth that glowed down my arm from his simple touch.

"Uh, I…" He cleared his throat and removed his hand after noticing my blush. "We told Sofia we were having lunch together to work on our interviews. So, I'd kind of like to follow through with that."

"I thought that was just an excuse," I said, surprised that he'd actually been planning on it. "I didn't think you actually meant we'd have lunch together.”

"Well, we do have that interview to start." He cocked his head to the side, the gesture making him seem more boyish and less severe somehow. "And since I assume you probably eat meals here and there, I was thinking we could go to this restaurant just off campus whose food I'm craving."

"We're allowed to eat off campus?" I asked.

He nodded. "As long as we aren't tardy for next period, the headmistress doesn't mind."

I bit my lip, trying to decide what to do.

It was the first day of school. Elyse had seemed to hit it off with Scarlett and her crew yesterday, and then again this morning at breakfast. Would she be okay without me for lunch?

"We wouldn't want Sofia to think you lied to her, right?" Carter asked.

Pretty sure he was the one who had started the lie.

But when I looked at his aqua-blue eyes, I suddenly didn't want to give him a reason to scowl at me again like he did yesterday.

Especially if he was going to be my tutor this year.

"Okay." I let out a low breath. "But since I'm the one doing you a favor, by making Sofia think you're cool enough to hang out with someone like me, you have to buy my lunch while we're at it."

His family lived on an estate. Surely he could afford to buy me lunch.

I raised my eyebrows, waiting to see if he'd go along with my conditions.

He studied me with narrowed eyes, as if trying to piece my personality together with the few short interactions we'd had so far.

Then, seeming to understand that I was the one helping him and not the other way around, he sighed and said, "Fine."

"What are you doing?"I asked Carter when he pulled out a dark blue bullet journal and started writing in it instead of leaving the classroom.

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