Page 43 of The Charade

"Yeah,oh." Nash shook his head. "I know I'll probably regret even encouraging you to keep up that thing you started with her last week since I was hoping to ask her out sometime myself, but she offered to help you out with Sofia. You might as well take her up on it."

"I don't know," I said, glancing around my room and liking how much quieter it was than the noise coming from downstairs. "I kind of think I'd rather stay up here than fake something with Ava tonight."

After our little interaction in my room this afternoon, it would probably be wise to put some distance between us so my body could get unconfused about how it should react to her.

"How could you prefer sitting in here alone to having fun with Ava?" Nash asked, like he couldn't understand it at all.

Which made sense. Nash was a natural extrovert. He thrived on other people's energy, loved being the center of attention.

I was the opposite. Flirting with people drained me. Heck, just being around people for extended periods of time drained me.

When I sat on the loveseat in front of my bed, Nash furrowed his brow and said, "This is our last year of high school." He shook his head slowly. "You have the rest of your life to be all brooding and crap in your room. Don't miss out on making good memories just because a girl stomped all over your heart."

"All over my heart in front of her millions of Instagram followers."

My brother had forgotten that Sofia had posted all kinds of photos of us when we'd dated, using the hashtag #lovehim at least once a week so all the guys trying to slide into her DMs would know she was spoken for. But when she got tired of me, she'd replaced photos of me with photos ofhimand continued using the same hashtag.

Which made me wonder what Simon had messaged her to get her to answer his DMs.

I shook my head. I really didn't need to go down that road again.

We were through. I didn't need to know which opener from him had solidified my fate.

For all I knew he'd sent a simple selfie with the words, "Only ten people have to die for me to be a king. Wanna be my queen?" and the rest was history.

"Are you going to come?" Nash asked, the concern in his blue eyes showing.

I drew in a deep breath, hoping it would calm my nerves as I thought about meeting Simon for the first time. "Just give me a few minutes to figure something out and I'll be down."

"Good." He smiled, his whole face brightening. "See you down there."

I satin my room for the next five minutes, listening to the doorbell ring followed by laughter and all kinds of happy sounds as more and more people came to enjoy the party.

And as I sat there with my ears perked, I could make out Sofia's alto voice as she introduced Simon to person after person.

Hi, this is my hot new boyfriend, Simon. Did you know he's a viscount?

Okay, so maybe she wasn't saying that, but it was probably what she was thinking.

Did I really want to do this?I wondered as I continued to listen to the sounds below. Could I really face Sofia and her boyfriend, and put on a face that told them I couldn't care in the least that they were together now?

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face. I could do this. I might not have ever taken a theater class like my brother and sister, but I had perfected the detached and bored look as good as any guy my age. Surely I could manage to appear unfazed for a few hours.

It wasn’t like I had to be downstairs the whole time, anyway. I could make a showing, make Cambrielle and Nash feel I was part of the back-to-school celebration, and then I could sneak back up to my room when everyone was otherwise engaged, and no one would miss me.

"Tonight’s going to be amazing," Cambrielle's muffled voice sounded from just up the hall. I assumed she was talking to the Cohen twins since they'd been getting ready for tonight's festivities in her room for the past hour or so.

When I realized they were probably almost to the staircase to head downstairs, I knew I needed to act quick if I was going to have a chance to do what Nash had suggested earlier.

So I dashed forward, threw the door open, and peeked my head out into the hall and called out, "Hey, Ava. Do you have a minute?"

All three girls stopped in their tracks and turned to look at me with curious expressions.

"Did you just say something to me?" A twin wearing skinny jeans and a red top put a hand to her chest.

I assumed it was Ava since I'd addressed her, but I couldn't really be sure since I wasn't close enough to look for the gold necklaces she and Elyse had worn earlier with their names in delicate cursive letters.

"I need to talk to Ava," I said, just in case I was looking at the wrong twin. "It’ll just be for a moment." The twin in the red top pouted her lips for a second as if trying to decide whether my request was worth listening to. So I added, "Please," with as much sincerity in my eyes as I could muster.

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