Page 50 of Sweetheart

"Scam," she repeated.

"Heck yeah, Scam," Grayson said with a wink. "You and Sam. It's all anyone's talking about."

My breath released on a long exhale. "Oh right, our couple name."

"Your awesome couple name—which means you two are a couple?" Grayson gestured for me to hurry up and answer. "I can't wait all day, Scarlett. This is need-to-know info."

"Don't be nice to her, Gray." Alexandria sniffed. "She obviously doesn't consider us friends, or she wouldn't have kept this from us yesterday."

"I didn't keep it from you," I said. "Sam and I weren't even together then."

"But you're together now?" Grayson put in.

"If you can't tell your locker neighbors, who can you tell?" Alexandria added. "Is Scam real or not?

"It's real," I said, rationalizing that Scam was indeed a real thing—even if that thing was an agreement between two people to pretend.

While Grayson whooped and danced around, Alexandria gave me a small smile.

"Good for you," she said.

"Good for Sam," Grayson added. "Oh, I'm so glad he won't be sad anymore. And I love Brisa—who doesn't?—but I love you just as much. Yay for Scam."

"Thanks, guys," I said.

Alexandria cocked her head in thought. "We're yourbestfriends, Scarlett. You can tell us things, you know."

"Especially when they have to do with hot soccer players," Grayson put in then turned to Alexandria."Butbest friends? That'sa bit of a stretch."

"You think?"

"We never hang out, never talk outside of school."

"Well, we're at leastfriendly," she said.

"Maybe hallway pals?"

"That's dumb."

"Friendly acquaintances?" I tried.

"We're more than that," Grayson said with a scoff. "We've gone to school together for four years. How about…casual friends?"

Alexandria sniffed. "Sounds like the three of us are in an openrelationship, and we're you're wives."

I laughed at the look on Grayson's face. "It does kind of sound like that," Isaid.

"Ew," he said.

"I second that ew."

"Neither one of you are my type either," Alexandria said.

"How about just friends?" I said.

Grayson gave mea nod. "That sounds good."

"Much better," Alexandria agreed then glancedat something past my shoulder. "Oh look, here's your boyfriend now."

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