Page 94 of Before We're More Than Friends
“Who is Raina?” Dad asked. “You haven’t had a girlfriend since elementary school.”
“I know!” I grunted. “There’s nothing going on with her, I promise.” The lie didn’t sound natural from my lips. Everyone knew something was between me and Raina except for Raina herself. “We’re just friends.”
Every time I said that, part of my soul died.
“Raina is such a sweet girl,” Mom said, not picking up on the tension in the room. “She always stops by my office when she volunteers.”
“She does?” I asked. Had they ever talked about me?
Mom nodded. “You two would be good together.”
“Well, then I approve of this Raina,” Dad said.
“There’s no need to approve of her!” I put my head in my hands. “I don’t like her. There’s nothing going on with her, and we’re just friends. I don’t understand what everyone else is seeing between us.”
“You sound stressed out about it,” Mom said with a sympathetic frown. “What else is going on?”
I sighed. “Kami is trying to divert the focus from herself. I already said everything I needed to say.” In reality, there wasn’t anything going on with Raina outside of the Chloe situation. If that situation hadn’t been happening, there would be no feelings from my side at all. And because there was no way Raina had feelings for me—when she had three other guy friends who were all hot, single, and much more fun than me—there would be nothing between us. Everything would’ve been perfect, and I wouldn’t feel sick to my stomach and swept off my feet at the same time.
So I wasn’t exactly lying about there being nothing between me and Raina.
I was just warping the truth.
“Dallas is right,” Dad said. “I still want to know about this Oliver.”
“Fine!” Kami barked, slamming her fork on the table. “I rejected him because I still wasn’t over Greg, okay?” She looked me in the eyes, hers flaming angrily. “I like Oliver, I do, and he keeps asking me if I’m okay, but what happened with Greg was painful.”
“But what happened with Greg?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even. “You haven’t talked about your breakup with him, but you used to talk about him all the time.” Tears were burning in the back of my eyes, and I drew in an uneven breath. “You used to tell me everything about your life. Now I know people who I’ve been friends with for less than three weeks better than I know you.”
“She hasn’t told you yet?” Mom asked.
“It . . . I.” Kami looked down at her plate. “It’s too much.”
“I don’t need to know the details,” I said. “I just don’t want to be someone you keep secrets from.” Gosh, that was way too rich coming from me, when not a single soul in this state knew about what was happening with Raina. Unless Arielle had cracked the code and Raina somehow knew and hadn’t confronted me yet.
There were so many ways this could go, but they’d all end in disaster.
Mom got up from her seat. “I think you two should talk about this in private.” She nodded at Dad before they both left the dining room. Houston walked in and sat by my foot.
“Thank you.” Kami sighed, her hands shaking on the table as she met my eyes again. “When I told Greg I was moving, he wanted to have a final goodbye.”
I nodded, waiting for her to continue.
“So we . . .” She swallowed. “Did that.”
I was glad I hadn’t been eating my food. From the way I gasped, I would’ve started choking. “You and Greg—you?—”
“That’s only the first part.” She let out a deep breath, leaning against her seat.
Fear washed over me. “You’re not—no—” I clamped my mouth. “Are you?”
“Gosh, Dallas, of course not,” Kami muttered. “You would’ve known by now.”
“Did you get an infection?”
“Dallas!”
My face burned. “What else could’ve happened?” I racked my brain for what else could’ve occurred from, um, a situation like that, but I came up dry.
