Page 27 of The Friend Scheme
But I don’t want to cancel. I just don’t want to get caught.
If I told Dad and Luke that I was having a friend over, they probably wouldn’t care. If they asked how I knew him, I could say school. If I said I met him at the bar, I know they’d ask me what family he’s from. And I don’t know the answer to that.
Why is he being so weird about which family he’s from?
Down the hall, I hear the shower shut off.Finally.A few seconds later, Luke walks past. I watch aBuzzFeed Unsolvedvideo as I wait. A few moments later, Luke appears in my doorway. He’s dressed in his usual attire: a well-fitting black shirt, jeans, and his most expensive pair of dress shoes. Dad got them for him.
“Hey, I’m about to head out,” he says.
“Okay, have a good night!”
“You too. Don’t get into too much trouble without me, okay?”
“I never do.”
I hear the door close. Then I wait. I hear a car pull up by our house, I’m guessing his Uber, because he’s planning on drinking. It drives away.
I want to be sure, though, so I go through the house, to the front door. There are glass panels on either side of it, so I look through those, out at the driveway.
The street is empty. Eddie comes up to me. He always sulks whenever Luke leaves. His ears are pressed down, and his tail is hanging limp. I scratch the top of his head, until his tail starts wagging.
“You can keep a secret, can’t you, buddy?”
He nuzzles against my leg. I’ll take that as a yes.
So I text Jason. My heart is seriously pounding.
Hey, guess what?
What?
He’s gone.
The typing bubble appears.
Sweet! I’m on my way.
CHAPTER SEVEN
There’s a knock on the door.
Oh man.
I’m so not ready for this.
I’ve changed my outfit maybe ten times. So now my bed is covered in clothes, although everywhere else is clean. I even lit a sandalwood candle to try to make sure my room smells nice.
The outfit I ended up settling for is a You Me at Six band shirt I got from when I saw them live, skinny black jeans, and my Vans.
I think I look good.
I’m not totally confident in my decision to wear a band tee, but I know from trying on almost all my clothes I’m not going to be totally confident in any of them. And I’m out of time. I scoop up all rejected choices and throw them into the closet and shut the door.
Presto, instant clean room.
I jog down to the foyer. Earlier, I scanned the house to make sure there are no obvious signs on display of who Luke and Dad are. I had to hide a few photos in my room, like one from Luke’s high school graduation, a few of Mom, and one with my grandparents. I triple-checked and am sure I did a good job. Eddie is jumping up and down, pressing his paws against the door, and I can see a male figure outside. I grab on to Eddie’s collar and open the door.
“Hey, hey,” says Jason.
