Page 31 of Becoming Cinderella

Either he’s really good at reading people, or I’m just really easy to read. Maybe it’s a little of both? I’m embarrassed they’re passing judgement on Liam without even knowing him.

I answer Liam with a single nod, dropping my gaze to the ground.

“I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

“No!” I say too loudly which makes me wince a little. “No,” I try again with a quieter voice. Looking around to make sure I didn’t just draw attention to us. “They’re just worried about me. It’s nothing, okay?”

“They think the big bad celebrity is going to corrupt their daughter?” Man, he’s good.

My mouth turns up. “Something like that. It doesn’t matter though. Our deal is still on, I just need them not to know.”

Liam’s eyebrows quirk up. “Carter Adams, are you sneaking around your parents’ backs to see me?”

Liam gives me his crooked smile and honestly, if I had been debating on listening to my parents, the crooked smile would have been my deciding factor not to.

“I am. Which means you should probably go before someone realizes it’s you I’m talking to and another picture of us pops up online.” I push against his shoulders as I glance around the parking lot again like I might spot someone hiding behind a car with a camera.

Liam reaches up and grabs one of my hands, pulling it free from his shoulder and looks at it. “Hey, uh, thanks.”

I drop my other hand, confused.

Liam still has my right hand in his. “I don’t know what exactly your parents have said about me, but thanks for not believing them. For thinking I’m a better man than I probably deserve. For being on my side.”

“You’ll always have me on your side.” I hold up my pinky finger, “I promise you that.”

Liam interlocks his pinky finger with mine, an unreadable expression on his face. “You don’t know what this means.” He stares down at our fingers, and I have to pull mine free, suddenly feeling like it’s being burned.

He looks like he’s going to say something else but must think better of it because instead he tips his hat goodbye, like he’s some cowboy from a Western film.

It isn’t going to be easy to lie to my parents about still seeing Liam, but not only is Jared worth it, but my friendship with Liam is worth it too.

Chapter Nine

It’s been over a week since the paparazzi photo came out and I’ve had to dodge a lot of calls, mainly from different family members. Including the ones from my older sister, Harper.

I know I’ve been a horrible sister by not telling Harper I’ve been spending time with Liam. She’s as big of a fan as I am. In fact, she’s the one who brought Liam Taylor into my life by taking me to see Suddenly Yours when I was a freshman. My life has never been the same since that day.

Liam wasn’t a huge name back then, that would happen the following year when he starred as Graham Hollis in the Eagle Strike series. Suddenly everyone knew who Liam Taylor was, and even though I hadn’t known him personally, I couldn’t help but feel proud of his success.

I’m lying on my floor, working through a history project when Harper’s name pops up yet again on my screen. I know if I continue to dodge her calls, she will eventually call Mom, if she hasn’t already, and I can’t put her off forever.

“Hi Harper,” I say with hesitancy.

“Did you know you have a doppelganger? There’s a girl who looks just like you kissing Liam Taylor all over my social media.”

I get up and start pacing around my room. “It wasn’t an actual kiss.”

It takes her a long time to answer and I stop pacing. “Are you…Carter, are you telling me that is actually you?”

“Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I just-”

She starts to scream and I have to hold my phone away from my ear.

I fill her in on the past few weeks. I don’t go into the details like how I’m helping him learn to dance, but I do tell her about Liam overhearing Jared confessing his feelings for Penn. It feels good to finally admit to someone aside from Liam that Jared likes Penn.

“So, he offered to help me try to win Jared over.”

As far as she knows he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart and nothing more.

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