All I've Never Wanted(53)

I stared at her. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, it’s something new.”

Huh. I think she really is serious.

My grandmother tottered over and sat down on my other side. She frowned, then leaned over and sniffed me.

Oook. “Grandma, what are you doing?”

“What you do? You smell like flowers.”

“I went to the spa earlier,” I explained.

“Oh.” My grandmother sniffed me again. “You go to spa more often. Makes you smell better than usual.”

My face burned as Adriana burst out laughing.

See what I mean about my grandmother being bad for a girl’s self-esteem?

* * *

Zack closed his eyes, his fingers flying over the keyboard in his room as he did his cover for One Republic. “It’s too late—“

Bang!

Zack jumped a foot in the air, then glared at his sister, who had already jumped into his bed and was paging through his lyrics journal with a bored look on her face.

“Adri, how many times do I have to tell you not to do that?” he complained, snatching the journal from her.

“No matter how many times you tell me, I’m going to do it anyway.” She grinned cheekily at him. “That’s what twins are for.”

“You should’ve just stayed at that Swiss boarding school,” he huffed, climbing in next to her. “Where were you earlier?”

“I went to the spa, then Maya’s house,” Adriana replied casually. She held out her hand. “Isn’t this manicure fabulous?”

“I’m not gay, Adri, stop trying to talk to me about manicures,” he groused. “What do you want?”

She widened her eyes. “What makes you think I want anything?”

“Well…” Zack tapped a finger on his chin. “Since we’ve been born, you’ve come into my room about a million times, and you’ve wanted something every time, so I’ll just call it a hunch.”


“Awww.” She ruffled his hair. “I think my baby bro is getting smarter!”

“I hate you,” he pouted.

“No you don’t. You looove me, right?” Adriana gave him a huge hug.

“Stop! You’re choking me!” He couldn’t help but laugh though. “All right, I promise to help you if you stop it!”

Adriana pulled back, a mischievous look on her face. “Ok, but you promised.”

Zack couldn’t help but be a bit scared. “What is it?”

“I need you to help me get Maya and Roman together.”

His jaw dropped. “What? Why?!” Zack shook his head frantically. “No way. She’s Parker’s girlfriend! I can’t just betray a friend like that.”

She rolled her eyes. “I take back what I said earlier, you haven’t gotten smarter. It’s obvious they’re not really dating, genius!”

Zack frowned. Maya and Parker seemed pretty couple-y to him. “What makes you think that?”

“For one, I actually use my two eyes. Anyone can see they’re just friends. Ask Carlo if you don’t believe me. You and Roman are the only ones dense enough to fall for their fa?ade.”

Zack blinked. Huh…he supposed it did make sense. The whole relationship had been pretty random. “Well, everyone else at school fell for it too!”

Adriana just looked at him.

His shoulders slumped. “Oh. I guess you have a point. But why do you want to get her with Roman? Is it because of the bet?”

“Kind of,” she said vaguely. “Look, once we get them together, I’ll explain it to you, but for now, I need your help, ok? I have a theory, and I need you to prove it.”

“Fine.” Zack shrugged.

He listened to Adriana’s plan, and couldn’t help but laugh. Oh man. If everything worked out the way his sister wanted, it was going to be a hell of a show.

CHAPTER 14

“Maya! Mayaaaa!! HELP!”

I turned at the sound of someone calling my name, and raised my eyebrows when I saw Zack running toward me, frantically waving his arms in the air.

“Hey, Zack, what’s wrong?” I asked, taking note of the panicked expression on his face.

“Something terrible happened!” he exclaimed, widening his blue eyes until they were the size of sauces.

I stared at him skeptically. Zack was a bit of a drama queen, so I wasn’t sure how seriously I should take this. “Did you stub your toe again?”

“No! It’s even worse! Come on, I’ll explain later!” He grabbed my wrist and began dragging me down the hallway and into the back stairway that led to the Scions’ lounge.

“Oof!” I flinched as I slammed into the railing of the stairway. “If that bruises, you owe me a year’s supply of chocolate!” I called after him, doing my best not to trip on the stairs at the speed we were going.

Zack came to an abrupt stop, causing me to walk straight into him.

“Ow,” I whimpered, hating myself for sounding like a baby. I couldn’t help it though. Walking into Zack was like walking into a brick wall.

“Sorry,” Zack chirped, not sounding at all sorry.

Maybe a lack of apology ran in the family or something.

I followed him into the lounge, keeping an eye out for blood, seizures, or wild animals running around. Nope.