Ever After (East Raven Academy Book 1)(33)

“She’s definitely coming,” Teagan says. “Tonight, she is going to stop avoiding Estaine.”

“Why would you avoid him?” Zoey asks.

“Seriously. He’s definitely the hottest guy here,” Penelope says. “If I knew he would give me the time of day, I’d totally be going for it.”

“Estaine doesn’t date,” Samantha says. “I don’t think he’s ever even shown interest in a girl.”

“There was that one girl freshman year,” Zoey says. “But they totally didn’t date long. She dumped him. Seriously, she was an idiot.”

“I heard she is pregnant,” Samantha says.

“I saw that on her Instagram,” Penelope says. “She does a weekly update of her baby bump. I want to be like, girl, you’re sixteen. Nobody wants to see your baby bump.”

I laugh at the three of them.

Samantha, Zoey, and Penelope have been friends since before East Raven Academy. I think their parents are friends and they grew up together. You can definitely tell. They’re so close, and I’m jealous of that. But they love to gossip. I can imagine their moms, all sitting around the country club gossiping about the other rich ladies, and then I imagine them doing the same when they’re older.

“Back to the point... why are you avoiding the hottest guy in our school?” Samantha asks.

“He likes her,” Teagan says. “He even stopped by our dorm room last night, wanting to see her.”

“Oh, my gosh! What did he say?” Zoey asks.

All three of them are sitting on the edge of their seats.

“Well, he called her beautiful,” Teagan answers.

Zoey lets out a girly sigh, and Samantha and Penelope both squeal as they look at me.

“Why the heck would you avoid him?” Samantha asks. “Seriously! This is Estaine Rinaldi. ESTAINE! And you’d have to be blind to not think he’s attractive. You have to stop avoiding him, and date him.”

“And then you can tell us if he’s a good kisser,” Zoey says. “Because we’re all dying to know.”

“Yes. We want lots of details,” Penelope says, nodding vigorously.

“I’ll stop avoiding Estaine,” I say. Because I seriously can’t stand to avoid him any longer. I need to tell somebody the truth. It’s literally going to bust out of me if I don’t talk to him. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to date him or kiss him.”

In fact, I happen to be very interested in another guy. A guy who happens to be just as hot as Estaine. And we have this crazy, instant attraction thing going on. I’d be crazy not to at least try to date Brooks, no matter how complicated it might be. I’m already hiding so much from my friends and I definitely don’t want to hide my “love life”.

Eventually, I will tell them.

“You’d be an idiot not to date Estaine,” Teagan says. Penelope, Samantha, and Zoey all agree, but thankfully they change the subject.

While we’re at the game, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, so I discretely pull it out to read. I don’t want another incident where people see me texting “Mom” or “Dad,” because my parents are supposed to be dead. I also don’t want them to see me text Brooks.





BROOKS: Counting down the minutes until I can see you.





Heart.

Melting.

I didn’t even realize it was possible to like a guy as much as I like Brooks. Just seeing his name on my phone gives me butterflies.





ME: I can’t wait. It’s been such a long week.





BROOKS: It has been for me too. My English Lit teacher HATES me. So school has been ridiculous.





ME: Why does your teacher hate you?





BROOKS: It’s kind of a long story... but let’s just say it involves a water hose, fish, shrink wrap and her car.





ME: Hmmm… now that sounds like a fun story. I haven’t been here long enough to make my teachers hate me.





BROOKS: So what are you doing? Can you video chat?





ME: Football game... so, no. Basically I’m texting you, listening to my friends gossip and not at all paying attention to the game.





BROOKS: Will you pay attention when I’m playing?





ME: YES. But only because I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my eyes off of you.





BROOKS: Good.





ME: I’m nervous. I’ve been avoiding my friend, Estaine, all week. Tonight, my girl friends are forcing me to talk to him.





BROOKS: Why have you been avoiding him?





Umm…





ME: Just stupid drama.





The crowd around me cheers, and I look up to see that Estaine made a touchdown.

Cool.





BROOKS: Estaine doesn’t normally hang out with girls.





How does he know that? I thought Brooks and Estaine weren’t friends.