Ever After (East Raven Academy Book 1)(52)

I send him a quick message so he won’t worry.

But if he found out that I’m off campus for my cousin’s fake funeral, how easy would it be for him to find out that Estaine is my fake boyfriend?





ME: Hey. Sorry I didn’t respond. I’m okay. Can’t talk, though. Lots of family drama. Bye!





I shut my phone off again, not wanting to deal with any more messages from anybody.

The only person I want to call right now is Charlie. I want to hear his voice, but I know it won’t be a possibility. Not just for my safety, but his as well. As tempted as I am to defy the rules and call him, I won’t. I could never live with myself if something bad happened to him because of me.

I decide to just get out of bed, because I don’t want to think about it anymore. When I walk into the kitchen, I see Estaine sitting there, eating food. Jake is by the stove, cooking.

“Did you have a zillion messages this morning?” I ask Estaine, sitting beside him on the barstool.

“Yep,” he answers. “Pretty much every guy on the football team texted me to say congratulations on getting a hot girlfriend.”

This causes me to laugh.

“All the guys at school think you’re hot,” he says.

“No, they don’t,” I say.

“Yes, they actually do,” he says, then shows me the texts.

“What the heck?” I ask. “These guys need their eyes examined.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Bryce sent this,” he says, holding up his phone.





BRYCE: Your girlfriend is a crazy computer hacker. Make sure you don’t text other girls or she’ll go all psycho on you.





I laugh. “At least somebody hates me.”

“Only you would be excited that somebody hates you,” Estaine says.

Jake sets a huge plate of food down, in front of me. “Your father had better give me a raise after this.”

“Should I send your wife a photo of you in an apron?” I ask.

“Don’t. She doesn’t know I can cook and I’d rather keep it that way,” he says.

My mouth falls open. “Well, I’m definitely texting her now.”

“I’m kidding, Phoenix,” Jake says. “Of course she knows I can cook. I’m a good husband. Now, excuse me while I go somewhere I don’t have to listen to two teenagers talk all day.”

“We’re entertaining!” I yell, as he walks out of the kitchen.

He doesn’t reply.

“Seriously, what are we going to do about the fact that now everybody thinks we’re dating?” I ask Estaine, feeling a little bit awkward about the whole situation. Seeing all my friends’ texts has made this whole thing feel more... real.

“I’m going to enjoy it,” he says. “It’s not every day that all the males in school are jealous of me.”

“Yeah, and what are you going to do when everybody expects us to be all lovey dovey and kiss and stuff?” I ask.

“So, I get to make out with a beautiful girl. How hard is that going to be?” he asks.

My face grows warm and I desperately want to change the subject.

“There is one more thing that I lied about,” I tell him.

“What’s that?” he asks.

“I didn’t really get kicked out of my old school for hacking the computers. I mean, I did hack the computers, but the school administration has no idea that I did it,” I say. “Since about one week into my freshman year, kids have been going on social media and the school has no idea.”

Estaine laughs. “You know, that just makes you much more awesome, right?”

“I tried to convince Uncle Matty and Jake to let me have a cooler story. Like, I wanted to say I got kicked out of my old school for arson,” I say. “Accidental arson, of course. But it would’ve been awesome.”

“I don’t know. I can’t see you burning down a school,” he says.

“You know, I did light Charlie on fire one time. It was an accident,” I say. “A bad incident of sparklers gone wrong. He jumped into the pool before he got hurt, so it was all good. There was also an incident one time with a flaming marshmallow, but I’ll spare you the details.”

“What? No,” he says. “Now you have to tell me.”

“Uh, fine,” I say, lifting my leg so he can see the small scar on my calf. “You can hardly see the scar now. It happened when I was twelve. Charlie still likes to laugh about it, but it hurt really bad. I had to stay in the hospital for a week because it got infected.”

“Wow. Remind me to stay away from you whenever you’re around fire,” Estaine says.

“Ha ha,” I say.





5pm.


I’m never bored with you.





While watching Smallville that afternoon, Estaine and I talk.

Well, talking is pretty much all we’ve done for the past two days, because, what else are you doing to do when you can’t leave the house?

“I’m excited for the weekend,” Estaine says. “For us northerners, it’s our last chance to go to the beach before it gets too cold.”