Ever After (East Raven Academy Book 1)(72)

“You dated her?” I ask.

Ian laughs. “Dated is a strong word. We might have made out a couple of times.”

“Gross,” I say. “I hope you sanitized your mouth afterwards.”

“True story, Estaine said the exact same thing to me after he found out,” Ian says. “You two must be meant to be.”

I always feel so weird when our friends make comments about our relationship. Like, when they say we’re cute together or perfect together. But Estaine seems like it’s completely normal, like he expects it. He just puts his arm around me, pulling me closer.

“It’s fate,” Estaine says.

“What’s fate?” Emma asks, as her and Bryce sit down at the table.

I guess they’re back together, but nobody says a word to them about it.

“Estaine and Phoenix,” Ian says. “Both of them even have weird names.”

“Can you imagine what they’ll name their kids?” Bryce says.

Wow.

Even Bryce is in a good mood today.

“Just don’t name them after food. You don’t want your kid being called something weird like Pineapple,” Emma says.

“I’ve heard a lot of celebrities name their kids weird things,” I say. “I actually went to school with a girl named Peach. Though, in her defense, her dad was strung out on drugs pretty badly when she was born.”

“Peach. That’s just horrible,” Emma says.

“Charlie dated this girl who was named Tokyo. Apparently her parents named all their children after the cities they were conceived in, and they had a lot of kids,” I say. “Tokyo, Rome, Hamilton, Berlin and, the worst, Warsaw.”

“Warsaw?” Ian asks.

“It’s in Poland,” I say.

“Were you named after the city you were conceived in?” Emma asks.

“I’m too scared to ask my...”

Estaine cuts me off before I can say my mom or dad. “I am convinced my parents made up my name.”

“Knowing your dad, they probably had a book with posh baby names inside,” Ian says. “Like, which name will look best on a presidential ballot?”

“I’ll vote for you,” I tell him.

“I’m not sure I want to be a politician,” Estaine says. “My dad wants me to be president someday. He’s told me that, since I was a kid. But I think I might want to do something else.”

“Good, ’cause I don’t think my dad would let me date a future democrat.”

Estaine laughs.

“I thought your dad was dead,” Emma says.

Ah, crud.

“He is,” I say. “I just... my uncle... sometimes I call him dad, ’cause I was raised with him.”

“Oh, okay,” she says, accepting my response. “Where is Teagan this morning? And Jason.”

“She snuck back in the dorm early this morning,” I say. “I’m guessing they’re going to be sleeping late.”

“About time those two started dating,” Ian says. “Jason’s been pining over her since freshman year.”

“Why haven’t they dated before now?” I ask.

I seriously thought it was Jason who didn’t want to date Teagan. She told me she had a crush on somebody at the beginning of the year. I assumed she met Jason, but maybe it wasn’t him.

“Teagan always turned him down before,” Ian says.

“Why?” I ask.

“How would I know?” he asks.

And now I’m curious... just who has she been crushing on?





11pm.





Pretty obvious.





Estaine and I are sitting on the boat dock; my feet are dangling over the water.

Bryce and Emma are somewhere out here, and Jason and Teagan we lost somewhere along the way. We were all supposed to hang out together, but I don’t mind hanging out with just Estaine. I’m the most comfortable when it’s just the two of us.

“Do you ever feel like we are deceiving everybody?” I ask Estaine, as I look out at the water.

“You’re lying to save your life,” he says. “I think they would understand.”

“I didn’t mean about that part,” I say. “I mean, about us. You know, we’re fake dating, or whatever. I feel really guilty. I’m lying enough about other things. I don’t want to lie about us, too.”

“If we have a fake break up, we couldn’t continue hanging out like this,” he says. “I mean, people would think we were back together. Nobody would believe we’re just friends. Plus, even before we started fake dating, everybody knew that I had... have.. feelings for you.”

“You... do?” I ask.

“I thought it was pretty obvious.”

Maybe.

Kind of.

But also, not at all.

“Maybe to everybody else,” I say.

Maybe I was just too obsessed over Brooks, in the beginning, to even notice that Estaine liked me.

Brooks was very vocal about his feelings towards me. But Estaine... he’s just been my friend. He’s been there for me from the beginning. And my feelings for him have slowly been developing.

“You really didn’t know?” he asks.