Little Do We Know(72)

“Well, you two certainly make a cute couple,” one of the hosts said.

“They do, don’t they?” the other one added.

Luke laughed. “It’s not like that,” he said. He looked at Hannah and smiled. “We’re just friends. Really good friends.”

But when the camera panned back to Hannah, her cheeks were bright red, and I wasn’t sure she felt the same way.

She recovered quickly. “Yes, we are.”

She smiled at him.

And he smiled back at her with this look in his eyes that told me why he’d confided in her and not me.

She’d listened to him.





There was a knock on my hotel-room door. I opened it and found Luke standing there holding up a bag of gummy bears, a Snickers bar, a Twix, and two bottles of Coke. “I robbed the minibar. Want to get wasted with me?”

“Please.” I opened the door wider, giving him room to step inside.

After our appearance on Good Day LA, Mornings on Six wanted us, too. I thought Luke would refuse when Dad asked him if he wanted to stay another night, but he actually seemed a little excited about it.

He flopped down on the bed next to me and dropped the bag of gummy bears between us.

“Who are those for?” I asked.

“Both of us.”

That reminded me of Emory. Whenever we’d have a sleepover, she’d bring the microwave popcorn and I’d bring the gummy bears. One time, I dared her to eat a handful of both at the same time. “That’s kind of tasty,” she said as she chewed. Then she started laughing hard and got up to spit it all into the trash can. “Kidding. Ugh. That’s disgusting.”

I ripped open the bag of gummy bears while Luke held the two candy bars out in his open hands. He balanced his hands like a scale. “I’m thinking you’re a Twix girl.”

“Aw, how did you know that?” I popped a bear into my mouth.

“Oh, it’s all part of being a ‘cute couple.’ I’m required to know these things.” He handed me the Twix. “Lucky guess.”

I picked up another gummy bear and chucked it at Luke’s head. “Too bad I don’t think of you that way.”

“Oh, but clearly you would think of me that way if you weren’t already thinking about someone else that way.” Luke raised his eyebrows at me.

I felt my face get hot, just like it had on camera earlier. “No, I’m not.”

When the hosts called us a couple, all I could think about was Aaron and that day he’d told me he was jealous of Luke. And then we’d kissed. We’d kissed for the longest time that day, and no one interrupted us. Thinking about it made me blush.

Luke laughed. “You’re a terrible liar. Come on. Who is he?”

“No one.” I tried keep a straight face, but he was making it really hard when he kept smiling at me like that.

I couldn’t do it. No one knew about Aaron. I wasn’t even sure why I’d reacted that way onstage earlier. I hadn’t talked to him since that day in Dad’s office, even though he kept texting me, apologizing and begging me to reply. I’d deleted each one the second it arrived.

“Tell me.”

I played with a loose string on the comforter, twisting it around my finger. “He’s this guy.”

“Excellent start. And?”

“And…he’s this guy I hated. But then I got to know him, and I started to like him. But then he blew it, and now I…” I started to say hate again, but I trailed off. Hate was too strong a word. I didn’t hate Aaron, I just didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. Not yet.

“Classic rom-com material. I like it. Go on.”

I flopped backward onto the bed and kicked my feet up to the ceiling. “I never should have liked him in the first place.”

“Ooh…taboo, too. Now we’re talking. Why can’t you like him?”

“I can’t like him for so many reasons, I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Pick one,” Luke said as he stretched out next to me. He unwrapped his Snickers bar, propped himself up on an elbow, and took a big bite.

“Fine. He works at the church.”

“Which is also your school.”

“Yeah.”

“So, hot janitor?”

I laughed. “No.”

I could practically see the puzzle pieces clicking together in his mind as he chewed. “A teacher?”

“Sort of.” I squeezed my eyelids shut while I waited for him to figure it out.

“Have I met him?” He asked the question in a way that made me think he already knew the answer.

“Maybe.” I tried not to react, but I must have failed, because Luke reached over and punched me lightly on the arm.

“No wonder you wanted Aaron to shoot the video. This is all making sense now.”

I was still blushing as I told Luke about working with Aaron on the testimonial videos for Admissions Night. I told him how the two of us had talked one day, and then started texting each other late at night. “And one day, right after your accident, the two of us were alone in the sound booth and I kind of kissed him.”

My hands felt clammy and the room felt even warmer.

“And?”

“And he kissed me back.”