The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(26)

“Because it wasn’t part of the plan. It just … happened.”

“Like a happy bonus?” she asked, still not taking her eyes off his retreating broad back. Neither of us did. “You can thank me for the idea later.”

I rubbed my nose. It still tingled where he touched me. “Let’s go to class.”

*

Carly was right, though. The Reformed Rake plan worked like a charm. It was amazing. Within hours, the girls stopped acting like I was the Whore of Babylon. In fact, they were a bit awed that I had bagged a steaming hottie like Evan. (Carly’s words, not mine.) One girl even held the bathroom door open for me.

And the guys just stopped talking to me altogether. Not that I minded, since they didn’t talk to me much before, either.

The students weren’t the only ones who noticed. Mrs. Hines, the school’s secretary, actually patted my shoulder when I came in to do the morning announcements. Not only was my reputation restored, but now I was on an even higher pedestal than before.

I didn’t blame everyone for believing that we were a real couple, though. Evan’s acting was so good that even I was fooled.

It was strangely natural when he sat beside me in the cafeteria. I did, however, smack his hand when he stole one of my sweet-potato fries. I made sure to smile lovingly at him when I did it, though.

Brian stopped in his tracks when he saw us sitting together. He gave me a questioning look, but I couldn’t do more than shrug. Especially since there were a bunch of people surrounding us. Carly had to tug on his arm to get him to sit down. His jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything and sat down across from me, since Evan was already sitting in Brian’s usual seat beside me.

Not noticing that anything was wrong, Evan munched on his barbecue chips and turned to talk to Carly about the drama club. Or rather, he asked what they had planned, and she started rambling a mile a minute about the upcoming musical they were working on.

“So, Brian, I think the original layout for the arts department is pretty good. But what do you think about the other clubs?” I asked, trying to act like having Evan sit with us for lunch was no biggie.

Brian gave another glance toward Evan. “What do you mean?”

“Well, the smaller clubs can’t all be squished on only four pages. But there’s no more space for them anywhere. We barely have room to add a thank-you to the teachers in the end.” I chewed on my lip and tapped my pen against the table, trying to figure out a solution. The yearbook budget was already pushed to the max, so we couldn’t add even a single page.

Nodding to himself, Brian leaned forward on the table until he was hovering over my notebook and wrapped his hand around mine to guide the pen, drawing lines to connect certain groups. “We could always move the Honor Society to the front and combine the Poetry Club with the New Voices group. I don’t think they’d mind.”

“But we still—ouch!“Someone kicked my knee underneath the table, making my hand slip out of Brian’s grasp. At first I thought it was Carly, but she looked as shocked as I was. And her eyes were glued to a certain someone, who was shaking his bag of chips even though it was empty. I glared at Evan and rubbed my leg. “What was that for?”

“What? I didn’t do anything.”

My gaze turned to Carly when she snickered, but she just shrugged and gave me an innocent smile. Too innocent.

“Okay, so I think…” I trailed off, distracted as Evan picked the mushrooms off his pizza with a fork. One by one. When he was done, he laid the tiny pile on my own pizza like a peace offering. “Now what are you doing?”

“Hm?” He took a big bite of his pizza before looking at me.

I jabbed a finger at my plate. “You don’t like veggies?”

“Oh, I like them. But I know you like mushrooms the most.”

That was true. I did. My mom used to say I was born in a mushroom field, even though there isn’t such a thing—is there? I needed to visit if there was.

Either way—whether it was on pizzas, salads, or even in spaghetti sauce—I’d always eat the mushrooms first. It was just weird that Evan knew that. Nobody else noticed or cared. Until now. Which was both surprising and sort of creepy at the same time. Even Carly looked surprised at this revelation.

Brian jabbed at the list on the table with an annoyed expression on his face. I felt bad for him. Deadlines always stressed him out.

I didn’t know what to say, so I offered Evan the rest of my fries. He gave me a wide grin and popped one in his mouth, making me wonder if that was his intention all along.

“How did you know I like mushrooms?”

Evan coughed and looked away. His hand swept through his dark-blond locks. They were less spiky and gelled than usual. Probably because he had to wake up early to drive me to school. There was even a little bit of a curl to them. “Uh, I saw you stealing them from Carly’s plate once during lunch.”

“You did what?” Carly glared at me.

“Oh please, you never even noticed they were missing.” I stuck out my tongue at her before turning my attention back to Evan. “And why were you watching me at lunch?”

Instead of responding, he avoided my eyes and looked down at his invisible watch on his right wrist. “Oh, look at the time. Is that my class? I should go…” Within a blink of an eye, he jumped up from the table and practically ran out of the cafeteria.