Page 41 of Drama Queens Don't Fall For Charming Boys

I blink. “What?” Why would he suddenly be interested in my taste in music?

“I wouldn’t want certain people accusing me of being inconsiderate. Do you like pop?”

“Put on whatever you want. I don’t care. It’s your car.”

It looks like he wants to say something, but then he turns to a pop station. For the rest of the drive, we’re hit with the top pop songs of the year while I continue reading.

Finally, we reach my house. He follows me up the stairs and to the door, where I stick my key in and push the door open. Even though my dad is a pretty famous actor and we have plenty of money, we like to live a simple life here in Edenbury. Our house is warm and homey, and full of love. We allow ourselves to live the rich life at our mansion in L.A.

“Nice house,” Declan says as he scans the place. “I thought…” He purses his lips.

“You thought there’d be torture chambers and blood all over the floor?”

His brows fly up. “What? No, I thought you guys would live a more affluent life, but this is simple and warm and cozy. It’s perfect.”

“My dad doesn’t want to forget where he came from,” I say as I hang my coat in the closet and hold out my hand for his. “You know, child of immigrants. Things weren’t easy for them.”

He nods as he passes his coat to me. After hanging it up, I lead him upstairs to my room.

“Is anyone else home?” he asks.

“No, both my parents won’t be home from work until much later.” I stop walking and narrow my eyes at him. “I’m warning you, my mom can shoot lasers from her eyes. If you hurt me, she’ll hunt you down.”

His eyes widen and he steps back a little. “Why do you think I’m going to hurt you?”

“My head still throbs from your first murder attempt during PE, and my throat is sore from your second murder attempt during rehearsal—”

“Oh my gosh,” he mutters under his breath. “You’re so impossible. I told you I meant to hit someone else. You got in the way.”

Before I have a chance to respond, he walks past me, down the hallway. After peering into Willow’s room and figuring it’s not mine because it says her name on the door, he moves to the next room. The one that has my name on it. And then he heads right inside. Unbelievable. He’s acting like he owns the place.

“Dude, you can’t just go into someone’s room like that.” I hurry after him and find him staring at the posters all over my walls. Most of them are of my favorite video games, including the ones from Chronicles of the Eternals that I just put up last week. I also have some of my favorite movies.

He turns to me with a shocked and surprised expression. “You play Chronicles of the Eternals?”

“Yeah, why? You think only guys play that game? Girls play, too.”

He holds up his hands. “I never said it’s only for guys. Geez. You’ll take any chance to make me sound like a bad person.”

“Well, you’re making it very easy,” I mutter, low enough for him not to hear.

He steps closer to a poster of two characters from the game wrapped in each other’s arms and staring into each other’s eyes with the most passionate, loving look. It’s such a romantic shot, and just staring at it makes me feel all gooey inside.

“This is my favorite cutscene,” he says with a smile. “Did you see the behind-the-scenes video on how they created it? Pretty awesome.”

“I didn’t get to that part of the game yet,” I admit. “I just started a few weeks ago and haven’t even met those two characters yet. But I saw the poster in the online shop and had to buy it.” My cheeks flame for some reason. I tuck some hair behind my ear. “I can’t wait to get to that part.”

“You’ll love it.”

And then we stand in silence.

He turns away from my posters and surveys the rest of my room, including the massive bookshelf that holds all of my novels. When you have a mom who loves to read who birthed two daughters who love to read just as much, the result is a bookshelf filled to the max with books of every genre. It started off as a small shelf and quickly expanded to what it is today. Dad’s already looking online for an even bigger one.

For a second, I think he might make a comment about all the books, like maybe he thinks I’m a loser or something, but he looks away from it and stares at my desk. With a look of wonder and an open mouth, he strides over to my desktop gaming PC. “Wow,” he breathes, lifting his hand like he wants to touch it. “This…this…”

I join him. “It’s a gaming PC.”

“I know what it is! Holy…it’s the most amazing one I’ve ever seen in my life.”

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