Page 8 of Little Do You Know

“I thought you were supposed to be smart. That’s exactly why we’re hanging out later to get to know each other.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Thalia

I’VE LEARNED A lot about Blake tonight. She’s in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend, who attends college in California. They’ve been together for two years. She has a cat named Phoebe. Blake is the oldest of three siblings and has a job at the library starting next week. She’s also fascinated with the fact I can speak French.

“How do you say asshole?” she asks, sitting across from me on the couch. Blake’s long red hair is pulled up into a messy bun, and she’s wearing a Duke sweatshirt.

“Connard.” I giggle right as Sebastian and Owen walk in the door from practice. “Sebastian est un connard,” I say, taking a sip from my glass of wine.

I know that Bash has no idea what I said, but based on our last conversation, he assumes it means something terrible, shooting me a glare. I smile brightly back to spite him. “Blake, meet my lovely roommate Sebastian. Please don’t confuse us for friends; we are strictly roommates with no small talk. But the other guy that looks exactly like me, except for the bush on his face, is my older brother, Owen.”

“Hilarious, Thalia,” Sebastian says, dropping his football gear by the door next to Owen’s.

“No party tonight?” Owen teases, offering me a small white flag. I shake my head, grateful he isn’t at the disappointed stage anymore, whereas Blake looks very confused.

“So I might have thrown a tiny rager last night, even though I didn’t mean to, and they were not too pleased with me about it. Don’t mind Sebastian’s face; he has something permanently stuck up his ass.”

Blake laughs, and I join her because Bash’s face turns as comically red as a tomato. Owen can’t help but laugh with us because I’m not wrong. I probably should ease off Sebastian a little, but where’s the fun in that? It’s not like we are friends, so I’m not obligated to be kind. “Owen, you’ll never believe who I ran into today.” He looks confused, and I pretend to gag. “Amelia. She acted like we were best buddies and even asked about you.” Oops, I forgot I wasn’t going to tell him about that. Too late.

“Who’s Amelia?” Blake asks. I open my mouth to speak, but Bash surprisingly beats me.

“His horrible ex-girlfriend. She fucked one of the guys on the swim team that we were friends with, and has been a leech you can’t get rid of.”

Well, we can at least agree on something. “And she tried pretending you guys were friends? That’s shitty of her,” Blake says bluntly, and I pull my hair over one shoulder to braid it.

“Cool,” Owen says, and I look at him in surprise.

“What do you mean cool?”

He stares at me with a look of indifference. “What do you want me to say? Thalia, I haven’t spoken to her in months, nor do I care to.”

I’m at a loss for words because I expected him to laugh or make fun of her. Sebastian looks relieved. “Good riddance. I never liked her.”

“So are you guys on the football team?” Blake asks, finding a more neutral conversation.

Bash shrugs. “Yep, I’m a quarterback, and Owen’s our best tight end.”

Owen smiles, returning to his usual self. “Our best?”

“Oh hell, you just gave him an unnecessary ego boost. You’re going to regret saying that, Sebastian.” I scold, opening my phone to scroll through my friends’ social media feeds back in France.

“Oh please, with hands and feet like mine, they might as well just skip the draft and sign me to the Panthers already,” Owen gloats, pulling off his practice shirt, and I cringe.

“We also have a guest; the living room is not your changing room,” Sebastian reminds him, taking a drink of water out of his water bottle. For once, I have to agree with him.

Owen flashes a flirtatious smile at Blake. “Do you mind?”

I have to give her credit. Blake handles my brother wonderfully. I’m definitely keeping her. “It’s your apartment. Besides, I like the view of my boyfriend better. He plays soccer at USC.”

“You’ll have to excuse my brother; he’s not as subtle as Sebastian with his looks,” I mumble loud enough for her to hear me but not loud enough for either of the guys to.

I love my brother, but he knows he’s good looking. He has no problem using it to his advantage either. That’s how it was throughout high school, and I do not doubt with how he’s acting right now that Owen is just as confident in himself as ever. It’s impressive having an ego that big, not that I would ever tell Owen that.

Sebastian’s different, though. I don’t know quite how to explain him, and it frustrates the hell out of me. He doesn’t have the cockiness of Owen, but the way Sebastian holds himself is alluring. I’m not the only one who has noticed. He’s aware of it but doesn’t act the same way Owen does.

Lost in my thoughts, I must miss Owen saying where he was disappearing to, because when I look back up from my phone, Sebastian is sitting at the island watching us. He’s staring straight at me as he grabs his phone, and I revert my attention to Blake.

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