Page 13 of Foolish Games

I sigh. “What is it?”

“Are we okay?”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Maybe nothing happened, but you knew it would upset me. You knew I wouldn’t be okay with it.”

“I didn’t know,” he insists, stepping closer and keeping his voice low as people settle into their seats. “I’ve told you we’re just friends. It’s no different than you and Jerome. You don’t see me flipping out about that, do you?”

“If we had sleepovers?” I ask. “Yeah, I’d say you have every right to be upset.”

He sighs. “You’re too smart for this, Viv. I assumed you were rational enough to put aside these silly feelings and recognize that I’m telling the truth.”

“Actually, you didn’t tell the truth. You hid it from me for months.”

“I never lied,” he insists.

I pull my hand from his. “A lie of omission is still a lie.”

I turn to my table, where my whole family is already seated. My throat aches, but I swallow hard and step up to my seat. A waiter in white pulls out my chair and gestures grandly. I slide into it and let him scoot me in. Chaz will just have to wait. I know he won’t make a scene in the middle of the Founders Banquet—he’s far too refined for that. But he’ll be over there stewing the whole meal, which gives me a bit of spiteful satisfaction.

How dare he patronize me and say I’m irrational for not liking that a girl slept over at his house?

Warm fingertips graze the bare skin between my shoulder blades, and a low voice murmurs in my ear. “Everything okay?”

I gasp and lean away when a rush of hot electricity races over my body. Sebastian Swift stands over me, a knowing grin on his face.

“Oh—my god,” I blurt out. “Sebastian. I didn’t—What are you doing here?”

I glance around, sure I would have noticed him before now. Robert sits across the table, a suspicious frown darkening his brow as he watches us. No other waiters are nearby. Sebastian must have seated me, but I was too busy fighting with Chaz to notice, especially because I wasn’t expecting to see him in a waiter’s uniform.

“Some of the football team volunteered to work the event,” Sebastian says with an easy shrug. “You know, show our appreciation for Faulkner’s founders. Since Robert is my best friend, I figured I’d ask for y’all’s table.”

I take a look at the other servers, who I didn’t pay much attention to when I walked in. I spot Billy, Randy, and a couple other guys from the team, though I don’t really know them. None of the guys working the event are close with my brother except Sebastian.

“Hi, then,” I say, suddenly acutely aware of our different positions at this dinner.

“I’ll get you some water,” Sebastian says with a sunshiny smile.

He disappears, and I take a breath and smooth the skirt of my satin halter dress over my flat stomach, glancing around to make sure no one else noticed my state of distress. Nana will scold me if I have bad posture and look frumpy, so I sit up straight and pretend I’m elegant and poised like Blaise. Even though Sebastian’s my brother’s best friend and has been over to our house dozens of times, I don’t really know anything about him. I assumed he was from a good family like everyone else we hang out with, even if he’s not a founding son. It strikes me that I’ve never seen him at a Founders Ball before, though, not even as an invite like Chaz or Krissy.

I wince at the thought of what he’ll have to say about this later. I’m sure he’ll find a way to torment me about it, like he does my intelligence. After all, we’re the ones throwing a party and dressing up in fancy clothes and making a big deal of ourselves. The Founders Ball is basically an excuse for the founders to show off how rich and important we are. If we stopped reminding the town, they might forget, and we can’t have that.

“So, Chaz McGinty,” says Nana Delacroix, who sits on my left side. “That’s an interesting choice for a high school boyfriend.”

“He’s brilliant,” I say, raising my chin. “Mom and Dad both approve of him.”

“Do they?” she asks, arching a penciled-in brow.

“Yes,” I say carefully. Nana is intimidating and shrewd, and she loves tradition. I just know she’s going to tell me that one of the Darling boys would make a better match. They’ve already chosen one for Blaise to marry.

“As long as it’s not too serious,” she says, not giving an inch so Sebastian can place her goblet of ice water beside her plate. I lean away slightly so he can fit his broad shoulders between us and set both our glasses down. I feel bad for him, since my grandmother is especially hard on staff and will probably yell at him and make him cry by the end of the night.

“We’ve been together for a year now,” I say as Sebastian retreats to the other side of the table. He has four place settings to attend to, while Billy gets my parents and two of my cousins.

“That seems like quite enough,” Nana Delacroix says. It takes me a second to realize she’s talking to me, not giving instruction to our waiter.

“What?” I ask.

“A year is a long time in high school relationships, isn’t it?” she asks. “That seems pretty serious to me.”

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