Page 10 of The Roommate Lie

Alice doesn’t answer. Her eyes are wide with surprise, and she pivots to glance at the parking lot, to where I dropped her off earlier before driving away, but my brother’s car isn’t there. It’s around the corner by the road. Parked in the grass where I left it when I decided to sneak back and check on her.

When she glances at me again, I wink and hope for the best. Alice emits a stunned chuckle. It’s kind of adorable.

This would be the perfect moment for her to meet me halfway. To realize this is a rescue mission and pitch in.Oh,Charlie, you’re here! How have you been? You’re looking eleven different kinds of hot today—how is that even possible?

You know, something casual.

But all she can do is stare. Like we just met a few hours ago at a bus station, and Alice was kind of hoping we’d never see each other again. A vibe her boyfriend picks up on instantly.

His gaze darts between us, his eyes full of suspicion, and I need to distract him. It’s time to play my new favorite game, Upset the Bad Boyfriend. Because feeling suspicious will be a lot harder if I make him angry instead.

“Is this the boyfriend you were telling me about?” I give him an amused smirk before glancing back at Alice. “He looks…different than I expected.”

“Ex-boyfriend.”

That’s all Alice says, but it’s a real crossroads moment. I’m still running on autopilot, going purely off instinct, and it fine-tunes itself on the spot. If this moment were real, if my “platonic” friend Alice just announced she was back on the market, I know exactly how I’d respond. For better or worse.

“Wait—you’re single now?” I let that question roll out nice and slow. As if her visit to Ponderosa Falls suddenly got a lot more interesting. “Have I mentioned how good it is to see you again, Allie? It’s been way too long.”

She blushes, playing that moment just right without even trying, and Jason’s suspicions are long gone. He’s too annoyed I’m prowling around his ex. “You two know each other?”

Alice nods, finally leaning into my rescue mission, and we’re officially on the same page. She’s ready to become my partner in lies and help get us out of here. Unfortunately, she’s a terrible liar.

“This is Charlie!”

That’s it. That’s all she says. And her voice is too bright, so happy and loud it makes her ex flinch. I’d probably flinch too, if she wasn’t the cutest bad liar I’ve ever seen.

Jason waits for Alice to explain, for her to mention how we know each other, but she doesn’t. Her gaze flicks toward me, and I guess that’s my job. Although I really wish it weren’t.

Lying used to be my specialty, but I’m a little off my game these days, especially with Alice staring at me like that. At least she doesn’t look like she’s about to cry anymore. When I first showed up, she was seconds away from breaking down. Now she just looks hopeful. As if she has no idea how to help, but she can’t wait to see how I get us out of this.

I do what I can, stalling and thinking at the same time, my brain spinning like a hamster wheel.How do I know Alice?“We go way back, but we haven’t seen each other in years. We met a long time ago…as kids. At summer camp.”

Summer camp?

That lie is so thin it’s practically invisible. Jason should call us out on the spot, but he doesn’t.Why isn’t he calling us out?

Glancing at Alice, he goes along for the ride instead. “You met him at camp? The Young Writers one in D.C.?”

The what-what-in-where?

Leave it to Alice to have attended a very specific summer camp. One her boyfriend knows all about.

It takes her a few seconds to recover from this new plot twist. “Yep…we met at creative writing summer camp. We were both in the poetry program together.”

The poetry program?

Do we actually subject children to that? Do we make them study poetry in the dead heat of summer?

“My specialty was sonnets,” she continues before glancing at me. “What was your specialty again?”

We’re doomed.

If she can’t come up with an answer to that question, what makes her think I can? Exhaling, I scour my brain for poetry facts. Since I’m the kind of guy who didn’t know sonnets existed until two seconds ago, it’s a real struggle.Tenth-grade remedial English class, don’t fail me now.

“Beat poetry.”

Those are the first words out of my mouth, and they sound like a mistake. Does beat poetry actually exist? Because it sounds super fake.

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