Page 75 of The Roommate Lie

Fine.Glancing down at my own blank slips of paper, I try to focus, but my mind refuses to cooperate. My mind isunsafe. After I check to make sure Lydia isn’t watching, I scribblegood girlandreformed bad boyon separate slips of paper. But I’ll probably have to fish those out of our bag later too.

My phone rings before I can writehot out-of-towner, saving me from myself. Except it’s an actual phone call. From my sister. And who’s going to save me from that?

“Who’s the girl, why is she living at your house, and what on earth is ‘sexy picnicking? Because Carl won’t stop whining about it.”

Busted.

“It’s not like that,” I stammer. “You’ve got it all wrong.”

Tyler is beside me at the table, and something about my response gets his attention. When my sister repeats herself—slower this time—he’s still paying attention.

Tyler gives me a sideways grin. “Uh-oh, Charlie’s on the prowl, and his girl isn’t happy. Who’s the hottie with the nice voice?”

Um—what?

He couldn’t be more wrong. About everything. Five seconds ago, I was trying to figure out what Alice was wearing—how oblivious is he?

I punch his arm before I answer, my voice a low hiss. “That’s mysister.”

He recoils in horror—Tyler hates my sister almost as much as she hates him—but Lydia is loving every second. “The hottie with the nice voice? What happened to our rule, Ty? I thought sisters were off-limits.”

He scowls. “Oh, they’re definitely off-limits.”

“Yeah? That didn’t sound off-limits…”

They keep going back and forth, and I have to get up to hear Roxie. Moving toward the kitchen, I press my phone a little harder against my ear.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell her. “Sexy picnicking isn’t a thing.”

Tyler drops his pen again, and he gives me another sideways glance. He was there for the first half of that breakfast picnic—the chaste half—but he has no idea what happened after he left. I scanned that park for witnesses before Alice made a single move, and I never spotted my brother either.Where was he hiding?

Luckily, Tyler loses interest fast. He sneaks a glance at his open laptop, checking to see if he has any new DMs on the forum for his webcomic. He’s probably waiting to hear from his favorite moderator, PoisonedRose, but she’s a little busy right now.

She’s on the phone. With me.

“Yeah, that’s what Jenna said too,” Roxie admits. “She saw the whole thing, and she said it looked like normal picnicking.”

It wasn’t.

Nothing about what happened between Alice and me at that picnic was normal—there was way too much flirting. But I’m not going to tell my sister that.

“You’re still in trouble, though,” Roxie says. “You didn’t answer any of my other questions, and don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

I try to change the subject, but she’s relentless.

“Who’s the girl, and why do you have another stranger living in your house? I’ve been telling Carl for weeks you need to get rid of that grifter and his twin. Now you took in someone else?”

Roxie.

She’s the culprit. This is why Carl won’t get off my back about the Sharps all of a sudden. My meddling sister and herhatred of Tyler—a man she’s never met or talked to. At least not in real life.

I’m not sure how they met on his forum. How she accidentally discovered his webcomic and became his number one fan and favorite moderator. But I’m not going to tell either of them the truth, that as much as they hate each other in real life, they have no problem flirting online. I’m going to let that nuclear bomb detonate all on its own.

And it’s going to be glorious.

I don’t try to defend the Sharps either. Mostly because they’re right beside me, and I don’t want to make them feel bad. Besides, Roxie already knows Tyler pays for our food and utilities while Lydia does all the cooking. She just doesn’t care; my sister is determined to hate Real Tyler, no matter how much she likes Virtual Tyler.

“Kick them out,” she whispers darkly, fiendishly. Thus is the way of The Roxie. “Banish the interlopers.”

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