Page 6 of The Facade

“Yeah, not sure that’s likely with your reputation.” Carter chuckled. “But if anyone says anything, I’ll tell them that’s all you were doing. Kind of like how you’re always just being nice to Cambrielle and don’t really have plans to ever take her out.”

“Your sister is pretty hot,” I said, only because I knew how much Carter hated it every time I mentioned how pretty Cambrielle was. “And she’s just down the hall. It would be kind of convenient.”

Carter folded his arms across his chest and gave me a challenging look. “Almost as convenient as me living just down the hall from you and being able to tell everyone that the reason you stopped showing up at school is because you caught a cold and not because I dismembered you in the night.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m not actually planning on taking advantage of your sister then, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”

And from the fierce look on his face, it was probably also a very good thing that neither Cambrielle nor I had slipped up and told him that I’d already snuck into her room several times.

I shook my thoughts away before Carter could ask what I was thinking about.

“Anyway,” Carter said, pushing himself away from the doorframe and standing to his six-foot-three-inch height. “I’m gonna head down to the kitchen. I’ll see you down there.”

“Okay,” I said, grabbing a handful of the black socks that I wore with my school uniform to stuff into the dresser. “Just remember to put me by Cambrielle.”

Carter rolled his eyes. “Not happening.”

Once he was gone, I made quick work of hanging my school uniforms up in Ian’s mostly empty closet and shoving my toiletries in one of the bathroom drawers.

I was just on my way downstairs to give Carter some pointers on how to set the table—thanks to my lifetime of experience—when I heard Nash teasing Cambrielle in her room about her crush on Ben Barnett.

“You know that one way to get Ben to notice you would be to actually talk to him, right?” Nash was saying just before I took a detour into Cambrielle’s room.

“Yeah, yeah,” Cambrielle said. “I’m working on it.”

“Remind me how just staring at him when he’s studying in the library but never actually walking within ten feet of him is working on it?” Nash teased.

Cambrielle chucked a light-pink pillow to where Nash sat on the chair in the corner beside the gas fireplace.

Nash, used to getting pillows thrown at him by his siblings, just took it in stride. “Thanks, my head was getting tired.” And then, he promptly slipped the pillow behind his head.

Cambrielle shook her head at her brother, her back still turned to me as she stood beside her bed. “You’re one to talk. I mean, haven’t you wanted to ask Elyse out since the beginning of the year and yet all you’ve done is friendzone yourself?”

“It’s completely different,” Nash said.

“And how’s that?” Cambrielle crossed her arms.

“Well, you see, I actually do talk with Elyse on a regular basis.”

“But that’s not—” Cambrielle started but Nash held up a finger to continue his thought.

“I’m just taking things slower because I have plans.”

“And what are those plans?” Cambrielle asked, unconvinced.

“Well, you see, I had wanted to let my buddy Mack here have a shot at the beauty first.” Nash glanced behind his sister to where I stood, a smirk on his lips like he’d just been waiting to say that in front of me.

Cambrielle turned around, her bright blue eyes wide, surprised I had overheard their conversation.

Nash continued, “And now that Fate has intervened and shown me to be the better candidate…” He winked, obviously teasing me about the fact that fate had a twisted sense of humor since Elyse was my half-sister. “I’m now just waiting for Fate to play her next card by placing Elyse and me as the leads in the winter musical. Then once she’s playing the Christine to my Phantom, I expect for the chemistry to show itself on stage.”

“So you’re hoping for the on-stage romance to carry off stage?” I raised my eyebrows.

“I don’t usually like to mix my personal life with my art, but if something happens naturally, then who am I to go against Fate?”

“And you think Fate would have plans for two of my best friends to both end up with my half-sisters?” I asked, skeptical about Nash’s belief in Fate.

---