Page 10 of Once Upon a Fake Date

Good night, Rosie girl,he’d said, his beautiful amber eyes keeping mine captive.Sleep tight.

Night,I’d whispered back, not wanting to break the moment—the night.

It was like something out of my dreams. He’d always been myDream Boy. The one I’d written letters to in my diary growing up. I never wrote his name, but it was always him. His face I’d see. His heart I was wishing for.

“You’re hopeless,” I said, pointing a finger at my reflection in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. “Stop pining over your childhood best friend.”

He’d never acted like anything other than my older brother. And why would he? We’d been kids. Twelve and thirteen since he’d moved away. If his dad hadn’t gotten a job, if he’d stayed for high school, what would have happened?

I sighed. No point lingering in the past. “No more dreaming about Parker,” I told myself.

Even though I knew I couldn’t keep that promise.

“Ro?”Ella whispered, waking me up. As much as I loved sleeping, I hadn’t been able to fall into a deep sleep last night. Partially because Ella hadn’t been there. Instead, I’d tossed and turned for the last few hours.

It wasn’t even dawn yet.

Sitting up, I stared at her. Usually, she was the responsible sister. I never had to worry about her. Until last night. “Where were you? You didn’t text me to let me know you were okay or anything.” We had a pact—we always told each other we were okay. That way, the other person didn’t worry all night.

Ella made a sheepish face, holding up her phone. “It died, and I forgot to plug it in.” I took in her appearance. Same dress as last night. No shoes. Ruined makeup. Her hair was a mess. One look and I had a damn good idea what she’d been up to last night. Damn girl. At least one of us got some last night. “Did you have fun catching up with Parker?”

I tried to ignore the fact that she was changing the subject. I’d let her for now, but I’d get answers out of her, eventually. “Yes. Can you believe I found him again after all these years?”

She just hummed in response, and I raised my eyebrows at her as she changed out of her dress and into a large sorority t-shirt.

“So we’re just not going to talk about you?” I asked, still waiting.

“Nope.” She flopped onto her bed.

I rolled my eyes before climbing out of my bed and into hers, snuggling against my twin.

“Ella,” I whispered, holding tighter when she sighed. “Are you okay?”

She opened her eyes, looking at me. I was worried about my sister. I didn’t want her to keep secrets from me. “Yeah,” she croaked out. “I’m fine.”

“If you’re sure…” I’d get it out of her later.

For now, I just stayed where I was, holding my sister.

CHAPTER 4

Parker

NOVEMBER

The last few weeks since running into Audrey at the party had been incredible. We’d fallen back into friendship, hanging out whenever we both had free time.

Audrey was incredible. The way she lit up talking about the theater department, her hopes, and her dreams, was contagious.

She made me want to be better. To strive to achieve my dreams, too. Working as an architect had been the end goal for the last few years, but it was only now that I was in my second-to-last year that I had realized how much I needed to focus. Academics had always come easily to me. I was book smart and barely had to study to get good grades. Now that I was in upper division courses though, things were different. Balancing that and being an athlete took up all my time.

Still, I couldn’t resist being around her.

Putting down my weights, I pulled out my phone. Pulled up our texts and scrolled through them. They were mostly random shit. Us sending each other memes, random references to our childhood that made me laugh. It was good. Easy. The way it should be.

Nothing like my relationship had been last year. I should have known it wasn’t right. That she’d been going behind my back with my teammate. More reasons I’d sworn off being involved with a girl. My grip tightened on my phone as I typed out a message.

Parker

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