Page 57 of Siren's Game

Maybe she’s hiding, too embarrassed to face me. There’s not a doubt in my mind she’d deny it vehemently and tell me that I think too highly of myself if I asked her that, though.

I watch Luca and Millie walk into the cafeteria, hand in hand and with messy hair and plump lips. Millie waves at me before getting herself one of those godawful coffees and walking into the direction the two of them came from.

Luca, however, heads straight for me, grabs a chair at my table and plops his ass down.

"You're not inconspicuous at all, you know that?" I ask him and he shoots me a sheepish grin.

"I know," he says and starts to chuckle giddily, touching his lips with his fingertips and blushing. I shake my head, starting to question what magical powers Millie has and what the fuck she has done to my best friend.

I've never seen him this . . .giggly, this far gone over a girl.

"Where's Kayla?" I try to sound like it’s an afterthought, but I fail miserably.

"Wait, you don't know where your girlfriend is?" He looks at me with eyes wide in surprise and I gulp. I almost forgot that he doesn't know that our relationship is fake.

“Yeah, we’ve both been busy and not really messaged much,” I stutter and luckily, he seems to buy that excuse.

"I get that. Those two are crazy busy. Millie said she's sick or something, though." He shrugs. “Apparently, she hasn’t been here the past two days.”

Huh. So not running from me like I thought.

Unless her illness is fake too, but I doubt she'd leave Millie hanging and let her go through their schedule by herself unless absolutely necessary.

An uneasy feeling settles in my stomach and makes me grind my teeth.

She isn’t sick because of that night, right? I'm not the smallest, but neither is she, but what if I . . . broke something? I don't even know, is that a thing? I wasn’t exactly gentle with her after all.

When I have a quiet moment later on, I hide in a corner and quickly ask the internet.

Of course, all kinds of scenarios pop up. Infections, tears . . . holy shit, I don’t live under a rock, but I didn't know half of those were a thing. And yes, I guess that makes me ignorant.

At least I know it's not an STI, because I haven't touched anyone since we've been tested for this game.

All the internet's worst-case scenarios stay with me throughout the training until I've finally thrown the last ball for the day and follow the Walker brothers to the changing room, throwing my non-sweaty clothes on in record time before I leave, letting Luca know that he’d have to ask Van to call him a driver today.

Once outside, I search for another quiet corner and quickly call my mom.

"What happened?" She answers the phone without any greeting, making me chuckle. God, I’ve never been so glad about her answering her phone.

"Nothing happened," I assure her quickly. "Why would it?"

"Because I can count the amount of times you've called me just for the fun of it on one . . . okay, maybe two hands." I roll my eyes. We both know that's not true.

When I'm away from filming, they get a weekly call that she even brags to her friends about because their children aren’t as great at keeping in contact. So I ignore the shit-stirring.

"Mom, if a . . . friend of mine got sick, what should I get them to get better soon when I visit?"

"Sick?" She sounds shocked, and then remains silent for a few seconds. "Well, what kind of sickness are we talking about?"

"I don't actually know!" I tell her, suddenly feeling dumb.

“Well, cancer or a cold? That makes a huge difference, son.” I shake my head, very glad that it’s not the former we’re dealing with. Well, as far as I know.

Holy shit, what if itiscancer? No, yeah, I’m pretty sure that would have made their rounds.

"Let’s say a cold. Something not so serious that still knocks you out for a few days. What do you think I should get them?"

"Probably medicine for the mystery sickness and some food," she says contemplatively. That is not helpful at all, though. "Wait, is it Kayla?"

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