Page 3 of The Wrong Costar

He finally let out a breath. “Fine, fine, I’m leaving. But you’ll be making this up to me later.”

Madi’s cheeks warmed at his comment, and he winked at her before leaving the table.

Evan let out a sigh. “You guys are too much,” he said, as he watched Cole walk away.

“Hence why he needs to sit with his own friends at lunch,” Madi replied. “I don’t want to bethatcouple.”

“What couple?” I asked.

“You know, those people who are all over each other in public and grossing everyone out.”

“I think it’s a bit late for that,” Hayley muttered.

Madi groaned. “Please don’t say that!”

“Well, you were both kind of all over the internet with theTrue Lovecontest,” she said.

I could see Madi was trying but failing not to cringe. She hated all the attention she’d received from the contest, but it had worked out for her in the end as she’d gotten the guy. I’d been one of the top three contestants with her, but even though Cole was a great guy, I didn’t have any chemistry with him. The contest had just been a means to an end for me. It allowed me to get in front of the camera, and I’d garnered quite a large social media following because of it. I was desperate to get out of this town one day, and I’d use any means possible to do it.

“Let’s talk about something else,” I said, earning myself a grateful smile from Madi.

“Like the cast list?” Evan suggested.

“Anything but that.” My friends were meant to be distracting me from the list, not putting it at the forefront of my mind. “Talking about the list won’t make Miss Appleby post it any sooner.”

“Haven’t you guys heard?” The voice came from behind me, and I turned to find that Todd, who was also in our drama class, had walked up to our table. His chest was puffed out, and he had a confident look in his eyes as he took a step forward and leaned casually against our table.

“Heard what?” I asked.

“Only that Miss Appleby might be posting the cast list early today.”

My heart felt like it did a backflip in my chest.

“Don’t listen to him, he doesn’t know anything,” Evan snapped. He and Todd had a bitter rivalry, so I wasn’t exactly surprised by his response.

“Be nice,” I shot back at Evan, before focusing on Todd once more. “Where did you hear that?”

“I work as an office aide, and I heard her talking about it with Principal Green. She sounded really excited and was saying she didn’t want to wait until after school to post it. She kept going on about how this was going to be the best play we’ve ever done and she couldn’t wait to make the announcement.”

“An unlikely story,” Evan replied. “You’re usually far too busy checking yourself out in the mirror to have time to work as an office aide…”

“I’mthe one always checking myself out in the mirror?”

I ignored the two of them as I looked toward the doors leading from the cafeteria. “You don’t think she’s put it up already, do you?”

“Nah, she said she’d send everyone an email once it was up,” Todd replied. “Not that I need to see a list to know I’ll be landing the lead.” He shrugged, like it was a sure thing, before he turned and walked away.

“Keep dreaming,” Evan shouted after him though I wasn’t sure Todd heard. Evan shook his head and angrily bit down on one of his fries as he glared after Todd’s retreating figure. “I didn’t think I could hate that guy more. Apparently, I was wrong.”

Hayley laughed. “You can’t let him get to you. It’sTodd.”

“Do you have an arch nemesis, Hayley?” He pointed his half-eaten fry at her.

“Well, no…”

“Then, you just don’t know what it’s like.”

I wasn’t sure how either of them could be focused on Evan’s rivalry with Todd when there were far more important issues at hand. I took my phone out of my pocket to check if we’d received the email yet. The device was clunky and old and took forever to open from the locked screen. Most kids at school had the latest iPhones, but mine was a hand-me-down from when Evan had upgraded his last year. When I finally got my mailing app open, my inbox was sadly empty.

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