Page 15 of My Twin Sister's Ex

“I don’t even have her number.”

“But you have her sister’s number right here. We could just text her to get her sister’s phone number.”

“No way!” He was kidding, right? That was the worst thing he could do!

He laughed heartily but handed my phone back to me.

“Are you planning to, er, practice the kiss beforehand?” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

“Don’t do that. Just don’t.”

“Well, are you?”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” I told him.

“Wait a second. Are you telling me that you’re planning to walk onstage and kiss her for the first time in front of a live audience?”

“That was exactly what I’m planning.”

“You would give up the opportunity for all that extra kissing?”

“I would.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“Well . . . no. Not yet.”

“It’s killing me that you won’t let me talk to her. We don’t even know what her opinion is of all this. For all you know, she’s going to insist that you practice kissing beforehand to make sure you have good chemistry onstage,” my uncle said.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” I admitted.

“It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.” He slapped me on the shoulder. “And it might as well be you.”

I scowled at him. “Very funny.” I couldn’t imagine that Jessilyn would want to practice kissing beforehand. But she did take theater very seriously. What if she insisted on practicing beforehand to make sure we were fully prepared?

I had a lot to figure out. I didn’t like being unprepared for what was going to happen or for what Jessilyn would say, and it was driving me nuts. At this point, I didn’t even know if Jessilyn was willing to do the scene with me. I didn’t exactly have the best track record for showing up with my lines memorized. Maybe that was why she was speaking to Mr. Brownley after class. For all I knew, the scene was going to be reassigned anyway.

But Mr. Brownley knew that I needed help with this scene. I had to get a good grade, and Jessilyn was my best bet at passing that class. She would be completely devoted to helping me rehearse, and she would be easy to work with. It was Jackilyn who would be the problem.

I didn’t need this right now. I had enough stress in my life. If Jackilyn threw a fit about us performing together, she would have a fight on her hands because I wouldn’t be backing down. I planned to graduate, and performing this scene with Jessilyn was my best chance at making that happen. I couldn’t let her get in the way.

* * *

Igrabbed my brown bag lunch from my locker and headed to the giant rock outside to eat my food. The weather was perfect today; not too hot and not too cold. I pulled out my sandwich and took a bite.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of movement. Jessilyn was crossing the grass toward me. It was easy to tell it was her at a glance because she had on a simple, classy, light-peach shirt and dark skinny jeans. Her hair in her natural wave. Jackilyn would have worn a tank top and a miniskirt with bright red lipstick and her hair meticulously curled.

“Bennett, I need to talk to you.”

“What can I do for you?” I knew she probably wanted to talk to me about our scene for the Drama Competition, but I had no idea what she was going to say.

“Have you had a chance to read through our scene for drama?” She looked nervous.

“Yup.”

A blush crept across her fair skin. “Great.”

“I was hoping we could find a time to get together to practice,” I said. “I really need to get a good grade on this assignment.”

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