Page 28 of Celebrities Don't Date Bookworms

I just shrugged and made up an excuse on the spot. I hated lying, but sometimes, it was necessary to avoid hurting her feelings. “She mentioned that she had to help her mom with something tonight, so she wanted me to call her as soon after dinner as possible.”

“Oh, well okay, then…” Mom said. I felt a twinge of guilt as I saw the disappointment on her face, but I held strong. It wasn’t going to help anyone for me to just sit here, bored out of my mind and ready to scream at my mom to just shut up about Take Five already.

“You know, Sloane told me that some of the boys in the band are my age,” I said. “Maybe I’ll end up in a class with some of them.”

Mom immediately perked up, and she started rambling about the boys who were my age to my dad. I took the chance to escape, running upstairs and jumping onto my bed like my life depended on it. I barely even glanced at my phone screen as I selected Sloane’s contact and pressed call. It probably would have been better for me to wait for the right time like I usually did, but I didn’t want to risk my mom coming upstairs and asking me more questions about what was going on at school if I wasn’t on the phone.

“Hello?”

I froze—because that male, deep,Britishvoice definitely did not belong to my best friend. Without saying a word, I pulled the phone away from my ear to look at the contact I had called. For a second,I hoped that I had just mis-dialed, but that wouldn’t have made sense because I didn’t even dial anything, I just pressed on her contact.

And the name on the phone screen did not even resemble my best friend’s.

Current call: Bay.

five

Why—WHY—didn’tI look at my phone carefully before I pressed call?

“You’re not Sloane,” I said.

“I’m afraid I can neither confirm nor deny the fact that that is my name,” the boy said, amusement clear in his voice. “But if you were looking for a friend that you know is named Sloane… no, I’m not them.”

“Okay,” I said quickly. Honestly, I’d only caught half of what he’d said with how panicked I felt. “Well—bye.”

“Wait, wait!” He laughed. “You’ve already got me on the phone. We might as well talk, right?”

“Um…” Note to self: find out how to talk to guys. Cute guys. British guys. Guys who like to call you.

“Come on,” he continued. “Am I really that bad?”

Oh my gosh, I was going to hyperventilate.

“Of course not,” I said as smoothly as I could. “I just… I promised Sloane I’d call her, and if I don’t, she might get worried. Think I got kidnapped on my way home from school or something.”

“Are kidnappings common in Bibridge? That might make me re-think living here.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. In reality, I’d never actually heard of anything even remotely close to that bad happening—our city was somewhat big, but it wasn’tthatbig. “They happen all the time.”

“Sounds like you need a protector.”

“What makes you think I can’t protect myself?”

“Oh… I’m sure you can.” He paused for a moment, and the sound of his breath filled the silence. I wondered where he was right now. What he was doing. Was he in his bedroom? Was he with the other boys? Had he stepped away from them to talk to me? “So you’re the mysterious Eggo.”

I internally cringed at him calling me Eggo. I know I named myself in the group chat, so it was really my fault, but I hated to hear someone say it out loud.

“And you’re the mysterious Bay.”

“Quite a pair of names we’ve got.”

“Quite.”

“So… Eggo. Tell me about yourself.”

“There’s not much to say. I’m just your average all-American teen girl.”

“But… you’re Canadian.”

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