Page 43 of Celebrities Don't Date Bookworms

Like Mr. Barton had a handle on the class on Friday? I dropped my face on the table and groaned. It was going to be a long, long day.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket, and I pulled it out. I was happy that I had put it on vibrateinstead of ringer because my mom always got mad when my phone properly went off in the morning. It didn’t happen often, so I didn’t usually worry about it. I sighed as I turned the phone over, not really in the mood to talk to anybody right now. But that feeling immediately disappeared when I saw the name on the screen:Bay.

“Um, I need to answer this,” I stuttered out.

“We have to leave soon,” Mom reminded me.

“I know, I’ll be quick,” I said. I rushed out of the room, and answered the call. “Hey, you.”

“Hey,” Bay said warmly. The happiness in his voice made my knees weak. Was he really that excited to speak to me?

“I thought you were at school already,” I said.

“Yeah, the principal wants to talk to each of us individually, so I’m just waiting for my turn,” Bay said. “And I thought that I could sit here bored out of my mind, and just go on TikTok or something… or I could call you, and actually have some fun.”

I bit my lip and smiled, completely unable to keep the giddiness off my face. I was glad I came to another part of the house to answer the call or my mom would have started grilling me about who I was talking to, and why they were making me smile so much.

“You should be careful,” I said. “The other boys might get jealous that you’re talking to me so much.”

Bay huffed a laugh. “Guess I’ll have to keep it a secret then.”

“If it’s a secret, then who dothey think you’re talking to?” I asked. I tilted my head. “Or do you talk on the phone with a lot of girls?”

“Just you,” he said. “You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to talk to so much.”

“You’re a sweet talker.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Only when it means you don’t answer my questions.”

“They think I’m talking to a buddy back home,” he said. “And I stepped into another hallway, so they won’t realize that the way I’m talking to you might not really be the way I like to talk to my other friends.”

I didn’t need a mirror to know that I was blushing bright red. Every time that we talked, I questioned whether I was imagining what was happening between us. Sure, Luca had called Bay out for flirting in the group chat, and he called me love the last time we talked, but both of those could exist without him actually being into me. But the way he was speaking to me today made me feel like that wasn’t the case.

“Back home?” I asked. “As in wherever you lived before this?”

“As in London,” he said. “Since I moved when I was twelve, I managed to keep in contact with a lot of old friends.”

“Does that mean if one of the guys walks in while I’m on the phone with you, I have to pretend to have a British accent?”

“Depends,” Bay said. “How good is your accent?”

“Um…” I twisted my face in concentration and spoke with my best fake British accent as I said, “I’m not sure. What do you think?”

If his snort was anything to go by, I wasn’t very good.

“I’m sorry,” Bay said through fits of laughter. “I promise I’m not laughing at you.”

“You sure?” I asked, still sticking with the accent. “Because it sounds like you are.”

His soft laughing quickly turned into him howling. I grinned to myself, happy that I was able to make him laugh so much.

“Megan!” Mom called. I ripped my phone away from my ear and put it on mute, but I knew it was too late. If she said my name loud enough for Bay to hear, then he already heard it. Muting it now wasn’t going to solve anything. “We need to go.”

“Coming!” I called back. I unmuted the phone and carefully put it back to my ear. Bay was still laughing a little bit, which made me feel a little better. He probably hadn’t heard anything. And even if he had, Megan wasn’t an uncommon name. He wouldn’t immediately know it was me. Of course, my name mixed with my hair, and the fact that were in the same grade at school might tip him off… but I wasn’t going to let myself spiral about that. If he figured out who I was, I would just have to live with it. The damage was done now. “I have to go.”

“Really?” Bay asked. His laughter tapered off. “Can’t even stay for another two minutes?”

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