Page 79 of Caught in a Bad Fauxmance
Stella’s and Henry’s gazes wander over to me once Liam’s shouts are a distant echo. I don’t say anything or give them a smile. Now that my stomach doesn’t feel like a bag of microwaved popcorn, I head over to my family, where I’m safe.
The Seo-Cookes got rid of Liam. They can still get rid of us too.
The thirty-minute break between the 5K and our tie-breaker game of capture the flag is my saving grace. By the time we set up camp in the densest thicket of the woods next to the park, my body is thrumming with adrenaline. And caffeine. The two energy drinks I downed in under five minutes are definitely going to haunt me later, but for now I feel fan-freaking-tastic.
“You’re sure you can handle this?” Maya whispers to me as we wait for the siren to signal the start of the game.
“You doubting me now?” I tease while bouncing from foot to foot.
She rests her hands on my shoulders, pushing lightly until I’m more anchored. “No, but you’re running on three Red Bulls and pure rage, and from personal experience, that never ends well.”
“TwoRed Bulls.”
She rolls her eyes and lets go of my shoulders. “Fine. Butremember, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
It’s interesting how often people have said that to me this week, considering I’ve spent my entire winter break doing things I didn’t want to do. Ironic, even, when the one time I did the thing Iwantedto do I wound up here: heartbroken and as hell-bent on revenge as Maya was when we first arrived.
When the blare of a siren cuts through the woods, we take off. Maya and the others to the left side of the woods to set up a base camp for our flag and keep it safe, me in the opposite direction—to find where the enemy is hiding. My role is trickier, and thirty minutes ago, I might not have had the strength to pull it off—but I want to see this through.
The forest is dead silent, my steps sounding like miniature earthquakes. Time isn’t on our side, so I tread as lightly as I can, moving quickly and quietly through the trees. I stop for every snapped branch and rustle of leaves, waiting for any signs of the competition. We’re limited in how far into the woods we can go, and while I wouldn’t put it past the Seo-Cookes to make finding their base as annoying as possible, they can’t be very far. After about ten minutes of wandering around the edge of the woods, something catches my eye. First a shock of dark hair, and then a bright blue T-shirt. Found them.
Crouched behind a log, I reach into my backpack and pull out a crumpled plastic glove. I delicately unfurl our decoy flag, careful not to touch any of the poison ivy plastered to the back of it.
Armed with our poisonous decoy, I step out of hiding andlay the trap. I shove the flag down into a nearby patch of dirt, doing a half-assed job of covering it up so it doesn’t looktooobviously like a trap. I dodge behind trees until I’m a safe distance away from the crime scene.
Tossing a sizable rock in the direction of the decoy flag sets it all in motion. The footsteps stop, then shift, the sounds of mud squelching and leaves crunching getting closer and closer. I hold my closed fist against my heart, begging it to calm down before it gives away my hiding spot. The figure comes into view, a few feet in front of the tree I’m hidden behind.
Of course, it’s Julian. The universe couldn’t send literally anyone else, could it?
He quickly spots the flag, stopping directly in front of it. I bite down on my tongue as I wait for him to grab it and promptly break out into hives. But he doesn’t; he just stares at it. Shit, he knows we’re up to something, doesn’t he? They must’ve bugged the house. How else could they have known what we were planning?
Instead of grabbing the flag, he starts checking the area around it, searching for something. Or for one of us. I don’t dare move a muscle as he comes toward my hiding spot. He’s so close I can smell his lavender laundry detergent, the hint of cinnamon and nutmeg from his morning coffee. Or maybe I’m letting myself get too lost in my memories again. The universe does me one favor: He turns around. I don’t let myself breathe a sigh of relief yet, not until I’m fully in the clear. With his back to me, I carefully peer out from behind the tree. He kicks at the ground in defeat, sighing as he squats down beside the flag.
It all happens in slow motion. His hand reaches for the flag, and my mind brings me back to the grocery store. To his outstretched hand helping me off the ground. To the way my heart sank the second I recognized him. To the flutter that hasn’t gone away every time I look at him. Even when I wished it would. My heart takes over and my brain shuts down as I lunge straight for him, tackling him before he can touch the flag.
After everything, I still don’t have it in me to hurt him.
As we roll into a pile of leaves, I kick the flag as far from us as I can. I’m prepared for a fight, ready to kick and scream if I have to, but except for a squeak of surprise and a bit of wriggling, Julian lets me take him down.
Pinning Julian’s arms above his head isn’t necessary when I’ve very clearly won this battle, but I do it anyway. The thrill of having some semblance of control over this situation, overhim,sets my nerves on fire. I straddle his waist, keeping my hands closed around his wrists. Our chests heave in unison, our breath mingled together in the bit of space between us. Even with mud streaking his cheeks and sweat dripping down his forehead, he’s still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever called mine.
I’ve thought about what I might say if I ran into Julian again before we headed home. A long and passionate speech leading with a “How dare you!” and ending with a slap to his stupid, perfect face. All those rehearsed words fall short when Julian smiles at me, bright and wonderful.
“Hi,” he says as if nothing has changed.
I wish I could be eloquent, or better yet, witty, but I can only be myself. “There’s poison ivy on the flag.”
Julian’s brow furrows as he pushes against my hold. “What?”
“I-it’s a decoy,” I stammer out, my brain begging me to shut up while I’m still ahead. “We thought if one of you fell for it and grabbed it, you’d be too hung up on the hives to hunt for our flag.”
There’s nowe.After all the snooping over the past three weeks, it all came down to me. A plan that would possibly put one of them in danger if they fell for our trap like I thought they would. A selfish idea that filled me with the most vindictive and cruel sort of thrill, a thrill that never really sat right with me. Mami never would’ve wanted us to win this way, even if it meant losing the cabin. But I didn’t care about how we won so long as we did.
I’d made such a big show of saying I had morals in this war we waged against the Seo-Cookes, only to throw them away because I was vengeful. If Julian could turn against me for the sake of a competition, then I could turn against him too.
But I’m not that person. And a part of me still hopes that deep down, he isn’t either.
“Oh…” Julian stops resisting against my hold, looking past me at where the decoy flag has toppled into the grass. “So, shouldn’t you have…nottackled me?”
