Page 19 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
“Sabrina!” I snapped. I hadn’t even heard her move.
“Sorry,” she said. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to tell you not to compliment Jaxon in any sense.”
I frowned. As far as Sabrina knew, Jaxon and I were dating. Wasn’t it normal for girlfriends to compliment their boyfriends?
“Why not?” I asked.
Sabrina grinned wickedly. “The last thing he needs is a bigger ego.”
Sabrina dropped back into her seat just as Jaxon tried to throw his water bottle at her. The water bottle ended up flying down the length of the bus and hitting Ms. Moscowitz, who had just re-entered the bus.
“Oh, crap,” Jaxon muttered.
“Thank you, Mr. Andrews,” Ms. Moscowitz said flatly. “You can pick up your water bottle as you exit the bus.”
A smattering of laughter rang out through the bus.
“Now,” Ms. Moscowitz continued, “as you can see, we are at the hotel. I will be calling you up in your roommate pairs. When you hear your name, come up to the front of the bus. I will give you your room key for the week, then you will exit the bus in anorderlyfashion, then get your suitcases from under the bus. Does everybody understand?”
Everybody nodded.
“Fantastic,” Ms. Moscowitz drawled. “Alright… Madison McKinnon and Reilly Drew.”
I frowned in confusion. I’d been practically certain that Madison and I would be sharing a room. She had put Reilly down as a third option, but Madison and I had put each other as our top choices and there was no reason for that to be declined.
The two girls walked up to the front of the bus and grabbed the key cards for the room from Ms. Moscowitz. As she climbed down the stairs of the bus, Madison glanced back at me and shrugged.
“Violet Evers and…” I braced myself as I waited for her to say who I would be sharing a room with for the next few nights. “Sabrina Brooks.”
Wait, what?
I hadn’t put Sabrina anywhere on my preference sheet for the trip and I was certain she hadn’t put my name either. After all, why would she? We barely knew each other.
“See you later,” I said to Jaxon. Still lost in thought, I stood up and walked to the front of the bus. Sabrina followed behind me. I grabbed the room key from Ms. Moscowitz and jumped down the steps. At least it was bright and sunny outside now, instead of the awful weather for that morning.
The bus driver had already opened the compartment underneath the bus where everyone’s luggage was being held and was putting the bags on the sidewalk. I spotted my suitcase quickly and rolled it away from the curb. The suitcase was shiny with pink, orange, and white flowers all over it. It was the first suitcase I’d ever gotten to pick out for myself and I’d had it since the fifth grade. It was one of my most prized possessions, even if my dad thought that I had outgrown it.
I walked over to the wall of the hotel, where Madison was standing with her boring navy blue suitcase and talking with Reilly.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” Reilly said. “Do you think we’re supposed to go in?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. They did give us our keys, which had the room numbers on them, so it was pretty safe to assume that we could indeed go inside, but I was enjoying the fresh air. “Maybe we should wait for some more people first.”
She shrugged. “Okay.”
Sabrina joined us a second later. With her suitcase still standing, Sabrina sat down on the top of it, facing the outstretched handle bar. The suitcase was barely big enough for her to rest on and would roll away if she moved her feet too much, so I couldn’t imagine that it was a particularly comfortable seat.
“So, uh, not to be rude,” Sabrina said, “but how did we end up with these room placements?”
I frowned. “Is this not what you requested?”
Sabrina shook her head. “Definitely not. I mean, no offence or anything.”
“None taken,” I said. “I put down Madison as my top choice.”
“And I put Violet down as mine,” Madison said. “Why wouldn’t we be rooming together?”
