Page 99 of In the Net
Wait a minute.
My room got chilly overnight …
Sebastian fell asleep in my bed and forgot to sneak back into his room. And now it’s morning, and my parents are notoriously early risers, and my mom never knocks before she opens the door to a room …
My mood sobers and I snap awake.
“Sebastian,” I whisper, shaking him, “you need to wake up.”
His eyelids pop open, his expression immediately looking wakeful. “I am up. What’s wrong?”
Was he just lying there wide-awake with me sleeping on his chest? For how long? My stomach does a loopy twirl.
“It’s morning,” I say.
“Uh, duh. I know that.” He gestures toward the window, where my curtains are made bright by the square of sunlight shining through the glass.
He gives me an obvious look, and I knit my brow.
“You forgot to sneak back into your room,” I say. “My mom might have already realized your room is empty, and …”
He cuts me off with a tiny chuckle, shaking his head. “No, I snuck back into my room last night. After you fell asleep. Wasn’t easy to do, but I did it.”
Wasn’t easy to do. Is he saying that it was hard for him to pull himself away from me, after I dozed off first?
Wishful thinking. He probably meant that, for some reason, scurrying across the awning back to his room was harder than coming in the opposite direction.
I lift an eyebrow, giving him a look that begs an explanation for how he’s here, in that case.
He grins. “I woke up a little while ago. Went downstairs. Your parents were up. Told them I was going for a morning run, went outside, and climbed up to your window to sneak in.”
My heart squeezes. He did all that just to come back to my bed and cuddle me?
We may have crossed the finish line of this fake relationship last night, but maybe I’m not the only one for whom this is feeling less and less fake …
43
SEBASTIAN
It’s been two days since we got back to Cedar Shade from the wedding.
Yesterday was the first day in a long, long time that Harper and I didn’t talk. We didn’t see each other. We didn’t even text.
I didn’t want to bombard her with my true feelings immediately after the wedding. I wanted to give her some space and some time to adjust, to reflect on the last two months at her own pace, to understand what her own feelings are, before running the risk of overwhelming her with my own.
I expected it to be a little tough. But I didn’t expect that just one day of experiencing what life would be like without her would make me this miserable.
I’m moping as I sit on the porch, hanging out with my roommates. I wouldn’t be surprised if I looked up and saw a cartoon drawing of a dark raincloud hanging above my head. That’s how I feel.
It’s warmer than it’s been in a while today. There’s still a sharp bite of chill in the air, but the sun is out and thetemperature is high enough that it’s comfortable to get some fresh air on the porch as long as we’re all bundled up.
“Found out some interesting info about your girlfriend, Jamie,” Carter says.
Jamie turns to him with a flat and unamused look on his face. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Carter grins cruelly. “The girl you’re hopelessly in love with, then.”
Jamie’s look only gets less impressed and more annoyed. But we all note that he doesn’t even try to deny it.
