Page 74 of The Love Interest
“I’m a Love Interest,” she says. “There. Now your coach can’t get you in trouble for disclosing it. It’s not like it matters anyway. They’re probably already programming the Stalker to come for me as we speak. Hardwiring its circuits, planning the kill strike.”
Does it work like that, Kaylee?
No response comes.
I sit down beside Natalie and put my arm over her shoulders.
She nestles into my chest. Her breath is warm and it makes my shirt flutter. She smells sweet, like strawberries. “I suspected you were one as soon as Dyl appeared. You always act weird around him. When you both started courting Juliet I knew for sure. Plus, the fact that you’re both ridiculously good-looking kind of clued me in to what you really are.”
The label offends me. Does she know what I am? Does the termLove Interestdefine me? If she knows I’m a Love Interest, does she know everything she needs to about me?
Or am I something more?
I look down at the top of her head. “I suspected you as well, at first—when I saw your eyelashes, because they’re way too long and perfect to be natural. But you’re obviously a better actor than I am, because you fooled me. I wassosure you were in love with Trevor. It made me think I was just being paranoid.”
She pushes her head away from my chest and meets my eyes.
“Idolove him. With everything I have.”
I roll my eyes. “Okay.”
She blinks once. “I do, Caden. I love him so much that I can’t even tell if what I’m feeling is fear because I’m probably going to die, or grief because I love him and he dumped me. Wait, you don’t feel that way for Juliet? You must be a pretty good actor yourself—you seem pretty smitten with her.”
I cross my arms. “Maybe I do. I’m an expert on making people fall in love, not on what love feels like.”
“Here’s a test. When you’re bored, what do you think about?”
I bite my lip. “I don’t know. Death, I guess. Either mine or Dyl’s.”
She leans back into my chest and sniffs. “I feel sorry for you, Caden. But not that much. Because I think this hurts more than the incinerator will. I guess I’ll find out if that’s true soon enough.”
“Don’t talk like that, it’s not over. He could want you back. He’s the one who screwed up, not you. Your coach must know that.”
“Yeah, I called him, and he thinks it’s not over yet. Apparently Kaylee told him about your conversation with Trev, and how upset he was over cheating on me. I don’t know. The only thing I can think about it is that maybe Trev knows, deep down, that our relationship started under false pretenses. Because Trev’s such a good guy, the best really, and it’s so unlike him to do that. Unless he knows there’s something wrong with me. Plus, Caden, a girl… a girl is dead because of me. I never talk about it, obviously, but I think about it constantly and I think it warped me. I know I won, but, like, when she got taken away I changed so much that I’m not even sure if I’m lovable anymore.”
“You’re extremely lovable, Nat. And there’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing. You’ve done what you had to do to survive. It’s admirable.”
“That’s so kind of you to say, Caden. Thanks. But it’s something you should prepare yourself for if you can, because the LIC doesn’t prepare us at all for how it feels to win. They make it seem like winning will be this big party, but it’s really not.”
I picture Dyl being taken away, and know that I could never prepare myself for that.
“And I’m sorry about this,” she continues. “But I have more bad news. You need to hear it, though, because it could save your life. Here it goes: Juliet is planning on making her choice at Dyl’s party.”
The whole world slows down.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, she’s sick of toying with you both. She doesn’t think it’s fair to either of you. So she’s decided she’ll choose as soon as the party ends.”
This is good, Caden.
I start to shake. I sit up straighter, trying to contain myself, because I can’t let Natalie know how awful I feel about this. She’s expecting me to be happy about it, so that’s how I must act. Even though she’s a Love Interest, Istillhave to lie to her.
“You’re in the home stretch,” says Natalie. “And I’d bet on you. Dyl will be dead by the end of the week.”
I gulp. “Great.”
She meets my eyes. “I take back what I said before—you’re not that good an actor. At least you’re not when you’re hiding what truly matters to you.”
