Despite growing up together, Catherine Simmons and Mattis Reed were never close.
Cat was inseparable from Mattis' younger sister, Chloé, while he was busy running around on the football field.
But when Cat's new dream drags her across the country du...
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I sit in the passenger seat of his car, and it occurs to me that we have never been alone in a car together. It's so weird how normal it feels.
Mattis starts driving, one hand gripping the wheel, the other resting on the gearstick. He's so effortlessly handsome that it's almost unfair. After driving out of the campus gates and merging with the city traffic, he casts me a quick glance. "I haven't seen you around campus."
A smile plays on my lips. "Have you been looking for me?"
"Yeah, I have."
His blunt confession sends my stomach into a tizzy. I've been keeping an eye out for him too, but I wasn't expecting him to admit it. Dropping my head slightly so my hair falls as a curtain between us, I attempt to hide my blush. Get it together, Cat.
"Oh, well, we have classes in completely different buildings..." I shrug. I'd looked up where the Engineering and Applied Science School was located the day after the party.
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I glance down, thankful for the interruption. Being around Mattis puts me slightly off-kilter, like running into him at the frat house was the result of some cosmic slip-up. We were always meant to be acquaintances, not... whatever the hell this is.
I knew how to act around him when he was just Chloé's older brother, but now we're reinventing the rules as we go, and I think it might just be a recipe for disaster.
I blink the thoughts away, focusing on the text from Chloé. Simply reading the words makes me nauseous, and it's yet another reminder of how things have changed. Just a week ago, I wouldn't have given it a second glance.
"That Chloé?" Mattis asks.
"Um, yeah."
"What'd she say?"
My stomach bottoms out. I don't like lying. I hate it, actually. It makes me flustered, and my voice gets all weird. Probably a result of growing up under an ironclad rule. My father is like a blood-hound for deception. It's funny how much more my parents paid attention when they thought I was being untruthful.
I stare straight out the window, intentionally avoiding his eyes. "Yeah, she says congratulations on the game."
His head swirls in my direction. I don't know if he picked up on the false note in my voice, but suspicion is practically radiating from him. "Did she now?"
"Mhm," I hum, casting him a look I'm hoping comes off as honest instead of skittish.
We're waiting at a red light, so Mattis angles his body towards me, raising one eyebrow. "Cat, Chloé never congratulates me on my games."
Shit.
I'd been too worried about my body language giving me away that I hadn't even thought about the content of my lie. It was simply too outrageous ever to be accepted as truth. Another consequence of my upbringing: I never learned how to fabricate a convincing lie.
