Insouciant (The Billionaire With A Choice)

Sometimes Basic is Best

Sometimes Basic is Best

Niel's POV

"Times ticking!"

"Shut up!" I snap.

These guys have nothing better to do than get in on this competition between Cedric and me.

I can't take this, I have three days.

I call Oscar.

I'm meeting him for lunch.

I hurry up and leave the house.

I wait impatiently at a deli.

"You look awful, my friend." Oscar takes a seat in front of me.

"Are we friends now?" I mutter.

"Yes. Me and my girl are a package deal. You get to her. I watch you like a hawk till the day you die. Come on, lighten up Niel. You look so stressed. How's planning?"

"I have nothing. I have never even made plans for a friend before. I've never spent leisure time with my siblings. The last time I did something remotely close to that, I was four with Cedric. We were distanced from each other at five before we were shipped off. When she and I hang out, she makes the plans and we usually just sit at a cafe and talk."

He laughs. I drag a hand down my face.

"You know it's crazy that she predicted this."

I question him.

"Oh, last week. She was scolding me about how unfair this is because your brother was-" he cuts himself off.

"My brother what?"

"Nothing." He says.

I just give him a look.

"Nothing!" He repeats.

I pick up my phone.

I don't let him get a word out. "I thought we don't keep secrets."

He sounds as confused as I am. "Secrets, what secret?"

"What did you tell her that I don't know? I thought we promised to tell each other everything when you came back."

He asks me how I know he's hiding something.

"It doesn't matter. Cedric I-"

"Meet me at that place."

"Give me an hour." I hang up and turn to Oscar.

"Is it bad?" I ask him.

"It's not my place to put my input. I'm not even supposed to know I begged her to tell me."

"It's fine. Now you better continue what you were saying."

"She said he basically knows girls and you don't even know a smidge of it. How you will probably be stuck because you don't want to be basic and how you would stress."

"She said that because that's how she'd be if we'd swapped roles." I sigh.

"And the similarities keep coming."

I shake my head. Something's wrong. "Where is she?"

"She taking lunch out-"

"Since when does she go out alone for lunch?" I squint, feeling slight pain in my head.

Oscar shrugs.

"Do you know Revera's cliff?"

"I know Revers's Creek."