Playing the Part

16. dilated pupils

Allie

"You're kidding."

Alex stares at us back and forth with her mouth ajar.

"It's a completely casual thing, though." I immediately reinforce before Alex reacts in a more...visceral way.

Though her silence speaks volumes because, like me, she never shuts up. Except while I'm chatty because of my anxiety, she just likes talking.

Which is why her silence is very fucking unnerving.

"Yup, casual." Everett does his little half-cough tic.

"And this happened the second I left for Hong Kong." Alex crosses her arms. "Why? You think I'm unable to keep your little secret?"

Everett nods his head from side to side. "Well, you are a notorious gossiper. But you didn't hear it from me."

"You're not supposed to say that to the person you're talking shit about, idiot." She hisses. "Am I the first to hear about this?"

"Yes." I look over to Everett to ensure we're on the same page about this.

But he scratches the back his neck and says, "well, actually I told Leon and Nick about us but nothing about the scheme."

"Well are you guys fucking each other too? Is that also part of the arrangement?"

My eyes widen while Everett chuckles beside me. "What? How many steps did you jump to reach that conclusion? And, no. We're not."

I could never mention that the thought of it has crossed my mind a concerning amount of times.

She shrugs. "I don't know. Was just making sure you didn't leave out any bits. So this is just to get Zach and toy with Tori?"

"Yes." Everett and I say in unison.

Alex switches from the formidable five-six of a person to her usual self again.

Which, really, the only thing that's changed is she's no longer staring both of us down anymore.

"Oh! Then to that I say: fuck yes! And also to that I say: I need a drink."

"There's a party down at our pl-"

Alex claps her hands together. "Great! We'll come down to your place in a couple of hours."

She basically shoos Everett out of the door, who mouths 'I'll see you' and winks.

The second he disappears from our sights, she holds my hands and says, "be honest. Is he blackmailing you to do this. I'll beat his ass for you. Scrap that, I'll get Conor to do it."

I smile at her serious little face. "No, Alex. We both agreed to it. And he's been really nice about it."

She rolls her eyes. "I know. But y'know, he's Everett. He fucks around like he's getting a medal for his body count. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"I won't, okay? It's all fake, either way."

She raises a dubious brow. "You sure you don't have feelings for the guy?"

"I- no." I honestly did not know what quantified liking someone romantically, probably because of my lack of experience in that field but also because I wasn't sure anyone could like me like that.

I grew up being the normal kid with normal friends and nothing about me was ever remarkable.

Sure, I was pretty to some but completely irrelevant to others.