Baking With Boys |✔

56. Sakura Mochi

"You're kidding me," Brandon said, his voice carrying astonishment and disbelief at my words.

Giddy and feeling accomplished, I laughed. "I'm not."

Brandon turned to me, flitting his eyes between the white-dress clad Bella and me, and trying to find a link. He peered at me closely, assessing my facial expression as if to see I was speaking the truth or not. I laughed again, and he pulled back, the word leaving his mouth; "Liar."

"Nope." I shook my head.

Brandon licked his lips. "You're serious?"

"Yes."

"Prove it," he said.

I didn't say anything but started walking forward. We had to be careful—in case Alard came back—so there wouldn't be any dramatic revelation or anything. The girls around Bella left as they saw me approaching. They had been so sweet to us, agreeing to act nonchalant and helping us in fooling Bella's father. Brandon had followed me, and I felt him pause behind me as I reached Bella. I took in a deep breath, and said to her, "Brandon can't believe it's you."

Beside me, Brandon seemed ready to bolt, not trusting me until the end.

"How about now?" Bella revealed her face from under her veil, her expression glowing with an incomparable sort of glee.

"Shit." That's all Brandon said before Bella and I broke out into giggles. After a minute, Brandon interrupted, his voice trailing off. "But how did this happen? I saw you leaving in the car."

His question made us pause, and I shared a look with Bella. How did we end up like this...?

Bella beat me to the answer. She pointed her head towards me, her face back under the veil. "We were going to the airport. But it felt wrong."

"Wrong?" Brandon questioned.

"We had the cake in the car... but that wasn't it. I knew papa wouldn't be so careless. He would have had people over at airport too." She sighed, standing up. Her towering height made me take a step back, but Brandon kept on listening. "So, we did the unexpected thing—came back to where we had run from."

I chipped in. "We saw the bride and groom on our way here. They agreed to help us out immediately."

"You mean after the money," Bella corrected.

"Same thing." I rolled my eyes. "That's why we needed the time. Bella was changing all this while and I think I saw the bride hooting at the stripper show."

Brandon was silent for a minute. We took the quietness as him appreciating our plan and basked in the glory of (hopefully not momentary) freedom. Bella and I watched as Brandon nodded, tilted his head, frowned, tried to say something (and then didn't) when he finally asked us one question that we didn't have an answer to. "Where's Giulia?"

"Tyler!" Bea called out from behind, and I turned. "They have tallied the votes! Come on!"

Bella was frowning, but she mustered up a smile when my eyes met hers and motioned me to go. "I'll get changed." She didn't give me a chance to say anything, and turned away, hoisting up her gown and making a quick walk to the dressing room.

"What happened?" Brandon asked, catching on the solemn mood.

"Actually—"

"You guys coming?" Bea asked us, looking at us curiously.

I give a look to Brandon that said 'later', and smiled at Bea, linking my arms with her non-fake-injured one and walking to the set-up. Brandon trailed behind, the silence sitting heavy between us.