started with a lie ➳ raura revised

Chapter Thirteen

  "Happy birthday, to you! Happy birthday, to you! Happy birthday, dear Ross! Happy birthday to you!" the entire room singsand claps as Ross blows out his candles. When the song ends, everybody claps and Ross starts cutting the cake.

"Whom are you going to give the first bite to?" someone shouts from the crowd. "Any special lady?"

Ross has a small smile on his face—rare for him. I watch all this happen but I'm still shaken up. Everything I saw,everything I felt—was it real? Did I just imagine it because of stress? I have been sleeping late. I'm still shaking. My palmsare sweaty. Did I really just see my so-called-dead father walk around in perfect health?

"I would like to call up here my girlfriend, Laura Marano!" I hear Ross yell. It doesn't make sense. We're not supposed toblow our cover. These people will think we're together which will give us more people who expect us to be together. Weweren't supposed to tell anyone but Madam Jong. Everyone else was supposed to think I was just a friend that Ross broughtalong as a date.

I move through the crowd to where Ross is—the smack middle of the crowd. The cake is the size of the large table inmy living room. "What are you doing?" I whisper to his ear.

"Oh, so now you come to me, huh? Where's Zac?" He sees my straightforward look and then replies, "It's fine. Mostof these people are from foreign countries. And the rest, I'll probably never see again," Ross reassures. "It's totally fine."

"It better be."

Ross smirks. "Everyone, this is my girlfriend." He gestures to me and everybody gasps. They whisper and some evencongratulates Ross. I'm too busy paying attention to the crowd that I don't see Ross going ahead and smearing cake over myface.

"Ross!" I shout. Everybody breaks into a laughter and smile at as. I guess they approve of our relationship. I take somecake off my face and smear it over Ross's.Then, I realize how soft and clear his complexion is.

Everyone's chuckling and I am too. I haven't laughed this much for a long time. After everyone's done laughing, Ross orders a servant to serve pieces of cake. Everybody separates and eats their cake—continuing what they were doingbefore.

Ross is eating his cake alone on the balcony. Why is the birthday boy eating alone? I wander off to him with my owncake. There's a table on the balcony and I leave my cake there. I go stand next to Ross, who's just staring out, looking at NewYork City.

Everything is blurry of light because the rain is slowly still falling. It's not heavy—but it's falling.

"Ross, why are you out here?" I ask as I rest my hands on the railing next to him. "The birthday boy shouldn't bemoping around all by himself." Ross doesn't face me. "Ross?"

I get no answer.

Something is wrong. I turn Ross's shoulder and gasp. He's crying. Ross—the cold-hearted, smartass-reply, and completejerk—was crying right there in front of me. I don't know why or how but when I saw his face, something inside me broke,too.

"Ross what's wrong?" I ask. He doesn't reply. I shake him. "Ross?" He just grabs me and holds me close. His arms arewrapped so tight around me, like it's the one thing keeping him from floating on Earth. I don't complain, though. I justwrap my arms around him tightly.