His Mask Of Duplicity

⚜ 2 ⚜

Thank you all for reading my story! I really appreciate it! 

Xoxo, your author

"It's raining?" I meant for my answer to be a statement, but it comes out as an uncertain question. Adrian looks at me with a raised eyebrow—even he notices the nervousness in my voice. My damp hair sticks to my neck and my clothes press uncomfortably against my skin. After a moment of awkward silence, Adrian offers to get a towel for me.

"Umm. It's okay, I'm getting checked in. I can dry off when I move upstairs," I say. Adrian threads his fingers through his hair and stops his hand when it reaches the base of his neck. "Thank you, though," I add, "I appreciate your—"

"Chloe?" a voice calls from behind me. I turn around and my mom stands at the far end of the hallway. "I got our room. Ready to go up?"

I nod and turn back to Adrian, "Thank you again." I begin to walk back to my mom, but the sound of his stern voice stops me.

"Oh no, you're not getting rid of me that easily," Adrian smirks. Mom looks at me questionably. I press my lips together trying hard not to smile.

"Is this your new boyfriend, Chloe?" Mom asks, keeping her eyes on Adrian.

"Mom! We just met! And he's older than me!" I exasperate, adding an 'I think' at the end of my assumption.

Seriously, Mom? I think. We just met and we just moved to San Fransisco!

Adrian comes forward and offers out a hand to my mother. "Hi, Miss Reed. I'm Adrian Warner ."

Wow, suck-up much?

"And I'm seventeen," he adds smugly.

Mom shakes his hand and introduces herself, "Nice to meet you, Adrian. I'm Abigail Reed, but please, call me Abigail. I see you've met Chloe."

"I have. She seems nice, so far," Adrian responds looking right at me. Mom raises her eyebrow.

I follow Mom into the elevator and Adrian follows me. Now it's really awkward. I'm in an elevator with a really attractive boy in an unfamiliar city ... with my mom. It can't get more awkward than that. The last awkward moment I had with a boy and my mom was when my first boyfriend, Cody, came to my house on a Saturday with flowers in hand. Apparently, I was supposed to open the door, but Mom got to it first. Basically, Cody was standing there uncomfortably while my mom called for me.

Mom gets in the elevator and stands in the front, leaving Adrian and I to stand in the back.

"We're apartment E3. We're on the top floor for this apartment building," Mom says as the door closes. In my peripheral vision, I can see the corners of Adrian's mouth slowly turn up. He takes a small sidestep closer to me, our shoulders centimeters from contact. He nudges me playfully with his elbow and wiggles his eyebrows.

It feels like time has slowed significantly as the elevator ascends from floor to floor. Finally, after forever, the elevator slows to a stop and the doors open. I step out into the hall and notice that there are only two apartment doors.

"Chloe, did you know that there're only two apartments on each floor?" Adrian gasps jokingly, holding a hand to his mouth. "We're apartment buddies!" Adrian dramatically makes a shocked facial expression and I can't help but laugh. Each end of the hall has windows from the floor up to the ceiling. The light that floods through the window makes the hall a couple degrees warmer than it already is.