RIVALS AND HEARTBREKS

THEY WANT EACH OTHER BUT NEVER GIVES IN
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My mind was racing. What if Alex mentioned the secret stash of books in my room? What if Luca found out I read-well-those kinds of books?

"What kind of fantasy novels do you read?" Alex asked, completely oblivious to my mental breakdown.

Before I could stop it, my voice came out a little too loud. "Nope. No, no. You're not talking about that."

Luca gave me a strange look but didn't press the issue. "Well, I'd be down for reading something other than math books for a change," he said, flashing me a mischievous smile. "Though, I bet your book collection isn't exactly... scholarly."

Alex, in the meantime, was far from done. He jumped up from the couch, walked over to my desk, and without warning, opened a drawer. "Let's see what she's hiding, then," he said, pulling out the first book he saw.

My heart nearly stopped. "No! Alex, put that down!" I lunged at him, but he was already flipping the pages of my favorite fantasy novel.

I was dead. He was going to tell everyone at school that I read books with magical creatures and romance-which was definitely not the kind of thing that stayed a secret in this house.

Alex raised his eyebrows, clearly amused by my frantic attempt to grab the book back. "Wow. So this is what Madison Hayes reads when she's not pretending to be a cool, independent badass. Vampires? Really?"

"Put. It. Down," I gritted out, trying to sound threatening, but it wasn't working.
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