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“Fine. I’m going to go home now,” I said, doing the same with my bag. My feet were angry and all I wanted to do was sit down and not have to smile for a few hours. None of that involved chatting with Tenley. I’d also probably wander over to Lark and Sydney’s and steal some of their food.

Tenley had a look on her face like she wanted to say something else, but then she nodded and opened her car door.

“See you tomorrow, Mia,” she said before shutting her door and turning on music so loud I could feel the bass thumping through my chest.

I shook my head at her and got into my vehicle and headed back to my apartment.

* * *

That night I finally got to start the book Tenley had loaned me. I made sure I’d scrubbed my hands really well before I even picked it up. I didn’t want to ruin it. I also had a beautiful wooden bookmark that my sister had gotten me for my last birthday. No receipts or crap like that. I also made sure I’d cleaned off my coffee table so it wouldn’t get stained when I set it down. That was probably overkill, but I wanted to be safe.

I was just turning to the first chapter when my phone went off with a call from my sister.

“Hey, I feel like we haven’t talked in forever,” she said, and I could hear Athena in the background singing along to one of her shows.

“I was literally at your house on Saturday,” I said.

“I know, but it still feels like a long time. Have you seen Tenley since the party?” she asked.

“Yeah, she was in today. It was weird.” Ingrid waited for me to say more, but I didn’t.

“Weird how?” she asked.

I still hadn’t told Ingrid that the favor I was doing for Tenley was pretending to be her girlfriend. It was honestly shocking that someone hadn’t asked her about it yet. Arrowbridge was a small place and gossip traveled faster than wildfire.

“I’m going to tell you what the favor was and I’m going to ask you to not freak out about it, okay?” I said.

“Well now I’m both worried and intrigued,” she said.

“Her boyfriend broke up with her and she’s using me to make him jealous,” I said, bracing myself for Ingrid’s response.

She was silent for a few seconds. “Using you how?”

“I’m pretending to date her, okay? That’s the favor. Go ahead and judge me now,” I said, yanking my couch blanket over my legs.

“I have so many questions right now,” Ingrid said. “Is Tenley even queer?”

“No. And she thinks that I’m straight too,” I said.

“Mia, what the hell?” Ingrid screeched.

“I know! I know. You don’t have to lecture me, okay? I know how messed up this situation is,” I said, bristling.

“It’s just weird, Mia. Why are you doing this for her?” she asked.

“I don’t have a good answer for that. I saw a human in distress and now here I am,” I said.

Ingrid let out a breath. “You’re going to tell her you’re a lesbian at some point, right?”

“Yeah, when all this is over,” I said.

“I thought you just had to go to one party?”

Now I was the one sighing. “One party didn’t work. There’s another one this weekend that I’m going to.”

“This sounds like a lot of time and work for a favor,” Ingrid said, and there was a tone in her voice that I didn’t like.

“I don’t like her,” I said immediately, to head off those questions.