Page 42 of A Real Good Lie

For being someone Jace wanted so badly.

Callahan existed with an unmistakable air of superiority, but he didn’t reek of it the way Rhys did. Callahan’s confidence and privilege rolled off of him in waves that sometimes made Jace feel like he had a chance, if not at the real thing, at least at a real good lie.

He’d let his emotions and his fears get the better of him, and so he added himself to the list of people he was angry with. It was only Friday and the ribbon cutting event was tomorrow, which meant not only did he need to go back in there and finish his spicy weed salad, he also had at least two more events to get through.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Carmen.

“I can’t do this,” he said as soon as the phone stopped ringing.

“Do what?”

“Pretend like this.”

“Monster, you don’t sound like yourself.”

Jace walked around the corner and flattened his back against the wall, banging his head against the bricks a couple times for good measure.“His friends are…they’re horrible people.”

“You’re better than most,” his sister soothed.

“I’m not good enough to be here.”

“What does he say about that?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s fake, and I’m doing a horrible job at being a good fake boyfriend because I want him, Carmen.”

His sister sighed in that knowing way she always had. “Fake or not, if his friends are saying cruel things, that would hurt. You’re reacting like their opinions matter, which they don’t. So you’re doing a better job acting than most.”

“You ignored the other part.”

“There’s not much to be done about that, is there?” she asked.

Jace rubbed at his eyelids with his fingertips, digesting what Carmen had just said to him. She was right in that what Callahan’s friends thought shouldn’t matter because he only had two days left before he and Callahan would go back to being strangers, but what Callahan’s friends said, did matter…did hurt him. And she was right that there was nothing to say about the wanting bit of it. Nothing would change his mind.

“His ex-boyfriend mocked me,” he spat, “for being an orphan.”

“You’re not an orphan,” Carmen said, her same tired and worn-down line. “You’re my brother.”

“A technicality.”

“If I thought you were being serious, Jace, you’d wound me.”

“I want to come home,” he sighed.

“To us, or to Remington?”

“Anywhere but here.”

“There you are.”He heard Callahan beside him, and he blinked slowly, watching Callahan bend over at the waist and brace himself on his knees to catch his breath.

“Is that him?” Carmen asked in his ear.

“Yes.”

“Does he look real worried or pretend worried?”

Jace waited until Callahan looked up and straightened, making note of the crow’s feet around his eyes and the subtle downturn of his mouth. Callahan was older than him, but this was worry.

“Real,” he rasped.