Page 7 of Scarlett and the Fake Boyfriend (Scarlett #2)

Tuesday

Sophie sighed and handed me my cell phone back. “Nothing suspicious in the men’s locker room today. But the kiss thief not texting you makes it a lot more difficult to find any more clues. Make sure to text him tomorrow right after school. So we can catch him responding.”

“Good idea.” The elevator doors parted on the floor beneath mine. We walked toward my downstairs neighbor’s door.

Instead of grabbing the spare key beneath the carpet, Sophie pulled a key out of her purse and opened the door.

“You made a key?”

“Yeah, several. Hold on.” She grabbed another one and handed it to me. “There’s yours.”

“We’re going to get in so much trouble.”

“I don’t think so. And just wait until you see what my dad and Mr. Tanner did to the place. It’s amazing.”

“You’ve seen it?”

“Yeah. I would have come visited you when I stopped by, but you haven’t moved your room yet.”

“I got the go ahead from my dad for the switch up. Maybe you can help me move everything tomorrow?”

“Deal. ”

We closed the door behind us and walked through the apartment. It was mostly empty, minus that one bedroom being filled with very revealing clothing. No one needed that many bathing suits. Especially in the middle of the city.

The door to the room we’d destroyed was closed.

“Ready for the big reveal?” Sophie asked.

I nodded.

She opened the door.

And I couldn’t help but gasp. They’d painted the room dark teal.

And everything in it had gold trim. Even one of the walls had some gold geometrical etchings on it.

The picture frames, the desk in the corner, and the coffee table were all gold.

And the accent pillows on the teal couch were gold too.

There was a beautiful gold spiral staircase leading up to the trapdoor in the ceiling. The whole room was breathtaking.

I smiled at the pictures on the walls. They were all of me, Jacob, Axel, and Soph. A few had RJ and Liam in them too. Definitely a lair for everyone. Not just me. Even though teal was my favorite color.

“Isn’t it epic?” Sophie said. “And come see this.” She hurried over to the gold desk and turned on the computer that was sitting there. “It has access to the security cameras in your house.”

“Why?” I was really glad I was switching rooms now. Because this meant RJ still had access to the cameras. I needed to be in a camera free room.

“Well, we didn’t know for sure if you’d switch rooms. We didn’t want anyone to get in trouble coming in through the trapdoor. It’s still useful though.”

My parents were talking at the kitchen island. I guess this was kind of useful.. .

“And we can see the locker room bigger.” She clicked an icon on the desktop and pulled up a bigger view of the men’s locker room. “The picture is so clear on here, right?”

I nodded. But the locker room was empty right now.

I looked up from the screen. The only thing that remained from the original room was the script above the door that said: Single Girl Rule #1: Boys are replaceable.

Friends are forever. But it had been traced over in gold to pop against the teal.

Sophie had mentioned another one of the Single Girl Rules to me the other day.

And they seemed wild. “I see you kept the one decoration that was in here. That was probably a good idea.”

“Oh my God, the Single Girl Rules.” Sophie groaned. “I missed the perfect opportunity to quote one today.”

“What?”

She stood up and walked over to one of the frames on the wall.

It looked like a list. “I should have invited Mr. Halifax to your bachelorette party. And then I could have quoted this.” She pointed to rule #41 on the list. “Any girl who doesn’t suck a cock at a bachelorette party is uninvited to the wedding.

This includes the bride. No exceptions.”

“Ew. What?”

She shrugged. “I told you they were wild.” She cocked her head to the side. “Yeah, I’m definitely still considering making them my whole personality. Aren’t they amazing?”

I leaned forward to read some of them. “There is no way someone actually follows these rules. They’re insane.”

“The person who lives here definitely does. See.” She pointed to rule #43. “Bikinis are the only acceptable girls’ trip outfit. Remember all those bikinis we found in her closet?”

Of course I remembered. I’d tried some on and texted my kiss thief inappropriate pictures. “I think some of these rules must have been messed up in translation.”

Sophie laughed. “Maybe. But they’re kind of everything. I’m going to try out rule #13 on Mr. Halifax next.”

I looked at the list. “If a girl forgets her purse, she must attempt to pay with her body?” I shook my head. “How on earth could that possibly apply to Mr. Halifax?”

“I don’t know. But I really want to pay him with my body. Do teachers accept tips?”

Someone laughed behind me.

I turned to see Jacob walking into the room.

“What are you guys talking about?” he asked.

“The Single Girl Rules.” Sophie pointed to the framed list.

Jacob leaned over me to get a better look. He laughed. “Rule #15 is pretty funny.”

I glanced at #15. No inviting guys to girls’ night...unless they’re strippers. Yeah, these had definitely gotten messed up in translation.

“And you two already broke a rule,” Sophie said. “Rule #34: First dates are meant to be spied on by your friends. I don’t remember being cued in to spy on you. Traitors.”

Jacob and I looked at each other.

“What?” Sophie asked.

“About that,” I said. “We...lied.”

“Lied about what?”

“All of it?” I didn’t mean for it to come out as a question.

“All of what?”

How was she not getting this right now? “Jacob did ask me out. But he’s not my boyfriend.”

“I’m so confused,” she said.

“We tried to kiss and it was so terrible.”

“I wasn’t terrible...” Jacob started.

“I know.” I sighed. “It was me. I made it weird. We tried a couple times. My tongue was out of control. And I honked a horn.”

“I’m still so confused,” Sophie said.

“After we realized we were better as just friends, Jacob agreed to fake date me. To make Axel jealous. Operation Too Hot to Handle is back on. Yay!”

“Sorry, what?”

I thought she’d be excited. But she looked hurt. “Soph, I’m so so sorry that I lied,” I said.

“We just wanted to make sure the whole thing seemed authentic,” Jacob said. “And if you believed it, we knew Axel would too.”

“That wasn’t a good plan,” Sophie said. “Of course I believed you! You’ve never lied to me before, Scar. How was I supposed to know you became a con artist overnight? I feel so betrayed.”

“I’m sorry.” I hugged her. “I felt bad about it the whole time.”

“I can’t believe you lied to me,” Sophie said. “About your first boyfriend no less!”

“I won’t do it again, I promise.”

“I don’t believe anything you say now. Is there a Single Girl Rule about lying to your best friend? I feel like I should get to throw wine in your face or something.”

“You can do that if it makes you feel better,” I said. “But I’m so so sorry.”

Sophie sighed. “I really thought you two made a cute couple. I’m kind of devastated right now.”

Jacob shrugged. “Sorry, Sophie.”

“Shouldn’t you try kissing again? I’ll turn around.” She turned around, waiting for us to kiss again. “Do it.”

“We’re just friends,” I said. “I’m sorry, Soph. About all of it.”

She turned back around. “It’s fine,” she said.

“I understand why you did it. For the record...I think everyone believed it. Not just me. Mr. Halifax certainly believed it. Although I couldn’t tell if he was freaked out because he thought you two were cousins or because I dropped hints about the kiss thief to see if it was him. ”

Ah! I hadn’t told Jacob about the kiss thief yet!

“I’m so glad you’re looped in about everything now, Jacob,” Sophie said.

“Because we need inside access to the kiss thief. Phase Incest is back on! And I did a ton of research about our remaining six kiss thief contenders. I was actually a little disappointed that we weren’t going to use it. So...pros and cons.”

“I have so many questions,” Jacob said. “But first...Phase Incest? ”

“That’s what it was called when I wanted Scar to date you to make Axel jealous. Because you’re practically cousins.”

“Yeah, we’re not calling it that,” I said. I’d told Jacob all about that, but I hadn’t told him the name of the phase because it was horrifying. “It’s Phase Fake Boyfriend now.”

Sophie shrugged. “Not as catchy, but sure.”

“And the kiss thief?” Jacob asked.

“Yeah, you’re on the team,” Sophie said. “Any idea who stole Scarlett’s first kiss and keeps pulling her into dark closets and making out with her?”

I cringed.

“Because I know Mr. Halifax is the mascot, but I’m dying a slow painful death thinking that my crush has been hooking up with my best friend.”

RJ opened the door and walked into the room. Followed by Liam.

Crap, how long had he been standing out there? The fact that they both looked pissed probably meant for a while.

“Mr. Halifax is the one blackmailing you?” RJ asked. “What the hell?”

“I’m going to kill him,” Liam said. “How much money was he asking for?”

“No one is asking for money,” I said.

Liam pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the cops on that perv.”

“Put your phone away,” I said. “No one is blackmailing me. You two just assumed I was being blackmailed when I told you I needed to know who the mascot was before Saturday. And I really needed you to put those cameras up in the men’s locker room.”

“You what?” Jacob asked.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on from the beginning before I report Mr. Halifax to the police?” Liam said.

Sophie sighed. “It all started at the first party of the year. Some mysterious person pulled Scarlett into a snake-infested closet and stole her first kiss. And then he started texting her. We think it’s someone from the football team.

And we know his general height. But the kiss thief is using a burner phone so that was a dead end.

The only other clue we had was that he sent a picture of himself in the mascot costume.