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“Wait. So…” Xander shook her head. Then she made a few more attempts to talk. “You—he—you had sexy times with someone who thought you were someone else ?”

Biting my lip, I nodded. “Yeah. Basically exactly that, yes.”

“Oh, Frankie,” she whispered in horror.

I whimpered and gripped my stomach. “I told you I was messed up.”

She gaped at me mutely before bursting out, “But what if he has a girlfriend? What if he thought you were his girlfriend?”

I snorted. “Trust me, he doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

“Oh. Well, good. Whew.” Her shoulders sagged only to lift again. “So wait, you actually knew who he was?”

I pulled back, giving her an odd look. “Really?”

“Right.” She cleared her throat. “Of course, you knew. But I still don’t, so who the hell was he?” When I cringed, unable to tell her, she snagged Bessie and smacked me in the arm with her softness. “Stop stalling already and tell me. Do I even know him?”

With a sickened wince, I whimpered, “Yes. And you’re totally going to judge me.”

Her mouth fell open and her lips moved but no words came until she sputtered, “You just confessed you hooked up with someone in the dark who didn’t even know it was you, and you’re worried I’m going to get judgy now ?

Who the fuck is this guy? Just how much did you do with him? Do we need to get you tested?”

I heaved out a long sigh. “No, I don’t need to get tested. Because we didn’t do anything that would need testing. Besides, he’s like the poster child for safe sex.”

I’d lost count of the number of times I’d seen him handing out condoms to people out on the quad.

But Xander clearly did not know about his safe-sex motto. She furrowed her brow in confusion. “Huh?”

I sighed and just laid it all out there. “It was Keene.”

“K…” Xander blinked at me repeatedly. “Keene?” she said in confusion before her eyes flared. “You mean, my roommate , Keene? Annoying, immature, obnoxious, loudmouth Keene ?”

Sinking lower with every word she used to accurately describe him, I nodded.

“I just wanted to know if I could , you know. I wanted to feel normal, and do normal college-people stuff at a normal college party. And suddenly, he was right there, mistaking me for someone else. And it was Keene. He has sex with everyone . I didn’t think it would matter if—” Groaning out my misery, I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling.

“Okay, I knew it mattered. I knew it was wrong. I just—it was Keene.”

“Keene,” Xander repeated in a daze as she bobbed her head slowly. “You and Keene.”

“I kind of actually liked the fact that he didn’t know it was me because?—”

“Oh, you don’t have to explain that part,” Xander cut in with a snort. “Trust me. I wouldn’t want him to know either. I wouldn’t want anyone to know if I’d been with Keene. But still…” With a grimace and shudder of revulsion, she uttered, “Keene?”

She seemed so appalled by the idea I felt almost defensive when I said, “He makes me feel…seen.”

Xander’s gaze zipped up to me in surprise, and her lips parted as if she seemed to realize I actually liked him.

“Oh.” She shook herself and quickly added, “Oh my God, yeah. I mean, Keene’s superhot.

And personable. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it myself.

Briefly ,” she had to tack on quickly. “When I was feeling my lowest and just wanted to stop hurting over Liam. But it just would’ve been a quick rebound hookup, and I totally would’ve hated myself in the morning for it. Besides…”

Letting the rest of her explanation die off when she looked at my face, she winced. “Sorry. So… Do you like, like him, like him?”

I cringed. “I don’t know,” I said because there was no way I could tell her the true depth of my feelings when it came to Keene Dugger.

But I did feel safe in honestly admitting, “He’s kind of a jerk and way too big of a player for my taste.

Plus he’s totally annoying and aggravating and—and yet he somehow makes his repugnance so damn likable. ”

“Yeah,” Xander agreed with a wrinkle of her nose. “I know what you mean. He’s like a sweet and charming…sleaze bucket.”

I laughed. “Exactly.”

Xander laughed with me before groaning. “Oh my God.” She wiped a hand over her face.

“You did stuff with Keene tonight. My entire world has stopped making any sense at all, I swear. But seriously…” Dropping her hands, she leaned toward me in earnest. “What exactly did y’all do together? And was he actually any good at it?”

I stared at her for a moment in silence as my face grew hot.

Reading my expression, she fell back on the bed, crying, “No! This is awful. He’s not supposed to have the actual moves to back up all that bragging he does. He’s supposed to absolutely suck at everything sexual. Waverly! This isn’t even fair.”

“Sorry, but he was really, really good at it,” I admitted with an apologetic cringe. “It was the best night of my life,” I swore before shrugging. “Until he found out I wasn’t the girl he thought I was.”

“Wait.” Xander sat upright in alarm. “He figured it out? He knows it was really you?”

I shook my head. “No. I mean, not who I am,” I said. “Just that I’m not…Makayla, or whatever her name was. She interrupted us, which kind of clued him into the fact that I wasn’t her.”

“Holy shit.” She shook her head. “But wait. How does he still not know who you are? Didn’t he try to turn on a light or?—”

“I kicked him between the legs and ran before he could see me.”

Xander gaped badly before she clapped her hands and blurted out a hearty laugh. “Oh my God. That is priceless. I love it. You’re amazing, Frankie. So freaking amazing.”

“I’m awful,” I muttered.

Keeping her hands clasped together, she pressed them to her chin and said, “No. This is awesome. It might’ve been totally different if it weren’t Keene.

But it was Keene, so…” She shrugged. “I know he’d be okay with it.

He’d be…” Voice dying, she blinked at me and grew solemn.

“He just helped you get over a big step in your healing process, didn’t he? ” she realized.

A lump formed in my throat as I nodded.

“Wow,” she whispered. “And you’re—you’re okay? You’re seriously okay? I mean, he didn’t do anything that—he didn’t trigger anything?”

I shook my head slowly. “No. He really didn’t. It was—it was nice,” I said. “It was better than nice.”

Sudden tears glittered in her eyes. “That’s wonderful,” she murmured. “Oh. I suddenly want to hug him right now.”

Flushing, I admitted, “I want to do a lot more than hug him right now.”

Snickering, she nudged my arm. “Look at you. You dirty-minded girl. I love it. Now tell me everything. I want all the details.”

When I bit my lip hesitantly, she lifted her eyebrows.

“You do realize he’s going to be blabbing about this to everyone tomorrow, don’t you?

” When I groaned, she nodded. “Keene is all about the kiss and tell. Either you tell me now or I’m going to hear about it throughout the entire weekend from him. ”

Deflating, I said, “Okay.” And I proceeded to spill everything.