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“You look great together.” Stephanie rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward so her hands held up her chin. “A very cute couple.”
“Sheiscute, isn’t she?” Nathan looked at Tully and leaned back like he was checking her out. His finger brushed against her cheek in a soft, affectionate touch. She tensed slightly. If she didn’t know he was just putting on a show, she would become flustered. Her cheeks would blaze and her throat would clog. No need to feel that way with Nathan though—not when it was all an act.
Tully sighed. “She’s messing with you. I already told her everything,” she sternly turned her attention to Stephanie. “Leave him alone.”
Nathan’s smile drooped, and he looked at Stephanie who shrugged, giggling softly. “That’s for all my pencils.”
“Pencils?”
“You borrowed a dozen of them and I never got them back,” she said.
His lips circled. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s all in the past now. I voided it once you started helping Tully out with all this.”
“Thank you?” Nathan looked to Tully like she would give him more of an explanation. His kind expression was more strained around his confusion than normal.
“It was her idea to go to the party,” Tully added. She could also say that seducing him and all that stuff was Stephanie’s idea, but he probably figured that out by now. Going to the party had been for all that anyway.
Pulling his arm off his shoulder, his eyes brightened as it all connected in his head. “I guess I can talk about all this here then?”
“Talk about what?”
“I told my parents you’re my girlfriend,” he came right out and said it. No beating around the bush.
Tully inhaled sharply, and a crumb of her food went into her throat, making her cough on her words. “You what?”
“They loved you.”
“I only met your mom.”
“I told my dad about you later. He was psyched that I have a valedictorian as a girlfriend,” he defended like it would make it better.
“Did you use my grades as a selling point to get your parents to like me?”
“I know, I know. I should have talked to you about it first, not cool of me. But it was the right moment,” he was animating his words with his hands, gesturing around nervously. He must think that moving his hands around each word would distract her from everything else. “I guess now isn’t a great time to tell you my dad wants to meet you.”
“Meeting the parents wasnota part of this agreement.”
“Actually, the agreement was to make others think we are dating. We weren’t specific about who. My dad thinks you’ll be a good influence on me, so it only helps convince him I’m being more responsible with my choices.”
Tully closed her eyes and rubbed the lids with her thumb and pointer finger, sighing. She could barely maintain a fake relationship at school, but now she had to do it in his home? “I don’t know about this.”
“I’ll make it up to you.”
She opened her eyes. “How?”
“I’ll take you to homecoming.”
Homecoming.
For three years homecoming had as much appeal to her as an overripe banana: tasted fine but was an overall unpleasant experience. She had stayed home every year, but senior year was different. It was the year you’re supposed to make the most of the “best years of your life” as she’d been told over and over again. So shedidplan on going to Homecoming this year—with Erik.
Obviously, that wasn’t happening anymore.
Nathan though. Technically, in the eyes of everyone else, hewasher boyfriend. It would be stranger if she didn’t go with him, no matter what. It would be enough to make Joliet question everything.
“It’s not a terrible idea,” Stephanie chimed in, and Tully shot her a quiet sneer.
