AllFreeNovel
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I stare at the screen for a moment before leaning back in my chair, my body relaxing. The only other footage I’ll need to finish the documentary is Trevor’s reaction to the VR headset, which is almost complete, and Holden’s interview. And while my excuse to hang out with Holden will vanish, maybe I don’t need an excuse other than I Want To now. I’ll have to figure outthe Corrine thing ASAP—maybe, justmaybe,she’ll be happy about it—and I will, but until then, I’m going to let this go on as it was intended from the start. The time is dwindling away and the deadline is approaching, and I’m surprisingly okay with the near-end result. It doesn’t need to be perfect; the whole reason I’m applying is to learn and get better.
Holden collapses onto the bed and caps his lens. “Progress update?”
“Almost done. It doesn’t completely suck.” I glance at him. “Though it’s very amateur. I’m hoping your pretty face makes up for that.”
He grins. “All the world’s problems would be solved if everyone looked at my face for two seconds?”
“Just two seconds?”
“I figure that’s all a mere mortal can take before they just combust with yearning.”
“Confident.”
“I have reason to be.” He sits up on his elbows. “You’re into me, so I must not be too disgusting.”
“Barf.” The doorbell rings and I jolt from my seat, rooting through my bag for my debit card. “I’ll be back.”
“No!” He reaches forward, flicks the card out of my hand dramatically, and pulls cash from his pocket. “It’s on me.”
I stare at the spot where my debit card was eaten by the darkness behind my desk. He smiles sheepishly.
“I’ll get that while you get the pizza.” He drops to his hands and knees, his head disappearing under the desk.
I rush to the front door, not wanting the delivery person to ring the bell again on the off chance it’ll wake my mom. Notthat she would wake up to anything incriminating now. But when I swing open the door, it’s not a delivery person waiting for me. My heart bottoms out. “Corrine?”
“You’re alive!” She smiles and offers me a pink drink from Starbucks. “I was starting to worry because you weren’t answering your phone.” She steps inside without being invited in—something that has never been a problem before, mostly because her ex-boyfriend wasn’t in my bedroom any other time. Her vintage bell-bottom jeans swish with her steps.
“What are you doing here?” I stop her in the middle of the living room.
She frowns. “I told you, you weren’t answering your phone. I thought maybe you choked on your vomit in your sleep or something. I was worried.”
I wasn’t even drinking last night. “My phone is off.” I shake the drink, stirring the smoothie contents. “Thank you. Now’s not really a good time, though. My mom is still asleep.”
Oh god it feels awful lying without lying I’m so tired of lying to her why can’t I just tell her she made it seem like it would be okay and this wasn’t planned it might be fine.
Her face falls and she takes a step back. “Oh. Okay. I thought maybe we could do our spa day if you wanted to get out of the house?”
“Do you need help with the food?” Holden’s voice echoes down the hallway.
Before I can do anything—though what would I even do?—he appears in the living room and the drink Corrine brought me nearly slips out of my grasp. She tenses up, like she’s just another photo Holden’s taken to curate his Instagram presence.
“Did I... interrupt something?” she asks in a small voice. Pink floods her cheeks as she takes in his disheveled hair. Her eyes cut to mine.
“No.” Stop lying stop lying stop lying she CAUGHT YOU!!! “I was working on the documentary.” Technically, not a lie, but also not the full truth. “Holden was taking photos.” Closer.
She stands there with her mouth in a line, not saying anything until—“What’s going on here? And don’t lie. You said you weren’t lying anymore, Saine.”
I stand between them, silent. I should just admit what’s going on. What happened. It wasn’t planned. She gave me so many opportunities to come clean. I’m spiraling and I think they can both tell, but I can’t move toward Corrine without abandoning Holden and what he means to me, and I can’t move toward Holden without abandoning Corrine and losing her once and for all. Maybe if I just stay here, stay paused, I can figure out something to say that will make it all better.
“I guess you two have some things to talk about,” Holden says, stepping forward. And then, without grabbing so much as his jacket or his very precious camera, he walks out the front door. And I have to choose. I have to choose.Choose!
But I don’t call for him to wait. I don’t speak to Corrine. I stand in my grandma’s living room, holding myself together just barely, my shoulders up to my ears and all my muscles tensing.
“Don’t lie,” Corrine whispers, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I gave you so many chances to talk about what was going on between you two, and if you were lying the whole time—”
“We, no, there wasn’t anything happening—I don’t know... we hooked up.”
“Howlonghave you been hooking up?”
