AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Spinning on her heel, she turns to face me, cocking a brow in expectation. “Uhh.” I take a second to get my brain into gear. “Romantic comedies,” I tell her, not having to think about the answer. Hadley used to complain non-stop when it was Emilia’s turn to pick a movie on their weekly movie nights at Pac.
She gives a curt nod, clearly agreeing with me.
“Emilia,” she barks, demanding her answer while keeping her eyes trained on me. “Action movies,” she responds instantly.
I nod in agreement, but I get the impression I don’t need to. Whether it’s her stalking skills coming into play or her uncanny ability to read people, Mel somehow seems to know it’s the truth.
With a pout, she moves on to round two of this twisted game. “Celebrity crush.”
“Ryan Reynolds.” I’ve watched more Ryan Reynolds movies in the last couple of weeks than I have in my entire life. Even if she hadn’t verbally confessed her crush to me, it would be impossible not to have figured it out.
Emilia has to think about the answer, chewing on her bottom lip. Her eyes are creased with concern until they suddenly widen, a lightbulb flashing. “Kate Beckinsale.”
Mel’s face scrunches. “Really? Isn’t she like fifty?”
“Didn’t you watch theUnderworldmovies? All that leather. What’s not to like?”
Despite our situation, my retort brings a small smile to Emilia’s lips as she smothers a laugh. In that second, my entire being focuses in on her. I latch onto that twitch of her lips, promising myself it won’t be the last time I see it. I want to spend the rest of my days teasing smiles from her, earning her laughter, and basking in her affection.
When her eyes latch onto mine, I attempt to convey everything I’m feeling in that single look. Her smile falls away, sorrow and desperation clinging to her features.
“I love you,” she mouths behind Mel’s back, and it kills me not to be able to say it back. Mel’s eyes are shrewdly on me, so we don’t need to piss her off any more than she already is.
Wishing I’d told her sooner and said it more often, all I can do is hope that she knows how irrefutably in love with her I am as I wrench my gaze away from hers.
“Okay, clearly I need to be asking harder questions,” Mel sneers, scowling at me. I’m starting to get the impression that this test is more about me and how wellIknow Emilia vs. her. I might not have shared a dorm room with her for the last four years, but everything about her was ingrained into me in the short time that Emilia consumed my life. Not to mention, my sister is Emilia’s best friend, and despite trying not to bring her up in conversation since our days at Pac, she has inevitably come up—probably more than Hadley even realizes.
Subconsciously, I ate up every nugget of information I received—what she was doing at college, how she was spending her summers, her plans after graduation.
“Favorite junk food,” Mel grinds out.
“She loves anything sugary, but popcorn is her go-to.” Despite Mel glaring daggers into my head, I smirk at Emilia, the inside joke passing unnoticed by Mel.
Mel’s nostrils flare at my correct answer, and she doesn’t give Emilia a chance to answer before firing her next question.
“Star sign.”
It takes me a second to connect her date of birth with the correct star sign, and I’m really hoping I’ve got the right one, because star signs are really not my thing. “Gemini.”
At my correct answer, Mel takes a threatening step toward me. “What’s her favorite thing to do on the weekends?”
“Read, probably in some overstuffed chair in a musty library.”
Another step forward, closing the distance between us as she fists the blade dangling at her side. “Dream job.”
“She always wanted to be an editor, ideally in fiction since that’s what she enjoys, reading. However, she loves her job teaching at Ridgeway, so I can see her doing that in the future,”—dismissing Mel, I fix my gaze on Emilia—“and I think she would be amazing at it.”
Her next step has her towering over me. “Where has she worked every summer since graduating from high school?”
“In her final year at Halston, she worked for a publishing house as an intern. The other three summers, she worked in a coffeehouse near campus. And the summer before she started college, she spent it on tour with Death on a Matchstick.”
Mel’s grin is downright malicious. A vile, contemptuous thing that has me wanting to shrink back in my chair.
“Wrong. She spent most of her summer before Halston working at the cafe.”
Brows lowered in confusion, I flick my gaze to Emilia for confirmation. There’s a blush on her cheeks, an apology in her eyes. “She’s right,” she says in a small voice, only confusing me further.
“I don’t—what happened with the band? I thought you left to spend the summer with them?”
