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“Let’s go home.” He pulls my arm and leads me towards the front lawn.
Just as I thought, my twin brother is a saint.
“Wait!” Jodie calls after us. We stop and turn.
“Oh, right,” I say. “Someone needs to bring Jodie home. You brought a car, didn’t you?”
“Your car,” Antonio tells me as he shows me my keys. “Don’t you even think about riding in mine when you’re soaked like that.”
I take the keys to my car from him and hand him the ones to his. Then I glance at Jodie.
“You take her home.”
Antonio nods. “Okay.”
“Thanks,” Jodie answers.
I bet she’s happy now.
“I’ll go ahead,” I say as I walk faster.
The last thing I want to be is a third wheel.
“Wait!” Jodie stops me again. She runs to my side and glances at Antonio before speaking in a whisper. “Don’t you dare tell Antonio…”
“That you’re in love with him?” I finish her sentence and shake my head. “What? You’re not going to tell him?”
She doesn’t answer, but her expression tells me no.
“Don’t worry,” I tell her. “I won’t.”
“Good.” She nods. “Though that still doesn’t mean I’ll forgive you for trying to make a fool out of me.”
I want to tell her that that wasn’t my intention, but I can see from the look of hatred in her eyes that she isn’t going to listen. I’m not Antonio, so why would she? Never mind that all I did was try to show that I cared for her and protect her.
Oh well. I knew this would happen. I made my bed. Now, I have to lie in it.
“Fine. I’ll pretend that kiss never happened, too. It wasn’t any good anyway.”
Her eyes grow wide. Her hands tremble and clench into fists.
Go on, I urge her with my gaze. Hit me.
But she doesn’t. She can’t, not with her precious Antonio watching. She just marches off.
“Are you okay?” I hear Antonio ask her in a concerned voice.
“I’m fine,” she replies calmly. “Where’s your car?”
“It’s the silver Audi near the end of the street,” he answers. Then he tosses her his keys. “I’ll be right there.”
Jodie nods. She sends me a final glare over her shoulder before walking off.
“Aren’t you supposed to bring her home?” I ask Antonio as he approaches me.
“I will,” he says. “After I ask you something.”
“What?”
“I know you came here because you read Jodie’s message on my phone. You came to help her and I can understand that. What I don’t understand is why you went as me. That’s why I followed you.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “What makes you think I came here trying to be you?”
“You took my jacket, my necklace and my car.” Antonio glances at the first two. “And I checked your browser history, so I know you were sporting a fake scar.”
“Weirdo,” I tell him.
He ignores me. “Why?”
“Because it was you she wanted to see,” I answer.
“Couldn’t you have just told her I was busy?”
I shake my head. “She wouldn’t have listened. She’d rather stay at a boring party with stupid people than spend a second with me. She hates me.”
Antonio’s eyebrows crease. “She does?”
I look at him. For someone who knows so much, he can be so oblivious to the things going on around him sometimes. He doesn’t even know how Jodie feels about him or how I feel about Jodie.
“I mean, I know she used to get annoyed with you because you kept teasing her,” Antonio says. “But she doesn’t hate you.”
Trust me. She does now.
“What does it matter?” I shrug. “My cover was blown. This evening ended up being a disaster just as you predicted.”
“As I predicted?”
“Isn’t that why you followed me? You were afraid I’d get in trouble pretending to be you. And you were right. That’s what happened. That’s what always happens when I’m trying to be you.”
“So don’t,” Antonio tells me. “Just be yourself.”
“You mean be my disappointing self?”
“You do realize the fact that you’re disappointing people means they expect something of you, right? They know what you’re really capable of.”
I pause. I never thought of it that way.
“I know what you’re capable of,” Antonio goes on. “I know you’re smarter and stronger and you have a bigger heart than you give yourself credit for. You think you’re disappointing other people, but in truth, you’re just disappointed in yourself. But you don’t have to be. Stop putting yourself down. Stop trying to be me.”
I say nothing. Damn it. What can I say when I know everything he’s just said is true?
Antonio places a hand on my shoulder. “Promise me you’ll never pretend to be me again.”
I lift my chin and meet his serious gaze.
“Promise me,” he insists.
I let out a breath and nod. “Okay. I promise.”
Antonio beams proudly as he pats my shoulder. “Good.”
~
Good? I’m a fool. I fulfilled my promise never to pretend to be Antonio again, but it wasn’t enough. I should have made him promise never to pretend to be me, too.
