"Aurora Anderson told me that Cameron saw you and Kai making out in the Horny Corny," said Cora, making a face. She dumped her lunchbox on the table, climbing into the seat between Jamie and Will, making a face. "The Horny Corny, Valerie. Over the console and everything."
Cora did not like the Horny Corny. This was unsurprising, as Cora wasn't exactly fond of many things involving teenage debouchery, but she had a special hatred for the school's infamous hook-up corner. She had a moral objection to the name, which she called both 'ridiculous' and 'disgusting', a fact that was true, but she also hated it because she was the first one to get her license in our year, and she'd famously taken Todd Cohen there at the start of term. Which wouldn't have been embarrassing, really, except that the make out had lasted for roughly four seconds before Cora had pulled away and promptly decided she never wanted a repeat. Before Todd told the entire year level that she'd banged him in the back seat. No one believe him, because, well, it was Cora, but Cora was still humiliated by the encounter.
Not that she had any objections when Tommy and I had used the spot, or when Sydney had taken half the year level there, sometimes in my car. Cora was more of the silent judgement type; she had mastered the superior look.
"Really?" said Jamie, perking up at Cora's words and the prospect of gossip. "Rachel Heath told me that she was straddling him in the passenger seat and they were going at it like two religious kids deciding that dry humping doesn't count."
"Is that offensive?" Seb inquired, looking up from his salad—the same pre-made supermarket type as mine—to rest his chin on his hand. He pointed at Jameson with his fork. "I don't know if that's offensive, but I think it might be."
Jameson shrugged. He seemed to enjoy saying things that might be slightly controversial, but somehow managed to toe the line enough that everyone liked him for it anyway.
"Jack told me that they banged in the back seat," said Will. Cora and Jameson turned to to stare at him, gaping, while he raised a burrito to his mouth. When he noticed, he put the burrito down, meeting their stares with a roll of his eyes. "Well, obviously I didn't believe him."
Three sets of eyes swivelled to me. I was avoiding their gaze, staring down at my salad and poking experimentally at my lettuce with a fork.
"Should I have?" Will said.
I looked up. The four of them blinked owlishly, curious. "I'm with Seb, Jamie. Not sure how it's offensive, but feel like it might be."
Seb looked mollified, Cora looked horrified and Jamie was laughing. "Yo, you fucked Delaney in the Horny Corny? Damn, Williams, I would not have picked that from you. A secret wildcat. High five."
He held his hand up and I slapped it away. "Oh, fuck off, James. I did not."
Jameson, who was the Horny Corny's most frequent visitor, shrugged and looked slightly disappointed in us. He seemed to enjoy the whole prospect of hedonistic behaviour, even if he wasn't the one partaking. Most likely for the gossip, more than any particular investment in our sex life.
Our fake sex life.
Cora tapped my hand, seeking my attention. "So, what happened then?"
She was wide-eyed, curious. I couldn't blame her. Kai was like her brother; they'd grown up together. And I was, for all intents and purposes, her best friend. Even if I hadn't always been the best at being one. Even though I'd always picked Sydney.
I felt the heavy weight of stares; Jamie looked alert, Will curious, Seb interested.
I coughed. "Jamie's information is usually pretty accurate."
Jameson let out a whoop that was both surprised and vindicated. He prided himself on being accurate, and loved to be proved right. Will and Seb exchanged an amused glance, before Seb was forced to drag Jamie back into his seat before he announced to half the lunchroom that I'd done the religious-school equivalent of banging with Kai Delaney in the passenger seat of his car.
Cora stared at me as if she'd never seen me before. "What?"
I hoped my acting was better than I thought when I sullenly speared a piece of tomato with my fork. "Well, it was supposed to be a secret."
Jameson was chuckling. "Valerie Williams, welcome to the Horny Corny. It's the least secretive secret on the planet, if you're going to show up in Delaney's shitbox, especially when you two are the topic of so much discussion. And especially when you're riding him like you're a Western cowboy and he's the horse taking you to rescue a damsel in distress. Valiant effort for secrecy, but everyone is going to know within, oh, already."
I hid a secret smile. Jamie had laid out my plan in almost excruciatingly accurate detail. But he believed it. Not that he hadn't believed everything else, but still. I hoped Tommy believed it. It had been almost a week since his date; not close enough to seem like a vengeful act undertaken in the heat of the moment. Hidden, deliberate, coincidental. That was what Kai and I needed to exude. And where Jamie was concerned, we had.
Kiss my ass, Tommy Aster.
"These aren't words I ever thought I'd say," said Seb. "But Jamie is right."
Jamie looked delighted. "I mean, ignore the cowboy metaphor, but you were always going to be caught. The shitbox is too recognisable, and people are too curious."
"It was such a dumb idea," said Jamie wistfully, looking skyward as if wishing he had thought of it himself. "But I mean, fucking hats off to you two."
"Thanks, Jameson," I said wryly.
Will was staring at me with a strange expression on his face; something confused and calculating. I shifted slightly. I didn't know what Will found in his study, but he shrugged and returned to his food without voicing whatever thought had come to him.
Isabelle bounced over to the table, appearing behind Will with her customary sunny smile. She ducked her chin in between Will and Cora's shoulders, conspiratorially. "I heard something super gross," she said in a half-whisper, her eyes sparkling. "Are you my sister-in-girlfriend, Valerie?"
Will handed her one of the chips that came with his burrito without asking, and Isabelle took it, biting the end off with relish. "Why must you always make up phrases?" he asked, looking over at her.
Izzy grinned and head-butted his shoulder affectionately, like a cat. "Because it's fun. So, Valerie?"
How to play this? Kai and I weren't pretending to be an official couple yet. It was too soon, too questionable. But I couldn't deny the idea wholeheartedly; because soon enough, Kai Delaney would be my boyfriend, in the eyes of the world. Plus, you know, it was a discussion I was having with his baby sister, who would want zero details outside of the new status of our relationship.
I shrugged. "I have no idea what you heard, but we're just friends, sort of. I don't know. We're going to see what happens. It's kind of a thing but also not really and we haven't properly discussed it but I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually? I think."
I couldn't read the emotion on Cora's face; she looked still, frozen, as if the revelation was something she hadn't anticipated, not really. Then she shrugged elegantly, the movement almost too fluid, and said, "Huh." A small smile teased the corner of her lips.
"What's huh?"
"You ramble when you're nervous," said Cora, looking down. "It's interesting, is all."
Apparently, this was a tell I needed to work on. I was a quiet person, goddamn. Why couldn't I shut up once I was on a roll?
"Not nervous," I said, infusing as much Zen and casual vibes into my voice as I could, without sounding like I was trying too hard to be Zen and casual and therefore undercutting said attempts to be Zen and casual. It was a complete balancing act. I was not built to be an actress. "Just... figuring things out."
Seb shrugged and seemed to accept this response, and Jamie seemed similarly uninterested now that the topic of discussion didn't involve lewd encounters in the Horny Corny. Isabelle just looked disappointed that I wasn't sending out wedding invitations, which was flattering more than anything. At least she seemed to like me enough to want me around, long term. I'd miss her when Kai and I ended the charade. But maybe, just maybe, I'd get to keep Isabelle and the others. Even Kai. We were friends, at least, right?
Only Will and Cora seemed to remain curious; Will's curiosity was a careful blankness that was a little too focussed to seem real, and Cora made no attempt to hide her blatant scepticism.
Fortunately, Kai's arrival interrupted slew of questions that Cora was sure to have asked.
I felt him before I saw him. Opposite me, Jamie's eyes lit up and Will grinned at his friend, but it wasn't just that that alerted me to his presence. Something in me was so attuned to him; the warmth of his body behind me, something in the way he moved, breathed, existed. It was almost like the way I'd once been in sync with Sydney, except with the fun additional perk that I thought way too often about making out with him quite thoroughly, and would probably enjoy riding him around like a bad, bad pony. In the, you know, fake relationship kind of way.
"Hey, Delaney," Jameson said, as Kai clambered into the seat beside me. He had bought the same chips as Will from the cafeteria, and the smell of salt and fried potato was delicious. "Would you mind answering a question for me?"
Kai brushed his hand against my shoulder in a way that was familiar, a light, casual touch that suggested he was comfortable with touching me, that it wasn't something conscious or significant, because he'd done it so many times before. Of course, he hadn't, so my entire arm tingled, and I felt every point of contact as if every single one of my nerve endings resided just below the skin that he touched.
I smiled up at him, warm and nervous, and the glimmer in his eyes was both amused and heady. He didn't seem to be listening to Jamie, and I could see in the curve of his smile that he too was thinking about our charade in the car. Isabelle made a faint gagging noise, and Jamie made an impatient sound that demanded an answer to his question.
"Probably," said Kai, without any trace of exasperation. "Will that stop you asking it?"
"No," said Jamie, without any trace of contrition. "When Isabelle learned carpentry, did she practise by hammering nails into your most important brain regions?"
Isabelle laughed.
Will hid his smile ineffectively behind a chip, and Seb's grin stretched slow across his face. I stole one of Kai's chips and threw it at Jamie.
"That was rude," Jameson informed me.
I made a face at him. "You called us dumb!"
"Because you were dumb."
I looked to the girls for support. Isabelle just gave me a thumbs up; she'd apparently been too engrossed in the fine subterfuge of secretly sequestering Will's food for herself, with a slow, hesitant hand to detract attention, which had not worked even once. Will just slapped her hand away, on principle, before silently pushing half his meal to the other side of the tray for her to take. Clearly, she had not been listening to the conversation.
Cora just shrugged. "It was pretty dumb."
"Thanks, Cora and James," said Kai drily. He turned to look at me. "So, does everyone know about this morning?"
I shrugged with an impassive casualness that I certainly did not feel. My heart was thumping beneath my sweater, the sharp pitter-patter of nerves. "Apparently."
Kai sighed. "Jamie, how many people did you tell?"
Jamie looked affronted. "Why are you looking at me?"
"If everyone knows, it's usually you. Or Isabelle."
Now it was Isabelle's turn to look grumpy; her attention returned to the conversation after she'd eaten half of Will's food. "Oi!"
"Not this time, mate. You and Valerie Williams as an item—" Jameson wiggled his fingers at us "— is big ticket news. My skills aren't required for it to spread around the school. I'm just here to make sure the information stays accurate. You know, unless you want people saying that you slept together and let Will watch."
I wrinkled my nose. I had never been more glad that Jameson was regarded by the school as the most trustworthy source of information and gossip. Because, ew.
Will looked disgusted. "Did someone say that?"
"Jackie Renault."
"Gross."
Jamie shrugged, a teasing glimmer in his eyes. "You always were a prude."
Isabelle slapped him upside the head admonishingly, laughing as she did so, and Jamie was grinning as Kai loudly voiced his protests. Seb just shook his head with disapproval.
Jameson caught Seb's eye and wiggled his brows suggestively, and when Seb rolled his eyes, Jamie just sighed as if the world, as a whole, was against him.
"I think..." said Kai in my ear, his breath stirring my hair just enough to make me shiver, and maybe also to remember when he'd chased the line of my throat with his lips. "That whatever we did worked."
I looked up at him. From this close, I could see a faint spattering of freckles across his nose. So tiny you couldn't see them unless you really looked. "What?" I said breathlessly.
Kai's nod was almost imperceptible, and when I followed his gaze, I watched Tommy impale a tomato from his salad as if it had personally wronged his bloodline.
"Huh," I said. "Maybe we'll have to do it again sometime."
Kai's eyes lit up, surprised and amused and something else. "Valerie Williams, how forward of you."
"What can I say, I'm a forward kind of girl."
"I'm figuring that out," said Kai. "I just can't believe I never noticed."
"Not everyone can be observant," I said casually. "I'm going to do something super forward. That okay with you?"
"Everything is okay with me when it comes to you." Kai lowered his voice. "What else is a fake boyfriend-to-be for?"
I grinned, and, knowing that Tommy was watching, but mostly just because I wanted to, I brushed the hair from his eyes and dropped a small, featherlight kiss to his lips. I heard Kai's breath catch and it made me smile.
"Ew, Kai, people are eating," said Isabelle.
I pulled away without looking at Kai. Izzy's nose was scrunched in disgust, but she seemed happy regardless. Her eyes sparkled, like maybe she enjoyed her brother's happiness. What would she say if she knew it was fake?
"Will isn't," Kai pointed out. "Because you stole all his food."
Isabelle gasped. "You noticed that?"
"Were you trying to stop us from noticing?" inquired Will, who had allowed the theft without complaint.
"I'll buy you a burger on the way home," said Izzy, patting Will's shoulder. "Promise."
"On the way home?"
"It's Bachelor night, William. You can't miss it."
"I don't like the Bachelor. I don't know why you would think I am watching the rest of the season," said Will, but at Izzy's pleading gaze, he visibly sagged. "Fine. You're buying me that burger."
Isabelle grinned and waved us a cheery goodbye, before skipping back over to her friends and immediately falling into raucous chatter.
Jamie shook his head. "You always say yes to her, bro. You're like, whipped, but not even in the romantic way. It's just in the sad puppy-dog way."
Will levelled him with an unimpressed stare. "I know for a fact that you did a two day modelling shoot for her when she asked last year. I've seen the pictures. You wore a purple tutu. And a flower crown."
Jamie's mouth fell open. "She told you?"
"I'm her favourite," said Will, smugly. "And you're her bitch."
"You all let her boss you around," said Cora. "It's cute."
Jamie and Will, in a shared moment of manly camaraderie, pulled identical faces of protest. Kai and Seb were laughing, and I couldn't help my own smile.
"You're all her bitch," said Kai. "It's sad."
"She's very... determined," said Will.
Jamie looked ruefully at his meal. "It's the puppy dog eyes, man. You Delaney's have these puppy dog eyes and they should be illegal." He pointed at Kai. "At least you use them for good, like making me do my homework and stop ghosting my therapist. She's a devious siren who uses them for nefarious intentions. They're magical."
"Don't blame magic for the purple tutu, Jamie," said Seb, leaning his elbow on the table. "No Delaney eyes could ever convince me to wear those tights."
"She showed you too?" Jamie squawked, and I was laughing and Kai was laughing and all of my newfound friends were laughing, and even though my relationship with Kai was fake—would always be fake—this was real.
I wasn't allowed to be in love with him, would never, ever let myself do something quite that stupid. But as Jameson threatened Isabelle's life, and Cora exclaimed through giggles that he would never be able to go through with it, and would probably wind up in a wedding gown photo shoot, and as Will was smiling at Kai with shared affection, I could acknowledge that I was a little in love with all of these people. In love with the sound of their laughs, and the answering joy that unfurled within my chest.