Chapter 24

Evelyn

I struggle to get the memories out of my head of the night at the racetrack. Hearing his story about the friend Sebastian lost a few years ago has me trying to put pieces of the puzzle together before I find the actual pieces.

He doesn’t usually act this open with me. Sometimes, it slips out, or he’s so frustrated he yells at me to be honest. But this felt so much more planned and genuine.

It was as if I was meeting part of the man I didn’t realize was hidden inside.

When I met Sebastian, all I saw was a pompous yet attractive man. And through these past few months, I’ve watched him come out of his shell bit by bit.

But he’s still incredibly guarded. And maybe that’s because of me and my inability to fully let us be together.

“Earth to Evelyn! Hello, Evelyn?” I hear, jostling me from my thoughts.

“What? Huh?” I ask, startled. Ava and Olivia are both staring at me so intensely I feel as if they’re going to burn holes into my skin.

“I asked you if you did the reading for class?” Olivia voices. “You get lost in your head?”

I smile sheepishly. “Sorry.”

“You doing alright?” Ava questions. “Yes, you look lost, but you also look…I can’t put my finger on it.”

I shake my head. “Oh, no, I just have a bunch of stuff to think about for homework. I was plotting out how to put together some stuff the next few days.”

Ava must see the lies because she narrows her eyes. Olivia, however, goes back to eating her food.

“We should do something,” she says after taking a bite of her sandwich. “I can’t remember the last time I stayed up late with some girlfriends and gossiped.”

“Ohh, what if we do like a sleepover?” Ava squeals. “I come to your place and we do a bunch of stuff? Movies, mani’s, you name it!”

I feel a rush of heat hit me, and I wonder if that’s such a good idea given everything going on with Sebastian right now.

“That sounds so fun, I’m in!” Olivia says.

The two look at me again, and I swallow a bite of fries as I contemplate what to say.

“Come on, Evelyn! It’ll be good for us. We’ve been so busy with school. Let’s do something spontaneous and fun!” Olivia vows.

Knowing I can’t argue with these two, I roll my eyes but give them my best smile. “Okay, fine, we can have a sleepover.”

“Yay!” The other two cheer, and immediately start putting plans together.

“What are we celebrating, ladies?” A voice asks from behind me.

I turn around and see Sebastian towering over me. It’s been a few days since I last saw him, but never too long to start teasing him.

“Are you tracking me, Sebastian?” I push.

“Who, little old me?” He asks, batting his eyelashes at the three of us. I hear Olivia laughing as Sebastian shoo’s the thought away. “Guess we’ll never know!”

The other two giggle again, but I feel my stomach do a flip. I know he’s just teasing and messing with me, but the fact he continues to show up at all times makes me wonder what he hopes to gain from doing this.

“We’re just talking about having a little sleepover at our place,” I interject at random.

Way to act normal, Evelyn.

“Oh? No boys allowed I presume?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On if you think you’re truly a man.”

Ava slaps the table with a laugh, covering her mouth. “Ha! Good one, Evelyn!”

The man smirks from his stance above me. “Very funny,” he says before he bends down and whispers, “Very funny indeed, Princess.”

I roll my eyes. “Did you need something, Sebastian?”

“Just to bother the three of you. I’ve got to get to class, but hope your little girl party is fun.”

He waves us off and heads out of the dining hall.

“You said you didn’t know Sebastian when we met him in the lobby, right?” Olivia asks me as we finishing our laughter.

“Yeah?” I question.

“It’s just that you two seem to, like, know each other really well.”

I hope the warmth in my cheeks and stomach doesn’t show because that’d be really bad. “No, I really haven’t known him long; I mean it.”

It’s not a lie. I’ve only known him for a short time. Just not as short as Olivia thinks.

“Why do you ask?” Ava jumps in, and I see her eyes trying to figure out what to say to either of us.

“He’s just around a lot. Seems to show up when we’re out or when we’re just chilling. I don’t know. It feels like he might like you.”

Of course, as she says this, I’ve started to drink my water.

I start coughing as it goes down the wrong pipe, pounding on my chest to get the spasms to stop. Holy shit, is that really what she thinks? Is it so obvious?

“No,” I wheeze. “We’re just friends.”

Ava looks at me and then at Olivia. I have a feeling she’s questioning why I continue to lie about our status as stepsiblings, but it’s too difficult to explain.

The longer the lie continues, the harder it is to admit we’ve been keeping our history a secret. And Ava only met me like, twice before Olivia came around. I don’t want to have to explain the whole truth.

It’s not like it’s going to make things any easier to understand.

“Besides Olivia, I have much more important things to worry about than Sebastian. He’s cool, but there’s nothing there.”

Hopefully, however, she doesn’t think we’re stepsiblings. If we're caught in that lie, that alone is going to be incredibly difficult to explain.

But now, I have to worry about Olivia thinking Sebastian likes me, or worse, that I like him back! I’m going to have to figure something out.

God, when did being friends with people become so goddamn complicated?

“Hm. Okay. I just thought I saw something there. Guess I’m wrong.” Olivia sighs but quickly changes the subject again.

After we finish eating and planning the night, we separate to finish classes for the day before congregating back at our place later.

I use this time to come up with easy lies if Olivia tries to question me again. I’ll insist I’ve heard Sebastian has a girlfriend or something and that there’s no possible way he’d like me.

And then, I question if it’d be easier to just tell the truth.

Absolutely the hell not.

Olivia, Ava, and I spend our sleepover watching a couple of older rom-coms before we start looking up cute guys in our classes.

“Rodney is in my Spanish class; I wonder if he has a girlfriend?” Ava ponders, typing in his name.

“Oh, I have to see if Grant has any social media. He’d be really fun to go out with!” Olivia claps her hands together.

I don’t add to this list of searches. It’s not like I’ve noticed any guys lately.

Besides Sebastian, anyway.

“Do you know if Sebastian has any social media accounts?” Olivia ponders.

Ava looks up at me. I honestly don’t even know the answer.

“Not sure. Maybe he does,” I say.

“If he does I can imagine it’d be private,” Ava adds. “He seems like the kind of person to have a private page as well as a public page.”

“Like a double life?” Olivia asks.

“More like a place for fans, and a place for real friends.”

We search Sebastian and we only find one page. It is a public account, but we don’t have the option to add him as a friend.

“Damn, so boring,” Olivia groans.

Ava’s eyes once again meet mine. Is she reading my mind? This is getting insane.

“Well, maybe next time we see him, ask if you can follow him on here,” I insist to Olivia, though that’s the last thing I want. “Maybe he’ll say yes.”

Olivia squeaks. “That’s such a great idea! Ugh, I wish I had the guts to ask him out. There’s no way he’d say yes, though.”

I almost choke a second time for the day, whipping my head to my roommate. “What?”

“Yeah, I wanna ask him out, but I don’t know if he’s seeing someone or whatever. He’s just so hot!”

“I don’t see it,” Ava interjects, stopping me from having to answer. “Cool dude. Not hot.”

“You must think I’m so crazy then,” Olivia laughs, hiding her face in her hands. “I can’t help it!”

I touch Olivia’s back, pretending to console her because the last thing I wanna continue talking about is my stepbrother. “Not crazy. He’s just not worth any amount of heartbreak, Liv.”

She nods. “I guess. But doesn’t stop his being hot.”

After the lights are out and everyone turns to go to sleep, I find myself staring up at the ceiling.

God. I really need to sort out these feelings.

Now I get why Sebastian is absolutely sick of my back-and-forth.