Dangerous Play

30 » get the ball rolling

I perched on the edge of Felicity's bed and watched as she meticulously applied a set of fake eyelashes. The quilted white duvet bunched under me as I shifted to get a better view. "How do you do that so well?"

"Witchcraft," Rose said from her position in front of Felicity's bathroom mirror. She released another section of hair from the curling wand. "And human sacrifices."

Felicity huffed. "Practice, Rosie dear. Abby, I'd be happy to teach you sometime."

I eyed the tube of eyelash glue on the counter. "Um... I'm good, thanks."

The weekend had finally arrived, and with it, formal preparations. It'd been a tradition since freshman year to meet at Felicity's house and get ready for the dance together. I wasn't going with them to homecoming, but I could still enjoy our pre-dance hang out and snap a few pictures. In fact, I was sure there was a picture of the three of us, grinning with mouths full of braces (Felicity and me) and pimply skin (Rose) floating around somewhere.

It certainly wouldn't be in Felicity's magazine catalog-style room, though. She would never put up a photo where she looked anything other than perfect. Or something that didn't match her aesthetic, which was mostly white with some gray and pink accents.

"So, are you excited for this fancy gala with Kieran?" Felicity prompted, jolting me out of memory lane. "By the way, watch out for the shrimp ceviche—it's dangerously addictive."

I hesitated just a beat too long. "Yeah, it should be fun."

Rose paused in the middle of curling her hair to shoot me a look. "Then why don't you sound more enthused about it?"

If there was anything I was ready to be done with in this fake relationship, it was definitely the lying to my friends part. Then again... since we were almost done, it couldn't hurt to tell them, right?

I settled on a half-truth. Better to clue them in slowly. "I think Kieran wants to break up with me."

"Thank God," Felicity said. I blinked at her in surprise. "I mean, it's not good that he wants to break up. I was just tired of being the only one with relationship drama."

I almost snorted at the irony. If only she knew the whole story.

Rose set the curling wand down on the counter and came to sit by me on the bed. "Why would you think he wants to break up?"

Because he told me so. I fidgeted with one of the pleats on Felicity's duvet. "Just a feeling, I guess. He's kind of hinted at it."

"Well, you don't want that, right?" Felicity pressed.

"No, of course not," I said, surprising myself with the speed and sincerity of the response. It had become easier and easier to slip into the role of the fake girlfriend, though I refused to dwell on what that meant. "But I don't know what to do about it."

Felicity fluffed her golden curls in the mirror. "If you ask me, I wouldn't worry too much about it. He'll change his mind, and if he doesn't, he'll be back as soon as he realizes what he's missing."

"Considering Felicity and Ash's track record," Rose said, ignoring the glare our icy-eyed friend shot her, "I would take that advice with a grain of salt."

The two of us laughed at that. Felicity narrowed her eyes at us before cracking a smile. "Fine, joke about it. At least we're on good terms now." She checked her phone. "In fact, he's picking us up in half an hour."

I shook my head, still in disbelief that the two of them were going to homecoming together as just friends. They went from screaming their heads off at each other at Maddox's party just over a month ago to this? I never would have predicted it.