I leaned against her railing and cocked a smile. “Evening, my arch nemesis.”
“What are you doing here? How do you know where I live?” Shay asked, her brows knitting together in confusion.
“Raine told me your address.”
“Raine talks too much.”
“It’s her favorite pastime.”
“Now back to my original question.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?”
I shook out my piece of paper and cleared my throat. “We need rules of engagement for the bet.”
“Rules of engagement?”
“Our bet doesn’t work if we aren’t actively spending time together.”
“That’s why I love the bet.”
“That’s not the point of the bet, though.” I took a step toward her.
“I don’t care to win. I just want you to lose. And I can’t fall in love with you if I’m never around you.”
“Then I’ll find a way to be around you.”
“Not going to happen. Even with school, I’ll avoid you. Especially when I get a part in the fall Shakespeare show. All my nights will be occupied.”
“I can wait ’til school’s in session.”
“Did you hear me say I’ll avoid you?”
“You won’t be able to. I’ll audition for the same show, get a part, and we’ll be forced to hang out with one another, not a problem.”
She huffed with strong disbelief. “You wouldn’t get a part.”
“I would definitely get a part.”
“Have you ever acted a day in your life before?”
If only you knew, Chick. My whole persona is an act.
I shrugged. “Can’t be that hard.”
She snickered, shaking her head. “You really think it’s that easy?”
“I know it’s that easy.” Did I really? No. But I knew a little about Shakespeare. Lance was a massive fan, and after he died, I got his Shakespeare collection. Whenever I missed him, I’d read one of the plays.
I’d read them all ten times over.
I spent the next few weeks leading up to the auditions forRomeo and Julietpracticing my acting skills and collecting as much dirt on Shay as I could from Maria and Raine. Anything they mentioned about Shay, I plugged into my brain.
I tried getting her odd cousin, Eleanor Gable, to give Greyson information at a party a few weeks back, but she was too busy reading a book. Yes, you read that right: Eleanor took a novel to a house party. And she wore a dragonfly cardigan. Needless to say, she wasn’t much help. Greyson gave me a hard time for calling the girl weird. He seemed to have a soft spot for her. I didn’t hate that for him. He had a lot of bad days. He deserved something—or someone—that gave him a few good ones, too.
On Friday, August30th, I headed to the high school to audition for the show. As I walked into the auditorium, Shay spotted me right away.
“Are you kidding me right now?” she gasped. We hadn’t interacted in weeks since I decided to audition for the show. I was almost certain she figured I’d moved on from the bet and it was over and void.
Wrong.