Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 104745 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104745 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
As if she’s trying.
Weird.
She’s still offering me that hand; slender with long, delicate fingers. I stare down at that hand as if it were a foreign object I’ve never seen before, and I damn sure don’t want to shake it.
“What…are you guys doin’ here?”
“During class, the silly goof kept pretending not to know me.” Daisy pats my brother on the arm, smiling up at him. “Wouldn’t even sit by me. So during the break, I marched up to him and told him he was taking me on another date whether he liked it or not.”
“I can’t believe how much the two of you look alike.”
She peers at me closely, scrutinizing my face, neck, and chest.
The gash in my eyebrow—the one Drew does not have.
Certainly, she can put two and two together?
Most people can’t, but Daisy? She’s observant and has commented on that scar a few times, so surely…
“That’s the thing with twins,” I mutter sarcastically. “We tend to look alike.”
As if in slow motion, I finally extend my hand so it slides into hers, slowly pumping up and down robotically. I can't very well admit or declare that it was me she'd been on the date with or that I had been lying to her this entire time.
I feel absolutely sick to my stomach watching her standing so close to my brother while her other hand is in mine.
“We’re going up to my room to watch a movie,” my brother says.
“Up to your room?” I repeat. “Isn’t that movin’ a little fast?” I laugh. “The two of you just met.”
“Just met?” Daisy giggles again. “We’ve been chatting off and on for like, two or three weeks, and we were on a date Wednesday. It feels like forever, though, doesn’t it?”
Feels like forever?
I almost toss my cookies when their foreheads touch and they rub noses.
Is this a joke?
It has to be a joke.
I look around, feeling trapped in my own skin and my own kitchen, with no escape.
“Are you sure you don’t want to watch a movie down here? Together?”
“Together? No.” Drew cocks his head and informs me that, “Two is company, three is a crowd.”
He goes to the counter and grabs two apples, a bag of popcorn that’s been sitting there, open, for at least a week, and goes to the fridge for two waters. Then he snags a bag of chocolate chip cookies while he’s at it with a wink.
“Gonna need fuel.”
Fuel. “For what?”
“You know.” This from Daisy, who wraps her arms around my brothers waist, squeezing.
Where was all the PDA when she and I were on our date?
“No,” I say, point blank. “I don’t know.”
“I’ve missed him so much.” Daisy wraps her hand around my brother’s bicep and squeezes. Which, by the way, they’re not nearly as ripped and big as mine—a fact I can’t point out or I’ll sound like a megadouche.
Missed him so much?
Clingy much?
They don’t even know each other! So what the hell are they doing, going up to his room and snuggling and getting all cozy like they’ve been in a relationship for months.
Because she thinks he’s you.
So?
Seriously, what the fuck. They’ve been on one date.
One.
Correction: She and I have been on one date.
I am the one who was talking to her.
What the hell is Drew doing acting a fool, acting like he knows her?
For real.
What is going on?
Is my jaw clenching? It feels like it is.
I rub it to be sure, wishing I’d shaved this morning but didn’t because I was feeling hella lazy.
“Are you okay, bro? You look like you’re gettin’ sick.”
“I’m fine.”
Leave me alone.
Drew reaches out to lay his hand on me, and I flinch, not wanting him to touch me. Not when I can’t wrap my brain around what’s going on.
This wasn’t supposed to happen—obviously. A clusterfuck of epic proportions—of my own doing—because I was doing my brother a goddamn favor!
Look how he repays me: coming home with the girl I’d chosen for him and taking a page out of my playbook: pretending to be me that was pretending to be him.
That shit.
I bite my tongue, staring down at the bowl of chicken and pasta, my appetite completely gone. I want to stand and storm out of the room, but I also don't want to look like a little baby who's pouting in front of his brother because he's not getting his way. Actually, comically I am getting my way. Isn't this what I wanted? For my brother to find a girlfriend so that he would be happier and not so mopey, and not so focused on school and football? So that he would have a life outside of those things?
I stay planted in the chair, listening as they head up the stairs. Listening when they close his bedroom door, only the sound of footprints above and the muffled sounds of laughter fill the air.