“There you are,” Tina says. “Why are you hiding in here?” She looks me over, then raises an eyebrow. “And why are you all out of breath? And your hair is a mess.” She throws her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I have the worst timing, don’t I?”
My face gets hot as I realize what she’s implying. I fight the urge to look at Oliver and gauge his reaction. “Don’t you know how to knock?” I ask Tina.
She snorts. “Apparently not. But hey, I wouldn’t have come if you had just told me you two were in the middle of something.”
I roll my eyes. If I had thought of that, then I wouldn’t have needed to rush over here and climb through a window.
“Anyway, here’s your shirt.” She tosses it at me, then takes a step back. “I have to run. Ryan’s waiting for me in the car.”
With that, she turns around and walks out the door, leaving me and Oliver standing in his room. I stare after her, feeling stunned.
“Did you know that Ryan was out there?” Oliver asks slowly once we’re alone in his house.
I shake my head. “If I did, I wouldn’t have crept across your yard and climbed through your window like I’m a secret agent.”
He snorts. “You didn’t exactly look like a secret agent out there.”
“It’s not my fault your window is ridiculously high.”
“It keeps burglars out.”
“And fake girlfriends, apparently.” I groan. “Do you think he saw me out there?” I ask, returning to the revelation that Ryan was in Tina’s car this whole time.
“How could he not? They were parked right in front of you.”
“He could have been distracted. Maybe he was looking at his phone.”
“Was he?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I didn’t see him.”
Oliver sighs, shaking his head. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. They’re going to want to know why you ran across my yard and climbed through the window when you were supposed to be inside already.”
We both turn to watch the front door like Tina and Ryan might pop back in at any second to interrogate us for our weird behavior. I don’t realize that I’m holding my breath until it’s been a minute. I exchange a look with Oliver, and then we both walk to his front door and peek through the window. Their car is gone.
“They drove away,” I say, stating the obvious.
“Maybe we should make out in case this is just a trick and they’re about to come back inside to surprise us.”
I turn away from the window to look at him. He’s watching me with an amused grin. I think about how close I came to kissing him the other day when Tina and Ryan were nowhere to be seen. I know that we’re doing this to trick them, but for some reason the reminder of that hits differently right now. I can’t say this to him because he’ll just laugh at me.
“I should probably go,” I say.
He frowns. “You just got here. Why not stay a little while?”
“I was about to go to bed when Tina texted me. I wouldn’t want to end up falling asleep on your couch again.”
“I don’t mind,” he says. I raise an eyebrow. “I mean, why rush out of here? You might end up at a stoplight right next to Tina and Ryan and then they’ll wonder why you left right after them.”
“Fine. I’ll wait a minute and then leave. That should give them plenty of time to get ahead of me.” I look at my phone to see what time it is. I lean against the front door, waiting for a minute to pass.
Oliver’s smile fades. “Wow. You really can’t stand to be around me any longer than absolutely necessary, huh?”
I’m taken aback by his abrupt change in attitude. “What? No. I just told you I was ready to go to bed when Tina texted me.”
“You should have just gone to bed, then.” He steps toward me and grabs the doorknob. I move out of the way as he pulls the front door open. I look out at his dark front yard through the open doorway, and then I look at him. Both of us stand there for a moment, him holding the door open, and me staring at him. I can’t believe he’s acting like this.
“Are you really this upset because I don’t want to stay and hang out with you?”
