“I guess. Right now, I’m more worried about my grandmother. You’ve never met her, but let me tell you, Asian grandmothers are not to be messed with.”
“Just take my advice and find a fake boyfriend!”
“Like who?”
She paused. “Well…that cute guy from the party, James, asked for your number…”
I was horrified. “You want me to ask James to be my fake boyfriend? I barely even know him!”
“So? It’s not like you’re really dating! Although you guys would make a cute couple.”
I rolled my eyes. Venice never got tired of trying to set me up with someone.
“By the way, did he ever call you?”
“Oh. Uh…yeah,” I admitted reluctantly. I still haven’t told her about my little adventure with Roman and Carlo today.
“And?! What happened? Give me all the details!” Venice gushed, sounding completely recovered at the mention of the phone call.
I had no choice but to recount the story of what happened this afternoon. Knowing Venice, she was going to find out anyway.
“Wait, you went to Roman Fiori’s house?” she squealed when I’d finished. “And Carlo Tevasco gave you a ride home? Maya, that’s great!”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it.
Sometimes, Venice just amazed me. She really did. “What part of being kidnapped is great?”
“That part where your kidnapper is the most gorgeous guy on earth,” she retorted. “Hey, maybe Roman or Carlo can pretend to be your boyfriend!”
I almost choked on my own spit at the sheer ridiculousness of the idea. “Yeah, right,” I snorted. “First of all, need I remind you Roman and I don’t actually get along? He’s the reason why I’ve spent all my allowance money on dry cleaning! Plus, and you can quote me on this, the day Roman Fiori becomes my boyfriend—whether real or fake—is the day hell freezes over.”
* * *
Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.
I shot a pointed look at the petite brunette who had been glaring at me for the past half hour, and she turned away with a huff.
Weird. Actually, this whole week had been weird.
I came to school Monday expecting more abuse, but instead I’d gotten…nothing. Oh, sure, there’d been stares and whispers, but there had been no pranks, no nasty messages scrawled on my locker, nothing thrown on me.
It actually creeped me out a lot more than any snake or thrown food could.
When the bell finally rang, I was torn between relief and dread. On the one hand, it was always good to get out of Valesca as fast as I could; on the other, my grandmother was going to be waiting at home, and I still hadn’t figured out a way to ward off her matchmaking advances.
I grabbed my bag and pushed past the other students, ignoring their silent stares. Well, if they’d all had brain transplants or something last weekend, that wasn’t my problem.
“Hey, Maya!”
I turned, my jaw dropping when I saw who it was.
“So, where are you heading?” Parker asked casually, like we’d been friends forever or something.
“Uh…home.” I eyed him suspiciously, gripping the strap of my backpack tighter and increasing my pace. Sadly, since I was a whole head shorter than him, he managed to match my pace perfectly.
“Want a ride?”
I rolled my eyes. Why were all the Scions trying to give me rides lately?
“No thanks.”
“Are you sure? Because it looks like it’s about to rain,” Parker cautioned, opening the door for me and tilting his chin in the direction of the sky, which did look alarmingly gray and stormy.
I bit my lip. Usually, I don’t mind walking in the rain, but with my grandmother here, I didn’t need another lecture on how I never took care of myself, how I was going to get sick, blah blah blah.
“Come on, you know you want to,” Parker cajoled with a charming smile.
Well, I guess he’d never outright been mean to me. Actually, he’d been pretty nice about the whole beer thing…
“Fine. Thanks,” I conceded grudgingly. I couldn’t believe I was willingly getting into a car with Parker Remington, the biggest player since Casanova.
Maybe I’d fallen and smacked my head on the pavement but just didn’t remember it. Because, you know, I had smacked my head on the pavement.
“This is turning out to be a bit of a pattern, isn’t it?” Parker asked, sounding amused as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“What is?” I shrugged out of my hot, itchy blazer. For something so expensive, it sure wasn’t very comfortable.