Clique Bait - Ann Valett Page 0,82

that kiss certainly was.

“Chloe,” William said, his hand cupping my cheek. “I . . . You know I really care about you.”

“Yes,” I whispered. He’d shown that.

“It was out of guilt at first. For everything that happened to Mon. But it’s more than that now,” he confessed, before dropping his hand, only to run it through his mussed hair instead. “That’s why I wanted to stop fake dating. I can’t tell what’s real anymore.”

“Me either.” I shook my head, as if that’d be enough to clear it. His words were only leaving me more confused. “We can’t talk about this now. I’m going to go downstairs. Come down when you hear us talking. I’ll distract her and you duck out the front door. Quietly, okay?”

“We did just rob a house,” he reminded me. “I know what I’m doing.”

Tentatively, I opened the door to my closet and stepped out. I hoped putting some distance between me and William would calm my racing heart, but it was futile. I tried to focus on anything other than his lips.

I realized I couldn’t exactly go downstairs in jeans and a jacket. I looked back to where William was leaning against the doorframe of the wardrobe and flicked my head. “Back in. I need to change.”

He gave me a wide grin before retreating. I shook my head, feeling silly. I was just glad that there was no way he could see through to where I was pulling off my jeans and replacing them with pajama shorts.

While Mom yelled at me about not telling her I was home sick, William snuck out of the front door. Luckily, though, the lecture didn’t last long. It was only a few minutes before she was brewing me a hot chocolate and making me lunch, insisting on calling the school while I lay in bed with feigned cramps.

I’d never been so relieved to have her as my mother.

When I returned to my room, I couldn’t help the weird feeling weighing me down. It was all done, and now I was alone. And so tired.

I opened my laptop to start the transfer again. When I was sure it was all on track, I nestled under the covers, my mind disobediently returning to what happened in the closet.

And then I was drowning in the memory of William against me. And God, it wouldn’t stop. My body was ecstatic, the experience playing on repeat, even more so than it had when he had first kissed me to make Lola jealous.

Remembering that even then—mere weeks ago—he’d still been hung up on her had me reeling in my own jealousy. But even then, if I was the Chloe I was a few weeks ago, I’d be planning on using our encounter to my advantage. But I wasn’t.

Something had changed. We had changed.

In another world, maybe William would’ve been my crush. Maybe I might’ve been his, and maybe we’d date. But it was much more complicated than that. I couldn’t ignore that he’d once loved the girl I loathed the most. He’d sworn himself to secrecy to prevent justice for my best friend, just like all of Level One had.

I had to stop. I couldn’t grow feelings for him, not now. It wasn’t realistic. He was part of a world I could never grow content with existing.

When sleep finally found me, it didn’t let me go. I woke late in the afternoon. As soon as I gained consciousness I reached to check my laptop, my heart thudding. The files were mine.

I fell back into bed, my chest now filled with a new emptiness as I realized the weight of what I was about to do. I was disorientated by sleep. I hadn’t texted William like he’d asked, so I sent him a message. I could still taste him against my lips, erupting an erratic beat to my heart.

It could be everything I needed, or nothing useful at all. I couldn’t get my hopes up. Nerves wrapped around me as I pulled the laptop in front of me, the light of its screen illuminating the darkness. I entered the removable storage, hundreds of folders appearing on the screen.

Like the hard drives themselves, the folders were organized by dates. I scrolled through them slowly, there were at least a hundred. But there was only one date I cared about right now. I just wanted the world to know the truth about what happened to my best friend.

But the date was missing.

I let out a curse. It made sense