Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
"What about you, Diego?" Aaron asked him.
He looked startled. "I’ve got a paper due Monday."
“Damn it.” Aaron pulled out his phone. I peered at the text he was typing on the screen. Get your ass down to the dining room, it said. "We’ve got an hour before it starts. We’ll find somebody."
"It’s really okay." There was no way I was going to find someone else to go with and come up with a costume in the next hour. I opened my mouth to tell him that, but then I hesitated. Aaron seemed to really want me to do this. Maybe he thought it was important to me? I couldn’t think how to tell him that it wasn’t, not without hurting his feelings. He just seemed to really want to do this for me, so it would’ve been rude to say it wasn’t a big deal.
Cody appeared, looking not at all ruffled by the abrupt summons.
"What’s up?" he said.
"Mia needs a partner for the campus scavenger hunt this afternoon."
"Scavenger hunt?" He said it in the exact tone of skepticism I’d used last night. "Why would you want to do that?"
Okay, Cody and I had more in common than I thought, and I couldn’t help smiling at him when Aaron wasn’t looking.
"Because it’s fun. Can you go with her? You don’t have to do anything. She’ll do all the work,” Aaron said, greatly overestimating my scavenger hunting skills, which were non-existent.
Cody shook his head. "I can’t. I have to accompany Suzanne."
That got my attention. Who was Suzanne, and how well did he know her? "Where are you accompanying her to?"
He smiled slightly. "I’m accompanying her on the piano. She’s trying out for first chair violin."
"Oh." That made more sense.
Aaron was frustrated. "How about Jenna?"
"She’s already gone for the weekend," Diego said. "She and Seth went down to Atlanta."
"Evan? Raymond?" Aaron kept trying.
"I haven’t seen them today,” I said. And I hoped it stayed that way, even though Evan seemed like a nice guy. He seemed very young, even for a freshman. And spending the afternoon with Raymond was definitely not my idea of fun.
"It’s got to be you," Aaron said, turning to Diego.
Diego took off his glasses, looking like Clark Kent turning into Superman. "I told you, I’ve got a paper due."
"Weren’t you the one who told us to get our asses off the couch and do something outside the living room?” Aaron persisted. “Doesn’t the same apply to you, too?”
"When was my ass on the couch?" Diego asked, and memories came flooding back to me. Sitting on his lap, grinding myself against him. Oh god, I needed to stop thinking about that.
"It’s okay, Aaron.” It seemed like I’d said that a lot in the last ten minutes.
"I want you to do this, Mia. Besides, the prizes are great."
He likely had a point there. Most people at the school were so rich the prize was probably a Lamborghini or something.
Aaron looked directly at Diego. "If you don’t go with her, she can’t go."
I opened my mouth to say yet again that it was okay, but it was clear that for whatever reason, this was important to Aaron. I exchanged a glance with Diego. He knew it, too.
With a sigh, he closed his book. "All right. Where do we have to go?"
Except, as it turned out, that was the wrong question. Because the first thing we had to do was somehow find Halloween costumes in the next half hour.
To my surprise, Diego said he had something he could wear.
"You have a Halloween costume?" He hadn’t been wearing one at that party.
"No, but I’ve lived in this house for three years. I have a bunch of crap in my room. I’ll find something."
Aaron looked relieved that something was finally working out. "How about you? Do you have anything?"
Again, I thought of those cat ears and the little black dress I’d worn at the party. I definitely wasn’t admitting to that.
"Maybe Jenna does,” Cody suggested.
"She’s gone for the weekend."
Aaron jumped on the idea. "But maybe she’s got something you can borrow. Again, it just has to be a bare minimum of a costume. If nothing else, you can go as a digital communications major."
Well, at least I did, presumably, look like one of those. "All right, I’ll text Jenna."
To my surprise, she called back right away.
"Hey, we’re driving. I just got your message. And I’ve got the perfect thing. It’s going to look great on you."
"You do? It is?"
"Yeah. You’re in the house, right? Go up to my room and I’ll tell you where everything is."
"Okay... what’s the costume?"
I listened for a moment.
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
The prize for this stupid scavenger hunt had better be a damn Lamborghini.
13
MIA
"Mia, are you ready?" Aaron called up the stairs.
I was. I was embarrassed to show them, but I couldn’t hide up here all afternoon.