Lunch with Jasmine and Chrissie

Nothing much happened for the rest of the day – I was distracted through most of my lessons as I kept an eye out for people looking weirdly at me, hoping for a clue as to who my ‘client’ would be tonight. Annoyingly, I think I was being paranoid, because any time anyone even glanced in my direction my heart would leap into my mouth. Oh well. So much for that.

As usual, I ate lunch with Jasmine and Chrissie. I could see Liam on the opposite side of the canteen, and now and then our eyes would meet, and I’d feel a blush rising up my cheeks.

“Kevin?” Jasmine asked.

“No,” I said.

“Jay?”

“No.”

“Freddie?”

“No.”

“Harry?” Chrissie asked.

“No.”

“Wu?”

“Are we going to do this all day?” I asked exasperatedly.

“If you don’t tell us, yeah,” Chrissie said.

“So is it Wu?” Jasmine asked.

“No.”

“Callum?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Callum?”

Jasmine shrugged. “Fine, I give up.”

I smiled to myself in perverse triumph. Liam clearly hadn’t even crossed their minds; not surprising, considering he was my brother, but, you know … we were adopted, so it was fine. Right?

“Hey, how’s your brother? He still single?” Jasmine asked.

My stomach twisted into knots. “Yeah,” I lied quickly. I felt Chrissie’s green eyes bore into me. “Why?”

Jasmine shrugged. “I was thinking of taking him for a spin,” she smirked. “Maya said he knows what he’s doing.”

As a sudden pang of jealousy coursed through my body, I **** myself not to say anything rash. “Go for it,” I said calmly.

She smirked, glancing over towards Liam. “Wish me luck,” she said abruptly, picking up her tray and heading to his table.

“And you call me a slut,” I muttered to Chrissie, who laughed.

“Hey, I never said she wasn’t,” she said. “Still, fucking your brother? That’s low even for her.”

I shrugged. “He can handle himself.”

We both watched as Jasmine sat down next to Liam and easily struck up a conversation. He glanced over at me and I tried to give him a look saying ‘Play along’. He seemed to nod slightly, then turned back to Jasmine.

“She’s smooth,” Chrissie said in admiration.

“Yup,” I agreed, trying to keep the jealousy out of my voice. And failing.

“Some people are lucky bastards,” she said consolingly, mistaking my **** of letting her talk to my boyfriend/brother for envy of her smooth-talking skills. “So ... is it Ryan again?” Chrissie asked.

“Hell no.”