started with a lie ➳ raura revised

Chapter Forty-Eight

It's almost as if I can see Tanner cranking up the angry music box that is Giselle, only she's not going to spring up and dance for him. Instead, she throws her drink at him and storms off. Fortunately for him, there was only a little le but still the pink juice she had been drinking drips down Tanner's fuming face.

"What the hell is her problem?" he yells, using his shirt to wipe his face. "God! I can't take her anymore! Tell her I'm not speaking to her until she apologizes!"

"Then she'll never apologize," Daniel mutters, hands in his pockets. I snicker but stop myself when I see Tanner's face getting angrier by the second.

"Ugh!" Tanner shouts. "I don't get girls!" And then he storms off as well.

Daniel and I stay still for ten seconds before turning to each other and rolling our eyes together. We're usually the peacekeepers but lately we just let them fall back on their own. It's too tiring.

"So you wanna check out the Donut Club?" he asks and I giggle. "Let's."

The evening turns out to be very fun. Daniel and I start o at the Donut Club, which is surprisingly a real club, devouring their free samples while their adviser yells at us. We laugh and head o to the next table. Daniel sits down for a quick game against one of the Chess club members, rightfully losing before we head o to the Design Club where a handful of ladies and two guys try putting their latest design on me. It's a weird scarf that can be wrapped around your body so it's almost a dress. Unique but strange.

"Damn it!" Daniel cries when he loses a game of Bullseye with the Physics club who promise they promote science in a fun way. I might even join that since I'm falling behind in my actual class lately.

Daniel high-fives a couple of his buddies at the Spanish Club. He's already one of their favorite members and I can tell when the president, a senior, pats Daniel on the back and they laugh over something. He's so easy to get along with.

"What're you smiling at?" he asks when he waves goodbye to his friends.

My eyebrows furrow. "I am?" I realize I am and go back to my default face. "Oh."

While I'm starting to absentmindedly think about life, Daniel suddenly freezes and holds onto me for dear life. "Laura."

"What? What?" I look side to side. Is there a spider or...?

"Look at the Business Builders club!" he exclaims. There's too many people to exactly pinpoint where he's pointing but that's no problem since he pulls me along. When I get there, my heart stops. A poster of Ross is hung as a prime example of success and the club's goals for all its members. I stand still as Daniel rambles. "Wow, I love this guy! He is, like, my ultimate idol. I partly majored in Business because of him. Half because of my mom but dang, when I saw how successful and humble this guy was despite running a billion dollar company, I knew I wanted to follow his footsteps. It's crazy he's only a couple years older because he's so—" I zone out in the middle of that.

The poster is the same one I first saw almost a year ago. Ross's in the middle of taking off his tie in the photo and giving the camera a smoldering gaze as he does. Tess first showed me this picture the night of Cody's annual party, casually flipping through some magazine. Looking back on it now, it makes me realize how crazily it all began. Memories of first meeting Ross and talking to him. How distant he was. How cold.

I wonder how it would be if I never met him. The magazine could've had some other young rising star. With the pain of his accusations still fresh in my heart, a part of me wishes I kind of never did.

To love is to risk losing everything. Even your own senses or yourself. "Laura? Hello? Donut Daniel landing on Planet Laura! Hello?"

I shake my head as if to physically shake Ross Lynch out of my head and heart. "Sorry, Daniel. What were you saying?"