"So this might go over like a lead balloon," Theo said, as he grabbed a milk carton beside me in the breakfast line. "But if we want to make this look real, we should probably start hanging out with my friends."
I made a face, but he had a point. Though I did kind of wish he'd warned me before I'd dumped my ball in my dorm room. I eyed the table where Connor Weatherington, Aurelia Desautels, Giselle Watson, and Emma Ripley all sat together. I'd have much preferred to face them when I wasn't a post-workout mess.
"Relax, Emdubs." Theo bumped my shoulder. "It's going to be fine."
Except my stomach had already knotted by the time we sat down. It shouldn't have—I'd been in class with these people for weeks now—but it felt a little like wandering unprepared into a gladiator's arena. In sweaty clothes. With flyaway hair. And absolutely zero idea about how this was going to go. Between the wide-eyed glare of disbelief from Emma and the way Giselle leaned over to whisper something to Aurelia when Theo pulled out a chair for me, I was already regretting my decision to play along.
"Well, well, well," Connor said, folding his arms. "Has the elusive future-Mrs.-Ellerby finally decided to grace us with her presence?"
"I figured it was about time I hang with my guy's besties," I said, attempting to hide the growing pit in my stomach with a bright smile. Connor's in return was wolfish, all straight white teeth against a fading summer tan.
"Ellie, this is Connor," Theo said smoothly, as if his best friend wasn't already eyeing me with nothing but trouble in his hazel eyes. "And that's Aurelia, his girlfriend. She's a sophomore, so you two probably haven't met yet. Though I think you know Giselle and Emma."
"Lovely to finally meet you," Aurelia said, brushing a piece of her dark hair off her brown, freckled cheek.
"Same," I replied, then dropped my gaze to my breakfast to avoid returning Emma's unrelenting stare from the other end of the table. Part of me wanted to gloat that I'd arrived on Theo's arm. But I also didn't want to stir up trouble at a table that already felt like shark-infested waters.
"I think I get it now," Connor said. "She really is hotter up close, Tee."
I ran my tongue over my teeth, then busied myself with my food to resist the urge to tell Connor where he could put his opinions about my hotness.
Theo set his fork down. "Would it kill you to be cool for once?"
Connor laughed and stretched his arms out. "Geez, what happened to your sense of humor? You can stop pretending to be a gentleman now. We all know you're—"
"I mean it," Theo interrupted with a glare.
Connor just rolled eyes. And then his attention settled on me in a way that was far too reminiscent of a hawk studying a juicy mouse. "So, Ellie. If you're officially official with my best guy now, you should probably come hang out at the beach house one weekend."
Aurelia swatted him, and beside her, Giselle choked off a giggle into her tea. I eyed them warily as Theo snapped, "Dude."
"What?" Connor laughed. "The dorms aren't exactly—"
"Or," Aurelia said over him, "Ellie could come to my sister's Halloween party on Friday and get to know us a little better." She leaned towards me with a wink, "Connor's not always such a dick, I promise."
"Thinking about my dick, are you?" he said, burying his face in Aurelia's neck. She laughed and batted him away with a playful squeal.
I lost my appetite completely.
"What's your costume this year, Tee?" Giselle asked, leaning her chin in her hands. "Because I'd love it if you went all bare-chested as Aquaman again."
I poked at my cold eggs, wishing that I'd decided to sit anywhere else but here. This was exactly the part of being Theo's fake girlfriend that I hadn't looked forward to. The part that, up until now, I'd managed to evade. But he was right. If this was going to work, I'd have to start acting like a proper girlfriend sooner or later.
As if he could sense my growing misery, Theo's arm settled across the back of my chair. "I haven't decided on a getup yet. It's whatever Ellie wants, this year."
"Whipped much?" Emma muttered from the end of the table.
"Careful, Ripley. You can't Botox away a perma-scowl," Connor said.
Aurelia and Giselle giggled when Emma stood with a huff and stormed away with her tray. Apparently I wasn't the only miserable one at Theo's table. And with my appetite gone, I wasn't keen on staying, either.
I set down my fork and said to no one in particular, "I think I'm done."
"What? You just got here!" Connor protested.
But rather than stop me, Theo stood, too, and grabbed my tray before I could take it. "We'll see you guys later."
"Seriously?" Connor said. "Dude, what's gotten into you?" When Theo ignored him and ushered me towards the tray rack, Connor called out, "You can't avoid me forever, Tee. We have to finish that Econ presentation this afternoon!"
Theo didn't reply. He didn't say much of anything the whole way back to the dorms.
"You okay?" I asked when we entered the common room.
He inhaled deeply, then rested his hands on my shoulders. A frown creased his forehead. "This is my fault. I should've introduced you sooner. They're not usually such assholes."
I rested my hands on his, touched by his concern. "I don't really care what they think. Once this is all over, I won't have to deal with them anymore. I can manage against assholes until then."
He studied me for a long, loaded moment that had me debating whether I should pull my hands away. And then, in a blink, he nodded once and his smirk was back. "Of course you can, Emdubs. Which means you'll come to Aurelia's party on Friday?"
I made a face. "If I have to. But unless I'm going as a bedsheet ghost, I don't exactly have a costume."
"Relax, I got you." He slid out his phone.
I crossed my arms. "If you think I'm gonna wear some kind of naughty nurse costume to impress your friends, you've got another thing coming, Ellerby."
He laughed, then turned his screen to face me. "Ye of little faith strikes again."
It was a picture of a his and hers Greek god costume, complete with white and burgundy togas, laurel crowns, and lace-up sandals. Besides a dangerously high leg slit, it wasn't the revealing, lingerie-eqsue thing I was expecting. And as much as I didn't want to spend the Friday night before Halloween with Theo's drunk friends instead of with Audra and Gyeong-Ja, watching scary movies with candy, at least he was trying to make it more bearable.
I uncrossed my arms and sighed. "I guess we're going to a Halloween party."
He play-punched my shoulder. "That's the spirit!"