All Chapters of My Fake Boyfriend Is My Biggest Rival: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

“If you laugh, I’ll leave.”Luca leaned against the driver’s door and looked me over, which was exactly the wrong thing to do when I was already regretting my outfit. I had changed twice before coming downstairs, then changed back into the first thing I picked because Mom had called the second outfit “too funeral” and the third one “too much like I was trying.” The final choice was dark jeans, clean white sneakers and a cream sweater she insisted made my eyes look brighter. It was probably true. It was also the nicest thing I owned that didn’t involve a school uniform, which became painfully obvious the second I looked past Luca at the house behind him.“I haven’t said anything,” he said.“You don’t have to.”His mouth twitched. “I’m trying to figure out how you made sneakers look formal.”I glanced down at them. “I look underdressed.”“You look like you.”“That’s exactly the problem.”He stopped smiling. I could tell he was about to argue, but instead he glanced toward the house, wher

Harper should have stayed home. She had reached that conclusion about ten minutes earlier, somewhere between watching two girls argue over a pair of designer heels and listening to one of them insist that wearing the same shoes to two different parties counted as copying. She kept her lemonade close to her mouth so nobody would see the smile she was trying to hide, although the whole thing was ridiculous enough that she almost forgot she was supposed to be uncomfortable. Almost. She looked down at the clean white sneakers peeking out beneath her jeans, then at the girls' shoes again, each pair probably worth more than everything sitting in her closet. Her sweater suddenly felt too plain against the glitter and satin around her, and she tugged the sleeves over her wrists before taking another sip. "Harper." She looked up and found Luca several feet away, already surrounded by half the football team. He pointed at himself, then toward the group beside the pool, mouthing something she c

By Monday morning, Harper had learnt there was a particular kind of humiliation reserved for people who thought they had finally escaped a bad relationship. You could change your relationship status, stop answering calls, refuse to look at someone in the hallway, and still somehow end up surrounded by reminders that they weren’t done with you.Noah had apparently decided Harper’s refusal to take him back was a temporary inconvenience rather than a final answer, because before first period even started, three different people had already asked her if she was “really serious” about Luca. The fourth didn’t bother asking at all. She walked past Harper’s locker with her phone raised, showed the screen to her friend, and both girls glanced at Harper before bursting into laughter.Harper shut her locker a little harder than necessary.“Fantastic.” She turned to Mia, who was leaning against the locker beside hers. “What now?”Mia lowered her phone. “There’s a new gossip account.”Harper groan

By Tuesday morning, Harper had discovered there was no ceiling to what people could invent when they were bored enough. The photo of her leaving Luca’s house had spread overnight, and by the time she stepped into Westbrook, it felt like half the school had already decided she’d spent the night there. No one asked her outright. They didn’t need to. They just looked.Whispers followed her down the hallway like static.A group of girls near the entrance went quiet the second she passed. Two boys from Luca’s football team exchanged a glance and laughed under their breath. Someone behind her said, “That’s her,” like she was something new to observe instead of a girl who still had a chemistry quiz second period.Harper kept her gaze forward and walked faster.Mia caught up with her near the stairs, breathless like she’d been waiting for the right moment.“Please tell me you’ve seen what people are saying.”“I’ve seen enough.”“There’s a whole post about it.”“I don’t want to know.”“It says

Harper had never seen Luca without an audience. Someone at school was always calling his name across the hallway, asking about the next game, wanting a picture, wanting his attention, wanting something from him. People seemed to know where he was, even when he wasn’t playing football. One of the many things that irritated Harper about Luca Hayes was that he had somehow become the kind of person who could walk into a room and change the volume of it without saying anything. So when she saw him on Saturday morning, standing on a cracked patch of grass in an old black T-shirt, muddy trainers and a whistle hanging crookedly around his neck, she didn't recognise him at first. She had been sent to pick up a package from the community centre because her mother had forgotten to collect it, and she was already regretting agreeing to go when a familiar voice carried across the field.“Good. Again.”Harper stopped beside the gate. Luca was kneeling in front of a little boy who couldn't have been