Don't Kiss Your Enemy (Rockford High #4)

by Victorine E. Lieske

  “You lose a kid, then get a raise? Wow, sounds like a great employer.”

  “Funny.” She rolled her eyes. “How are things going?” She left the question cryptic. He knew what she meant. He’d texted her last night and told her he’d approached his father and things had gone well.

  He laughed. “No word yet. I promise, I’ll tell you when I know something.”

  Destiny and Eli joined them at the table. Destiny poked Amanda in the side. “Have you been reading the comments on your sister’s Vlog?”

  Amanda shook her head. “No. I don’t watch her Vlog. I would have no reason to read the comments.”

  “They are getting very interesting. She’s having some kind of a war with one of the commenters. The one who goes by Brandon Travers.”

  Amanda laughed. “She did tell me about that guy. What is he saying?”

  “Just that Brandon Travers is amazing and she should apologize for what she said. And, of course, your sister is telling him to get a life. But their back and forth is funny. You should read it.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  Amanda ate her slice of pizza. She’d grabbed a sausage one today, and it was not half bad. After she took a large bite, she pulled out her phone and texted her secret texter.

  So, are you in the lunchroom right now?

  She sent it off and glanced around. It hadn’t worked before, but maybe she’d just had bad luck. You never know, right? Maybe it would work this time.

  Cole stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

  Eli made a face. “Where are you going?”

  “Bathroom.”

  “Man, you don’t have to give us the play-by-play.”

  Cole rubbed Eli’s head until his hair was messed up. “I wasn’t.”

  “Stop it, man!”

  Cole snickered and left the lunchroom. Amanda looked at her phone, waiting for a response. It took a second, but one finally came through.

  No, I’m not.

  She grew suspicious. Cole left the table. Was he in the hallway texting her? She’d suspected it was him from the start, but he’d said it wasn’t. Now she wasn’t so sure. She texted back.

  Who is this?

  We’re back to that now?

  Yes. I want to know.

  Why do you need to?

  Amanda stood from the table. This wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She needed to find Cole. To confront him about her suspicions. “I’ll be right back, too.”

  Eli gave her an obnoxious grin. “Oh, I see.”

  She scoffed and whacked the back of his head. “It’s not like that.”

  Eli just laughed as she walked out the same door Cole had. It didn’t take long to spot him. Cole was sitting on the staircase, his phone in his hand.

  “It’s you, isn’t it?” Amanda called to him.

  He jumped up, a guilty expression on his face.

  Amanda walked to him and shoved his chest. Not that it did anything. He was a solid wall of muscle. “You jerk!”

  She turned to run the other way, but he caught her around her middle and pulled her to him. “Amanda, I can explain.”

  Her throat burned with the betrayal. “You lied to me!” She twisted in his arms and shoved against him. He let her go.

  “I never lied.”

  “Yes, you did! You said it wasn’t you.”

  He shook his head. “No, you never came out and asked me.”

  Amanda paused. Was this true? Was he right? She thought back to their interactions. She had suspected Cole, but maybe she had never come out and asked him.

  “Mandy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to go this far. It started out as a joke. But then you were so mad at me in real life, and you acted like you wanted to talk to me as your secret texter, that I kind of kept doing it as a way to get you to open up to me. I liked talking to you.”

  Guilt flooded through her. He was right. She’d been mad. And so unfair to him. He didn’t deserve how she’d been treating him. She lowered her head and stepped toward him. “I’m sorry,” she said, reaching for his hand. “I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. I’ve treated you badly.”

  Cole pulled her close to his chest. “You are officially forgiven.”

  She snuggled into him. “I can be a little…passionate about things sometimes. I’m sure the opera house won’t be the only thing we disagree on. But I can try to be more understanding. And less centered on just what I want.”

  Cole held her tight. “And I’ll be more supportive. Even if it means standing up to my father.”

  “Which turned out pretty good, huh?”

  He smiled at her. “Yeah. It did.”

  “Come on. Let’s go finish lunch. And we can tell Eli and Destiny we are official.”

  Amanda heard a squeal behind her and Destiny came running up to them. “You’re official?”

  Cole chuckled. “I guess we are.”

  “Oh, my gosh, I knew it! I knew you guys would end up together.” Destiny hugged them both.

  Eli stepped into the hallway. “What did I miss?”

  Destiny jumped up and down and let out another squeal. “They made it official. They are a couple.”

  “Oh, thank heavens. Now you guys can get all that kissing out of your system.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Amanda said, and raised up on her toes to press her lips to Cole’s. Her world tilted as he gave her an amazing kiss.

  “Okay, okay. Let’s go back in before the bell rings. I want to finish my lunch,” Eli said.

  Cole just chuckled and slung his arm around Amanda. “Want to come over tonight and beat me at poker?”

  Amanda grinned at him, her heart light. “You’re on.”

  Epilogue

  Stephanie clicked and ended her broadcast. Another successful show done. Her followers had grown this last week. Not that she had a ton of followers, but she’d passed the three thousand mark, which made her excited. It was a milestone she’d been wanting to reach.

  A message popped up on her screen. Oh, brother. It was another message from that fake Brandon Travers account. She rolled her eyes but clicked on it, anyway. It was a private message this time. He was getting bolder. Great. Just what she needed. She opened it.

  Just watched your latest Vlog. I totally agree, there are waaaay too many remakes going on right now. What’s up with that? Why don’t they come up with something new? My manager wants me to read for a remake of The Breakfast Club. Why in the world do they think that’s a good idea?

  Stephanie scoffed. She hadn’t heard of any remake of The Breakfast Club coming down the pike. Who was this guy?

  Your manager? You’re still trying to convince me you are the real Brandon Travers? Come on. Stop pretending. This is getting a bit ridiculous.

  Another message came right away.

  Geesh, girl. What do I have to do to convince you?

  Ha. She had him now.

  Send me your picture.

  He didn’t message right back, so she scoffed and shut her laptop. What a dweeb. How gullible did he think she was, anyway?

  Her phone rang and she looked at the screen. It was Jade. She picked up.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “I did it.” Jade’s voice had that excitement in it. The kind only Jade had. She was the complete opposite of the stereotypical drama student, moody and solemn. Jade was perky. There just was no other word for it.

  “What did you do?”

  “I finished my app. The Rockford High dating app.” Jade giggled. “It will give you your perfect match.”

  Stephanie knew she’d been working on it, but she had no idea she was that close to being done. “Seriously?”

  “Yes. And you’re going to help me advertise it.”

  Stephanie choked. “Me? What are you talking about?”

  “Come on. You’re like the most famous person in our class. You have your own YouTube show.”

  “It’s a Vlog.”

  “Everyone follows you. They all listen to you. If you tell everyon
e to download my app, it will become the next big thing.”

  Jade obviously had way too much confidence in Stephanie. She tried not to shut her down too fast. “My show isn’t really about dating apps…”

  “No. But you could mention it, like an endorsement. People would go nuts for it.”

  “What are you charging?”

  “It’s free. That’s the beauty. Everyone can log in and fill out the form so we have a database. Then, after we gain popularity, I can monetize it. Sell ads or something. I want to keep it free for end users.”

  Stephanie chewed her bottom lip. “Will it be that popular, though, if it’s just for our school?”

  Jade made an excited squee noise. “That’s what’s so cool. It’s expandable. I can make an app for every school. But I want to try it out with Rockford High first. Work out all the bugs. You can be my very first customer.”

  Stephanie inwardly groaned. She didn’t want to download a dating app. She didn’t want to date at all. She was on a man-diet. Ever since Kyle destroyed her heart, she was not interested in love. “Do I have to? You know how I feel about men right now.”

  “You just hate guys because you haven’t found your perfect match yet. Let me do that for you.”

  “You mean let your app do that.”

  “Same thing. I wrote the app. Just download it and take the test. See what it’s like. You might find your true love.”

  Stephanie closed her eyes. “Maybe.”

  “You know you’ll do this for me. Because you love me.” Jade laughed.

  “Of course, I love you. Because you’ll save me if I’m stuck on a horrible date. Right?” She opened her laptop and checked the comments on her Vlog. She usually got a few after one of her shows.

  “You know it.” Jade was always there for her. She knew she meant it.

  Stephanie stared at her screen and almost dropped her phone. “Holy crap.” The words slipped out without her meaning to say them.

  “What is it?”

  Her chest constricted as she looked at the photo in her inbox. It couldn’t be real. Could it? It was a photo of Brandon Travers. He held a piece of paper that said, ‘Believe it’s me, Stephanie.’ She swallowed, her fingers shaking. “Dang, that looks real,” she said under her breath.

  “What looks real? Steph. Talk to me.”

  “Sorry. I got a message from this guy that’s been leaving messages on my Vlog. His username is Brandon Travers, and he just sent me a photo that looks amazingly like Brandon Travers.”

  “There’s a million photos of Brandon Travers on the internet.”

  “I know. But he’s holding a paper that has my name on it. It’s kind of creepy how real it looks.”

  “It’s Photoshopped.”

  She was right. Of course, she was. “Yeah, I know.” She typed a quick message back to him.

  You’re good with Photoshop.

  A message came back right away.

  Check my Twitter account.

  “What are you doing?” Jade asked.

  “I don’t know. He says to check his Twitter account.”

  “Brandon Travers? Let me go look.” Noises came through as Jade fiddled with her phone. Then she heard Jade scream.

  “What? What’s on his Twitter?”

  Jade came back on. “It’s him, Steph. You’ve been chatting with the real Brandon.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because he just told his fifty-five million followers to go check out your Vlog.”

  Stephanie stopped breathing. She clicked over to her Vlog, her pulse racing. Three thousand and fifty followers. She’d gained fifty followers in a matter of seconds. She clicked to refresh the screen. Four thousand twenty-six. She swallowed. Hard.

  “Gotta go,” she said into her phone and set it down. She wasn’t even sure if she pressed the red hang-up button. She was numb.

  It really was Brandon Travers talking to her.

  Crap. She’d been telling him off for the past week.

  Thank you for reading Don’t Kiss Your Enemy! I hope you enjoyed the story. We will continue the Rockford High series with Stephanie and Brandon’s story, Don’t Trash Brandon Travers.

  He was a movie star. She was a nobody. Until their worlds collided.

  Stephanie couldn’t believe it when the handsome and famous actor, Brandon Travers, responded to her Vlog. Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to publicly state how poorly he played Xander in the latest movie craze, The Paper Pirate. Now Brandon wanted a public apology, one that Stephanie wasn’t about to make.

  Brandon’s life was out of control. Every second of his life was dictated by other people. He had to play so many parts, he’d forgotten what living his own life was like. His only escape from all of the pressure was something that could end up destroying him. And he couldn’t stop.

  The only thing he looked forward to was talking to Stephanie. He needed her help or he was going to end up imploding.

  Get Don’t Trash Brandon Travers FREE! Click Here for details: http://victorinelieske.com/dont-trash-brandon-travers/

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  Other Novels by Victorine:

  The Billionaire Series

  The Fake Marriage Series

  Falling for the Beast – A Beauty and the Beast retelling

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  About the Author

  Victorine and her husband live in Nebraska with their four children and two cats. She loves all things romance, and watches While You Were Sleeping about once every six months. When she’s not writing, she’s designing book covers for authors or making something with her extensive yarn collection.