I lowered the blanket.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Juliet pressed. If it was anyone else, it would have annoyed me, but she wasn’t trying to give me a hard time.
I nodded. There was no point pretending.
“You did Colt in the garage?” Cara grinned.
I looked at the closed door. “What am I going to do?”
Juliet leaned over me. “First, you’re going to explain to us why we’re only hearing about this extracurricular activity now.”
I groaned. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t tell you. It was too embarrassing.”
Juliet laughed. “I told you about when I hooked up with Reed in the kitchen at Al’s. How is this any worse?”
“It was a garage. That’s worse.”
“A garage full of gazillion dollar cars. That makes it different.” Cara smiled.
“Okay. I should have told you.”
“You should have, but first were you near the cars? Morgan made it sound like the video was limited to that area.”
I covered my face with my hands. “We did it on the hood of a car.”
Cara busted out laughing. “Wow. I’m kind of impressed.”
Juliet got up and paced. “Okay. Damage control time. The important thing is we have to delete that footage.”
“But how? Morgan is going to flip if I fess up. She already hates me.” I must have flirted with a guy she liked or something, because she always gave me an attitude. She was the only girl in the house I didn’t get along with, and it irked me. Of course the mess had to have happened at her house.
“She doesn’t hate you.” Cara tied up her hair.
“Yes, she does. She totally does.” Juliet laughed.
“I have no idea why, but it’s just going to make things worse.”
“We have to ask Reed for help.” Juliet said it like there was no other conceivable possibility.
“No way!”
“He’s good at this kind of thing.”
“He’s good at breaking security systems?” I raised an eyebrow. I knew Reed was resourceful, but this would be a stretch even for him.
“Trust me. He’ll figure something out.”
“This is going to involve telling him, right?”
“Telling him it’s you. We don’t have to tell him what guy it is if you don’t want to. But I doubt he’s going to do it for just anyone. He knows you’re important to me.”
“When do we talk to him?”
“Now?” Cara suggested. “It might take time to plan.”
I sighed. “It’s not like I’m going to be able to sleep with this over my head anyway.”
***
“To what do I owe this honor?” Reed looked up from his book when Juliet pushed open the door to his room. It was pretty orderly for a guy’s room other than some books laying out. I assumed we had Juliet to thank for that.
Juliet walked in first, and we followed right behind her. “We need your help.”
Concern crossed his face. “What happened?”
“It’s not about Juliet…It’s me.” There was no reason to let him get worked up over nothing.
“Good.” He visibly relaxed. “Not that I don’t care about you too, Mallory.”
I laughed. “Save your breath, Reed. I don’t care why you do it, but I need your help.”
“Okay. But tell me, does this have anything to do with Tanner? I know about what he did last night, and I’m sorry I even suggested you go out with him.”
“Uh, what are you talking about?”
Reed paled. “Oh. That’s not what this is about?”
“Talk, Reed. Talk.” Juliet took his arm and towed him over to his bed. Cara took his chair and I sat on the floor since I was the reason we were there.
Reed exhaled sharply. “Damn. Why does this kind of stuff always happen to me?”
“What?”
“Being the one to deliver bad news.”
“What’s the bad news?” I crossed my arms. His room was insanely cold, and I had no idea what was coming.
“Tanner went out with some girl he met over the summer. He brought her home…”
“What’s the bad news?” I asked.
“That is the bad news.”
Juliet and Cara started laughing.
“Considering Mallory had her own hook up last night, we’re fine.” Juliet patted Reed on the shoulder. “Plus they stopped seeing each other weeks ago. You know that.”
“Whoa. Slow down. Who did Mallory hook up with?”
“That’s not important.” Juliet pulled up her leg so that it rested partially on Reed’s lap. “What’s important is that it somehow ended up on film.”
Reed grinned. “You’re taping your sexual exploits now?”
“No! It was a total accident. The garage was under surveillance. Now we have to get the security footage deleted before Morgan’s parents get back.”
“And I’m supposed to somehow help you with this?”
“Yes. You can always figure things out.” Juliet stoked his ego.
“I appreciate the vote of confidence, babe, but breaking into a security system isn’t my expertise.”
“Is anyone in the house good at it?” Juliet asked. “Someone has to be.”
“I don’t know of anyone off the top of my head. Maybe a pledge?”
I jumped up. “No. No pledges!”
A slow smile spread across Reed’s face. “Busted. It was Colton. You hooked up with Colton.”
I buried my face in my hands.
“Why didn’t you just admit it?”
“She thinks people will think less of her for dating a pledge.” Juliet didn’t bother to hide her distaste, but I was glad she didn’t mention any other excuses. Although Tanner wouldn’t have been a bad one.
“Well, at least he’s pledging the right house.” Reed smiled.
I sat back down with the sudden need to defend my decisions. “You know that’s not the only reason.”
Juliet sat down next to me on the floor. “And what are the other reasons again?”
“I already told you about how I dated his brother and he broke my heart into a million pieces.” I sighed. “I can’t get serious with another Gasden boy.”
“Do you want me to leave?” Reed looked torn. I could tell he wanted to say something but he didn’t want to overstep some invisible boyfriend rules.