4. Selena

Selena

My mother-daughter day with Amber was amazing . She had no idea I wasn’t Torrence, which meant I was playing my part perfectly.

When we got back, we had dinner with Torrence’s aunts—Evangeline and Doreen—on the outside patio. But it eventually grew late, and the others went up to their rooms to go to bed.

I went back to Torrence’s room, but I was too amped up to get ready for bed. I only had twenty-four hours, and I didn’t want to waste a single minute of it sleeping.

Unfortunately, there were gates and magical shields around the property. And while I wanted adventure, it would be stupid to explore LA at night alone. This city could be dangerous. Especially at night.

It looked like I was stuck staying in.

But just because I was stuck on the property, it didn’t mean I had to stay in Torrence’s room.

So I padded down the hallway toward the stairs. The three witches’ lights were off and there were no sounds from their rooms. They were fast asleep.

Once outside, I walked past the gorgeous fountain in the driveway and up to the gate at the end of it, placing my hands on the metal bars. The gate was supposed to be sealed shut. But it moved after the slightest pressure of my hand and slid silently open, as if beckoning me forward.

I stared at the gate in surprise. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Curious, I headed out of the gate and down the driveway. I wasn’t going to actually try walking anywhere, but it could be fun to watch the cars drive by. We didn’t have cars on Avalon, so just looking at the different varieties of cars they had in LA was interesting.

But when I walked to the end of the long driveway, I saw someone standing at the end of the driveway next door. His back was toward me. He was tall with dark blond hair, and he was wearing jeans and a black leather jacket.

He turned around, and the moment his bright blue eyes met mine, warmth burst from my chest and traveled through every inch of my body.

He looked to be around my age, maybe a bit older. And from the intense way he was staring at me, I wondered if I was somehow having the same effect on him that he was having on me.

But he snapped out of it, shooting me a devilish smile that made my heart race faster. “Torrence Devereux,” he said my best friend’s name, his voice like music to my ears.

Like a siren’s call beckoning me closer.

How could Torrence have never mentioned her ridiculously hot neighbor? That wasn’t like her at all.

Maybe he wasn’t hot until recently? That happened a lot with guys. They had an awkward phase, they grew out of it, and then BOOM. Sudden hotness.

But I was staring. I needed to say something—anything—so he didn’t think I was a mute freak.

“Have we met before?” I asked once I had my wits somewhat together.

“We used to play together as kids,” he said. “You don’t remember?”

“It was a long time ago.” It seemed as good of an answer as any.

“It was.” He nodded, his enchanting gaze locked on mine. “You’re not around here often anymore, are you?”

“I go to a year-round boarding school up north.” It was Torrence’s cover-story, so I didn’t have to think twice about that one. “I’m only here on the weekends.”

“Got it,” he said. “So… what are your plans for the rest of the night?”

I glanced back at Torrence’s house. The windows on the second floor were still dark. “Nothing.” I shrugged. “My mom and aunts went to sleep, but I wasn’t tired.”

“So you wandered to the end of your driveway.” He chuckled, that knowing twinkle still in his eyes.

“Yeah.” My cheeks heated, since it sounded ridiculous when he put it that way. I needed to switch the conversation away from me and my weirdness, quickly. “What about you?” I asked. “Why are you just standing here?”

“I’m heading out to hang with some friends. My Uber should be here in…” He paused to glance at his phone. “Three minutes.”

“Oh.” I deflated at the realization that he was leaving soon.

Of course he was leaving.

Normal people didn’t wander down to the end of their driveway to watch the cars go by.

And I was doing a terrible job at pretending to be Torrence right now. Torrence always knew what to say around guys she was interested in. But none of the guys on Avalon had ever interested me as anything more than a friend, so I’d never thought about it much.

Now I finally met someone who took my breath away, and he was a human who lived on Earth. A place I could never return to. And I was meeting him as Torrence—not as me.

Just my awful luck.

“Do you want to come?” he asked.

“Out?” I blinked, sure I’d misunderstood. “With you and your friends?”

“I can ditch my friends tonight,” he said. “I mean, I haven’t seen you in years. We should catch up. Just the two of us.”

Sometime while we’d been talking, we’d inched onto the yard between our driveways until we were standing a few feet away from each other. His eyes were an even brighter blue up close. Ice blue, although they somehow managed to be warm at the same time.

“Just the two of us,” I repeated, a small smile creeping over my lips. I might as well go for it. I had nothing to lose. “Like, on a date?”

“Yes.” He didn’t pause for a second. “I’d like to go on a date with you. If that’s okay with you, of course.”

From the way he was looking at me—like he was seeing all the way into my soul—I had a feeling he knew it was more than okay with me.

I wanted to say yes.

But going out with a stranger was reckless.

He’s not a stranger, I reminded myself. He’s Torrence’s neighbor. They played together when they were kids.

And he was looking at me like my answer meant the world to him.

I had no idea what to do. But wasn’t this the point of swapping places with my best friend? To be reckless? To have experiences I’d never have on Avalon?

Something—perhaps fate—pulled me toward him, urging me to say yes. I didn’t think I could walk away at this point even if I wanted to.

“You never told me your name,” I realized. “I can’t go out on a date with you if I don’t know your name.”

“My name’s Julian,” he said, and warm tingles ran up and down my spine at his voice.

“Julian,” I repeated, his name sounding like music when I spoke it aloud. “Yes. I’d love to go on a date with you.”

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