ISLA

I tapped my foot impatiently against the carpet. "Well?" I asked. "Will I get an answer today?"

Matt spoke. "This is Clarke."

I rose an eyebrow. "The Clarke you told me about?" I asked, confused. "Girl Clarke?"

"Boy Clarke," Matt corrected.

"So you two are dating?"

They both shrugged.

I turned back to Matt. "And you are?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "I'm actually still figuring that out," he said.

"Okay." I nodded. "You continue whatever you were doing." I headed for the door.

"Isla," Matt said.

I turned back to him, my eyebrow raised.

"Thanks."

I gave a half smile.

"And could you give us a heads up when mom comes home?" he asked.

"Of course," I said. "We can't have her kick all of us out."

I closed the door.

Why is my life so complicated?

+

Three days later, we all assembled in my basement for our annual secret Santa.

I shook my baseball cap. The cap was currently filled with slips of paper where everyone wrote their name.

"Ready for your first Secret Santa?" I asked Mia.

She nodded and I held out the cap for her to pick.

She picked a slip of paper.

"Who'd you get?" I asked.

She folded the paper and stuffed it in her bra. "It's not a secret if you know."

"A secret is between two people, Mia," I said.

She shook her head. "Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead and I'm too fond of you."

Bea and Beth begun humming the Pretty Little Liars theme song.

I moved past Mia and around the circle. I stopped at Finnegan.

We gave each other half smiles and he picked his paper.

Things were still pretty awkward between us. We hadn't really talked except for when the group had forced us to sit down and talk about what had happened. It was the most fucking awkward five minutes of my life. We ended the conversation with me explaining that I had never and will never like a guy.

Once everyone had picked I took the last name left in the hat.

"Christmas is in three weeks," Will said. "And no gag gifts."

As everyone left the room I unfolded my paper.

Finnegan.

Fuck.