Free Foolish Games by Leah Spiegel

in me felt elated, but the older, more sober girl in me was starting to wonder if Kosic had tried to get me drunk last night?
    “Yeah, sure,” I said as those green eyes twinkled down at me with the ability to still leave me tongue tied.
    “I’m glad you liked the room,” he added. I could barely stop myself from rolling my eyes as I said goodbye.
    I exited the restaurant with a plateful of food while taking one last glance at the expansive lobby before I slid in between the closing elevator doors. At our floor, I jetted out of the elevator and hurried down the hallway to our room. After slipping the key pass into the door, I quickly entered the room and shut the door behind me, making sure all the locks were in place. Riley came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and I got a whiff of his spicy aftershave.
    “Boys, too many boys,” I murmured.
    “It isn’t possible.” Riley laughed as he headed over to his duffle bag.
    “Hawkins managed to corner me in the elevator.” I walked a few steps and put down the plate of food on the edge of my bed. Crossing the room, I reached out on either side of the window and grabbed a fist full of material to pull the curtains shut. The eye piercing light was bringing my headache into full swing again. “It got a little heated between the two of us.”
    “Was it anything like last night?” Riley asked as he put one leg at a time into a pair of military style chinos.
    “Not as bad, but he explained to me that I was not to write about him again, like I looked forward to that prospect.” Retrieving the plate filled with food from the bed, I sat down. I picked up an icing-laced cherry croissant and began to nibble on it.
    “I don’t know, he said something else.” My eyebrows knitted together. “He said it wasn’t safe for me to be around the band right now.” I looked up at Riley while hoping he might be able to shed some light on the strange message since in a way, he worked for the band.
    “Not safe? Like you would be in danger?”
    “Yeah, like he was trying to warn me, but he didn’t elaborate.” I exhaled loudly. “All I know is that we made a deal. Of course, all bets are off if he tweets anything else ugly about me again.”
    “By the way, your post came up this morning on the message boards,” Riley informed me.
    “That I already know,” I said under my breath with the memory of Hawkins in the elevator.
    “Did you know people think you are Lizzie?” He grinned over at me.
    “What?” I looked down at my last post on the laptop screen which included a photo of Lizzie as the avatar beside it.
    “Oh, shit.” I covered my mouth before we both busted out laughing.
    “Too bad it didn’t fool Hawkins,” I said regretfully.
    “Lizzie’s not spending her time posting.” He laughed.
    “No, no, she’s not,” I emphasized.
    “Some of these posts from the fans on the message boards are hysterical.” He went to read one, “If that is a hooker then where can I get her number? Another one says she can jolt my bones anytime.”
    “Nice,” I said, picking up another croissant off the plate.
    “Oh, and here’s someone from your girl fan base.”
    I stopped examining the pastry and perked up in the bed since I had been writing it for them after all.
    “If you’re not stalking him then why don’t you just go home? No one wants to hear your shit.”
    “Wow,” I said, widening my eyes, “some sisterhood.”
    “Oh, it only gets worse,” he assured me. “The girls are thinking of calling themselves ‘Stalking Hawkins.’”
    “Can’t we all just get along?” I said sarcastically before I bit into the croissant.
    “Apparently not.” His eyes widened. “The next one says—”
    “No, it’s cool.” I held up a hand. “I got it.”
    “Seriously though, we need to do something other than stalk the band,” I stressed. “I can’t take concert after concert.”
    “Like what?”
    “With or without you, I’m going to do