“You’re saying the reason you haven’t moved in on Charlotte is because you think she still has feelings for me?”

“I don’t have to say it,” he snapped, genuine irritation—genuine hurt—backing his words. “She said it herself last night.”

“When?”

“Hello. When she said she’d go in for Stephanie. She feels bad for Steph, but more than that, she’s trying to protect you.”

I opened my mouth to tell Wes he’d read too far into that. But another question pressed past that one.

“Does . . . does Trick know how you feel?”

“Just you,” Wes said, swallowing, his jaw flexing. “It’s a delicate thing, you know? Just because we survived the dating of two members before doesn’t mean we will again. But Stephanie . . . once she entered the picture . . . Well, she changed everything.”

He was right about that. Stephanie had changed the whole dynamic of SPOoKy. Regarding the stuff with Charlotte, though, Wes didn’t have everything about her pegged. Having grown up with Charlotte, I knew her better than he did. She might have been protective of me, and maybe a little jealous of Stephanie for a while. But it was my belief that Charlotte’s animosity toward Stephanie had always been more about how Stephanie was changing our relationship—mine and Charlotte’s. And now that I knew about Wes’s feelings for Charlotte, I could see where she was coming from. I couldn’t exactly say I was super keen on the two of them dating. But what would Wes say if I told him the truth about me and Charlotte? That she had been the one to break up with me. Would he change his mind about this whole jealousy theory?

Maybe I would tell him. When all this was over, and we were all together at prom or something. For the moment, he and I had another issue. Namely, this half-baked plan of his.

“So, let me get this straight,” I said. “You think Charlotte will abort raising the alarm about me just because we get into a fight? Why don’t we just tell her that you convinced me to let her go without us, and then you and I skip school in the morning?”

“Because, Lucas, you’re a damn Hufflepuff.”

“What?”

“You’re a horrible liar.”

He had me there.

“Still,” I argued. “Won’t a fight just help her case if she does go to the counselor?”

“Think about it,” he said. “This is strategy, so I know that’s hard for you, but I need you to try.”

I scowled at him, my hand twitching toward becoming the fist I might just end up throwing after all.

“Her goal is to sweep you off the board,” he said. “Only problem is, if you don’t go along with the program, she’s got to nix her own rook while she’s at it. But if you sacrifice your knight to her bishop, meaning me, then we can storm the castle while the queen is in chemistry.”

“You’re an idiot.”