Gallagher Girls AU. Takes place at the end of LYKY. Obvs I'm not Ally Carter, so clearly I don't own any of these characters.
I watched Josh walk away, hoping that for whatever reason he would turn back around, forgive me for lying, and just accept me back into his life, no questions asked. Of course, he wasn't going to do that. And besides, by tomorrow, he would remember me as Cammie Morgan, the girl who lied about being homeschooled, who lied about having a cat named Suzie, who lied about her last name, the girl who lied about her birthday, and worst of all, the girl who lied about going to Gallagher Academy.
Of all the crazy things we had in the Sublevels of Gallagher Academy, we didn't have one single thing to fix any of this (I would know. Liz and I once managed to get a hold of the inventory for the school. You'd be surprised what sorts of weird things we had). I would, from here on out, be just an ex-girlfriend in Josh's book. Maybe it was for the best. He'd go home, and maybe buy a pair of earrings for DeeDee. They'd be happy. I would move on. Spies didn't make good girlfriends anyway. He'd be happier.
But would I?
How could I? I was watching the first and only boy I had ever loved walk away from me, quite possibly forever. It's not like there would be other boys anytime soon. All I knew was Gallagher Academy and the farm, neither of which provided me with much of a choice, unless I decided to fall in love with Liz, Bex, or Macey (which, by the way, was not happening). Josh was the only guy I'd ever be around long enough to fall in love with, and he was leaving.
Being a spy really sucked. I learned everything from how many ways there are to kill a man with a spaghetti noodle, to carry out a conversation in fluent Russian, French, German, and English without skipping a beat, but nowhere in my time at Gallagher had they taught us how to deal with a broken heart. There was no code to crack, or computer to hack to fix everything this time. I'd made a choice, a bad choice, and now I had to live with it.
Josh was gone now, out of sight, but not quite out of mind. I had to turn my attention to something, to avoid crying. I should have gone back inside, but how could I? My friends were sure to bombarde me with questions, or try to make me feel better. Nothing could make me feel better now. So I turned my focus to the sky. It was getting brighter now, with the coming of morning, but I could still make out a few stray stars here and there. I tried counting them, to feel better, when something caught my eye. A shooting star. I knew it was just space rocks falling from the sky, but it was still beautiful. And nothing could hurt from me wishing on a star...
"I wish I was normal," I muttered. "Not a spy, not a Gallagher Girl...just...a girl. A homeschooled girl, with a cat named Suzie that likes to play with bottles. A normal girl, who lives in Roseville, Virginia, and does normal things with her normal friends."
It was dumb. I knew it was dumb. Wishing on stars didn't mean anything. I was a Gallagher Girl. Once a Gallagher Girl, always a Gallagher Girl. With the Sisterhood for life, and all that jazz. There was nothing a silly little star could do. But it was always fun to pretend for a little while. Besides, it wasn't like I meant the whole thing. Being a regular girl would be nice, but it's not like I could just give up being a spy. It was a part of me. Born and raised. My mother was the Rachel Morgan. Nothing, especially not some silly little star, was going to change any of that.
I had to go to bed. I knew that much. I could ignore the girls. Liz, Bex, Macey...they, unlike Josh, weren't going anywhere anytime soon. Here to stay. After a good morning's sleep, they'd be sure to crowd me at breakfast, if not before then, asking for details about what had happened, and what was going to happen. Would I see Josh again? No, of course not. Would I sneak out again? No promises that I won't. A girl needs a break sometimes. Do I still love him? With every fiber of my being. So will I see him again? No. Never. Too painful. The only question without an answer was what language they would be interrogating me in. I figured the walk back to bed would give me time to brush up on my Mandarin. We hadn't been treated to a Chinese lesson in a few weeks. I figured we were due for one.
Thankfully, my roommates were asleep (or at least pretending to be, for my sake) when I got to my room. Not bothering to change (I'd just have to get up in an hour anyway), I collapsed onto bed, listening to the air whistling past Macey's nose stud as I drifted into an unsteady, uneasy sleep.
