"Your hands are mine to hold."
Ryder and Gracie were tucked away at the corner of his birthday party, going over what they needed to know before everyone arrived and the real pretending started. They’d hung out in smaller groups, and seen people at the Quidditch World Cup, but this was different. This was a night all about Ryder -- well, half about Ryder, since he and Henry insisted on having joint parties -- and people would get suspicious if they didn’t make sure they knew exactly what they were doing.
Except... Ryder looked down at their intertwined hands, and it didn’t feel so hard to fake anymore. The only person that knew they were lying was Marley, but the lies had gotten so easy that it barely even felt like they were pretending. He liked spending time with Gracie, she liked spending time with him... and Ryder was in way, way over his head, completely unsure what was fake and what was reality anymore. He squeezed her hand, running his thumbs over her knuckles as people cast glances in their direction.
“Yeah...yeah, I guess they are,” he told her, ducking his head so the onlookers wouldn’t see the way he furrowed his brows as he tried to figure out how he meant it. Shaking it off, he stood up, tugging her up with him and dragging her in the direction of their friends and swallowing the lump in his throat. “Hand-holding’s enough to convince them since Lily and Hugo are here, right?”
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