What was wrong with me? I damn sure better not be having any reactions to him. This wasn’t real. It was fake. Fake like Hollywood plastic surgery.
And that was when all the heads turned toward us. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the attention. I was used to being in the shadows. But if I wanted to win, I needed people to notice me.
Once we got to my AP chemistry class, Luke actually walked me in. “Where do you sit?”
“Here.” I pointed to the desk in the front row, right next to the corkboard with the periodic table on it.
“So, my brother, Landon, wants to know what video games you like to play,” Luke said.
“Any of the Super Mario ones, Skyrim, Dragon Age, any of the Zelda ones…”
Luke grinned. “Oh, God. Maybe I better not tell him, otherwise he’s going to be begging to have you come over and play.”
“How old is he?”
“Eight going on forty-five.” He laughed. “He’s a good kid, but he can be a handful sometimes. He’s kind of a know-it-all.”
“Are you guys close?”
He nodded. “Yeah. My mom is gone a lot, so I’m the one who takes care of him. Look, I should probably head to first hour. I’ll see you at lunch?”
“Sure. Where did you want to meet? Should we sit with your group or mine?”
“How about in the courtyard. If that’s okay?” He ran a hand through his already disheveled blond hair.
No one ever ate in the courtyard. Most of the tables out there were usually covered in bird shit. Was he doing that because he didn’t want to be seen with me? My lips turned down at the corners.
He watched me. “Or not?”
I leaned closer. “The point was for us to be seen together. No one will even notice us if we go outside.”
“Well, I figured we should probably get to know more about each other if we’re going to make this work. I didn’t think you’d want a bunch of people around when I’m trying to ask you questions I should already know the answers to,” he said in a soft voice. His breath was warm against my cheek, and I caught the faint, minty scent of toothpaste.
Jeez, he was thinking things through better than I was. “Fine. How about the library, then? Unless you want a pigeon to crap in your perfect hair.”
He snorted. “You don’t have any problem speaking your mind, do you?”
Actually, I normally didn’t speak up unless I was writing an article I was passionate about. I had no idea why I was able to go all Voldemort on him. “Nope. What you see is what you get. I want to be real, not some fake asshole who just goes along with everyone else,” I said.
“Like me?” His gaze shifted and rested on my face.
“I—no, that’s not what I meant. I just—”
“No. It’s fine. You’re right. I worry too much what everyone thinks. It’s a bad personality trait.”
Before I could answer, he stood to go. “I’ll see you later,” I called.
He grinned, leaned down, and twirled one of my curls around his finger. “Yes you will. Have fun in chem, babe.” With that he sauntered out of the room, leaving a trail of gawking girls staring after. Me included.
Babe? That was the nickname I’d been given? It seemed like something my dad would’ve called my mom in the eighties. Not that I expected him to call me honey love or sweetie pie or something ridiculous like that. But at least he’d given me one. My heartbeat thumped louder than it should have. What the hell was going on with me? I was not going to react to that Neanderthal, no matter how good-looking he was.
Chloe plopped down on top of my desk with a squeal. “Oh my god, I can’t believe this. You did it. You did it.”
I chuckled. “Um—yeah, I’m still not sure I’m awake.”
“And you wore a dress today like I told you to. Or was it for a certain someone else?”
“No. It was for you,” I said.
Her smile widened as she gave me a look of disbelief. “I’ll need to take some pics in between classes so I can work on your poster design in art. You seriously look great.”
Marissa Blossom hurried toward us. “Are you and Luke Pressler dating now?”
My finger traced the top of my textbook. “Yeah.”
“Wow. How did you land him?”
What she was really saying was how did someone like me end up with someone like him. But instead of copping an attitude, I sighed. “Luck, I guess.” I giggled. Frick. I never giggled. It’s all part of the act. Or at least that’s what I told myself. “I go to Crusty’s Pizza, where he works, a lot. We just started talking one day and kind of hit it off. It’s new—so we’re seeing where it goes.”
“You’re so lucky. Luke is the freaking hottest guy in the school.” Marissa pouted.
Before she could continue on, Jenna Lee pushed into chemistry. When her eyes landed on me, she scowled and marched right up to me.
Chloe slid from my desk and stood behind me, while Marissa went back to her seat.
“So, I heard you’re running against me?” She flipped her long dark hair over her shoulder. I swear it snapped like a whip.
I swallowed hard. “Y-you heard right,” I stammered.
Her lip curled up into a sneer. “Don’t think you’re going to win. No one even knows who you are.”
So you’re a no one now? I mean, you seem to know exactly who I am. Not that I’d ever say something like that out loud, at least not to her. Damn. Why couldn’t I stand up for myself? Maybe she’d just run along and leave me alone.
“People know who she is,” Chloe said. “And she’s going to beat you.”
Jenna glared from Chloe to me. “You’re going down.”
“You sound scared.” Chloe crossed her arms, standing next to me like a bodyguard.
“Of her? Not a chance.” With that she stalked over to her seat near the teacher’s desk and sat down.
“Thanks,” I said. “I really need to work on being more bitchy if I’m going to win this.”
Chloe laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back. And Jenna wouldn’t have freaked like that if she didn’t sense you were competition.”
Yep. It was definitely on. I only hoped my new association with Luke would propel me to victory. Or at least get me started. It was time Jenna Lee learned that there were other people in the school who mattered, too.
Chapter Six
Luke
As I walked by the office on my way to class, I caught sight of two police officers standing at the front desk. Shit. Were they here about the vandalism? Did they know I was a part of it? Maybe Ayla had given them the video. My brow beaded with sweat as I moved closer to the door to listen.
“We might need to talk to a few of your students,” one of the cops said.
I was done for.
“Sure, I can have them paged. Who do you need?”
“Morrison Eberhardt and Troy Danvers.”
A sigh of relief flooded through me, and I hurried away. Damn, that was close.
I slipped into my first hour American pop culture class to find Brady waiting at my desk for me, along with Jack.
“Okay, so you and Ayla Hawkins?” Brady raised a brow at me. “Since when? And how come we’re just finding out now?”
“Since this last week,” I said. “And you’re just finding out because I knew you two would give me crap.”
“Shit, yeah, I’m going to give you crap. You could have any girl in the school and you picked that chubby weird one?”
Something inside me snapped. Why was he being such an ass? So I fisted my hand, pulled back, and punched Jack in the arm as hard as I could. “Shut the fuck up about my girlfriend. She’s smart, nice, and talented. You don’t know a damn thing about her.”
Brady watched me for a moment, then turned to Jack. “Leave him alone. He hasn’t had a girlfriend in forever, so if he says he likes her, then he likes her.”
Jack rubbed his arm, glaring at me. “Jeez, calm down. I was teasing. She’s not my top choice in girls, but she does have a nice r
ack.”
“God, is that all you look at, tits?” I dropped my books onto my desk.
“Sorry.” He held his hands up as if to fend me off.
Some days, I didn’t know why the hell I hung out with Jack. He could be a douche to people. But he’d been one of my friends since kindergarten, same as Brady. We’d moved up the ranks together. And when my parents got divorced when I was in fourth grade, they helped me through it. They were still helping me through it.
A part of me considered telling them about being blackmailed. Maybe then they’d let up and help me make this look real. But the last person I needed to find out about this was Jack. Because Jack would make things worse. He always did. He’d probably piss Ayla off and screw us all over. However, if I could get Brady alone, he might be able to help me.
Brady was my closest friend. Well, real friend, anyway. He saw through my facade and knew my family no longer had money. He knew I worked to help my mom out. There’d been a couple of times he’d spotted me some money to eat lunch. Which was embarrassing as hell. But he didn’t make a big deal out of it. Everyone else thought I worked because Mom wanted to teach me responsibility. Hell, Brady was the only one who knew where I lived now. I never invited anyone else over so they didn’t know how bad off we really were, and I planned on keeping it that way.
“Look, Ayla and I are together now. So you’ll either accept it or not. And if you don’t, then I guess we’re not hanging out anymore.”
“I’m cool with it,” Brady said. “As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.” He grinned. “Although I’m surprised anyone nabbed you with how much you study and work.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, tell me about it. If it wasn’t for me seeing her up at the pizza place so much, she might not have been on my radar, either.”
I’d have to remember to tell Ayla to make sure we had the same stories about connecting at Crusty’s. Hopefully we could keep all our lies straight or this would fall apart before it even began.
News of my new relationship status spread quicker than I thought it would. By lunchtime, pretty much everyone knew about us. We were definitely one of the strangest pairings, or so the rumors said.
“Hey, where you going?” Brady caught up with me on my way to the library.
“I was gonna have lunch with Ayla today.”
“Oh. Mind if I tag along?” He had a sack lunch in his hand.
Shit. If he came, then he might figure out that this was a sham. But if I told him I didn’t want him to come, it’d make him suspicious, since we ate together pretty much every day.
“Sure, if you want.”
As we rounded the corner, I ran right into Jenna Lee, whose lips were pursed into a tight line. When she saw me, her eyes narrowed. “Tell your girlfriend she’s not going to win this election. I don’t know what she’s trying to pull.”
I smiled at her. Damn. Ayla had her riled up. “Maybe it’s time for a change,” I said.
“Ugh! You realize she’s already getting petitions drawn up to take some of the funding from sports to put into the arts, right? She’s pushing to change things I worked hard to get for us.”
“So?” I shrugged. “Ayla’s got some great ideas.” Actually, I had no clue what her plans were. For all I knew she could be working on a big laser to fry everyone’s brains. But if it pissed Jenna off this badly, it was worth it. We’d dated for like five minutes my freshman year, until some upperclassman showed interest in her and she dumped me. Of course, looking back, that dude did me a huge favor.
“If she goes down, you’re going with her. Remember that,” Jenna snapped, then spun on her heel and stormed down the hall.
Brady chuckled. “Are you sure you want to get in the middle of that war?”
I didn’t tell him that I had no choice. Instead, I grinned. “If it means bringing Jenna down, I’m game.”
When we got to the library, Ayla was already sitting at the back table with her friend Chloe. As I approached, her gaze shifted to Brady and she frowned, turning to look at me.
“Hey.” I plopped down next to her. With the others watching, I bent over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close enough to whisper in her ear. “Sorry, he tagged along. He normally has lunch with me.” Man, she smelled good. Kind of a tropical coconut scent.
She pulled back, her face inches from mine. “That’s fine. Chloe came along, too.”
“Hi, I’m Brady.” He held his hand out to Ayla.
“Yeah, I know. We’ve gone to the same school since, like, kindergarten. You put worms in my hair in first grade.”
Brady rubbed his neck. “Right. Sorry about that.”
She rolled her eyes with a grin, then turned back to me. “So Chloe is going to do some pictures of me for my election posters. She wondered if you wanted to be in one, too?” Ayla’s ears turned pink, which made me smile.
“Sure. Oh, and speaking of the election, you’ve definitely pissed Jenna off. She wanted me to tell you to back out of this.”
Chloe shoved her seat back. “She’s such a B. I swear, if she got any farther up her own butt, she’d disappear.”
“It’s fine. Besides, she’s probably only freaking out because we have a chance to win,” Ayla said, although she didn’t look as sure as she sounded.
“Exactly. Don’t worry, Brady and I are going to help you win. Right, Brady?” I glanced at my friend, who’d sat down across from us.
He opened his turkey sandwich and nodded. “Absolutely. In fact, I think I might have an idea for you.”
“Really?” Ayla said.
“We could do a photo booth at the next football game and hand out pins with your name on them to anyone who comes up to get a pic with someone from the basketball team. But remember, whatever happens in the photo booth stays in the photo booth,” he teased.
I snorted. “Why do I get the feeling this has more to do with you than the election?”
Brady laughed. “It’s a win-win situation. Ayla gets votes, I get to take pictures with hot girls.”
“Now you sound like Jack.”
He wrinkled his nose. “On second thought, maybe we should do a dunk tank instead.”
“No. The photo booth would be perfect. I mean, if you’d be willing to help with it.” Ayla’s brown eyes lit up. She peered at me from thick lashes.
“I bet Jack would be on board with it, too. Although that might be a lawsuit waiting to happen,” Brady said.
Knowing Brady watched us closely, I raised my hand and caught her chin with my thumb. “I’m not sure how much time I’ll be spending in the booth, unless Ayla’s in there with me.”
My blood pounded in my ears. Whoa. Was I pouring it on too thick? Ayla had wanted a fake boyfriend, and that’s what I was giving her. At least in public. Maybe I fell into this part a little too easily. I didn’t even fight her on any of it. But I knew I was only one mistake or misstep away from having that video forwarded. And with the police sniffing around, I needed to be on my best behavior.
Ayla stared at me a moment, then turned to her own lunch bag, from which she pulled a piece of leftover pizza. I dropped my hand. “Is that the one I made you last night?”
She chuckled. “Yeah. And it’s even better the second day.”
“Luke said you guys met at Crusty’s? Well, I guess not met, but started talking.” Brady peered between us as if looking for a chink in our stories.
She took a bite of pizza, then wiped her fingers on a napkin. “We did. I’m in there all the time. Probably twice a week at least.”
“Ayla loves pizza,” Chloe confirmed. “It’s a stress reliever.”
“Unless you’re the one having to make it. I come home smelling like pepperoni,” I said. Or sauce, or garlic. Definitely not my dream job, but it helped to pay the bills.
Ayla laughed. “Which is why I like you so much.” She poked me lightly in the side.
“Oh, shoot. I need to head to the art room so I can get started on your posters before class begins. I want t
o have at least one done before the end of the school day,” Chloe said, grabbing her things from the table. “See you guys.”
Brady chomped down the rest of his sandwich and stood as well. “I need to go, too. Jack still has my government notes. I need them for next hour. I’ll see you two around.”
Soon Ayla and I were the only ones left at the table. I toyed with my peanut butter sandwich as I glanced at her. “Sorry about Brady coming along.”
“No, it’s fine. He seems really nice. Not quite what I expected.”
“What did you expect?” I pried.
She took a second piece of pizza from her lunch bag and handed it to me. “I don’t know. That you guys would be more stuck-up, I guess.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But you can’t blame me for stereotyping. I mean, you’re jocks and you’re usually in the halls talking shit.”
I took the food she offered. “You should get to know people before you judge them.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you’ve never judged anyone. I bet I probably didn’t even register on your radar before I came into the pizza parlor the other day.”
“You’re right. You didn’t. And I apologize. I knew who you were and knew you were kind of nerdy—but I didn’t really know anything else. I still don’t know much. So you should probably stop into Crusty’s tonight so we can actually talk. Face-to-face.”
“I have play practice after school, and I’m meeting with Mr. Leaver about next week’s issue of Eye of the Tiger. I’m trying to get approval to write an article about sex trafficking, but I could swing by after that. Although my mom might kill me for not making it home for dinner again.” She chewed her lip.
“I’m there until closing, so if you wanted to stop home first and then drop in, you could,” I said.
She nodded. “Sure. So it’s a date—I mean, not a date date…”
Incriminating Dating Page 4