by Amanda Abram
She spun around to face us and with a huff said, “So, what, you two are just going to disown me until your little charade is over?”
“Trish, keep your voice down,” I hissed. “No, we are not going to disown you. I just think, for right now, you shouldn’t be around when Jase is around. Because otherwise, people might just assume he’s hanging around because you’re his sister.”
She sighed. “Whatever. See you at lunch.” She paused for a moment. “Or am I not allowed to sit with you?”
“Of course you’re allowed to sit with me,” I assured her, but she was already walking away. She seemed perturbed, but I had no doubt she’d be fine again by lunchtime. We never stayed mad at each other for too long.
“Do you really think she’s okay with this?” I asked Jase after she was gone.
He shrugged. “Does it really matter? Even if she has a problem with it, she’ll get over it. Especially when she sees Jeffrey’s reaction.”
“I guess,” I said as we headed to my locker. After a long moment of silence between us, I spoke again. “So what were you talking to Kylie about?”
“Quantum physics,” he replied without even batting an eye. “Global politics. Oh, and a little philosophy.”
I rolled my eyes. “I get it. It’s none of my business.”
“Correct,” he said with a slight smirk.
I felt relieved when my locker was within viewing distance. If Jase and I were going to make our fake relationship work, we were definitely going to have to work on our communication skills.
“So what should you and I be talking to each other about, anyway?” he asked, as if reading my mind.
“Anything is fine.” I opened up my locker door. “As long as people can’t hear what we’re saying, we can be talking about the weather as far as I’m concerned. We just need to do it somewhat flirtatiously.”
Resting his shoulder up against the locker next to mine, he leaned in closer to me and grinned. “I can do flirtatious.”
I grinned back. “I’m very well-aware of that.” I reached out to retrieve my algebra book from the shelf, but Jase stopped me by grabbing my wrist.
“Jeffrey’s coming down the hallway,” he said in a low voice, inconspicuously averting his gaze over my shoulder, and then back to me. “And he just spotted us.”
I went to turn, to see for myself, but Jase stopped me, “No, don’t look. It will be too obvious.”
I nodded in agreement, but I desperately wanted to see him, to see what kind of expression he had on his face. If he even had one at all.
“Is he alone?” I whispered.
Jase shook his head. “No. Amber-Lynne Rose is with him.”
“Oh,” I said, disappointed. “Does he look curious at all? Or bothered? Or…anything?”
“I can’t tell. He’s no longer looking at us. In fact, he’s…” His eyes widened slightly. “Never mind.”
“What?” I asked, and then swiveled my head around to peek in Jeffrey’s direction. Jase was right, he was no longer looking at us. He was too busy shoving his tongue down Amber-Lynne Rose’s throat.
I couldn't deny that each and every time I saw them like that, it felt like a dagger was being shoved into my chest, piercing my heart, threatening to bring its beating to an abrupt halt. With a quivering sigh, I slammed my locker door shut with my algebra book still inside.
“Don’t pay any attention to them.”
I nodded and blinked. As I did so, I could feel hot tears burning the insides of my eyelids.
“Why am I doing this?” I asked, directing the question more to myself than to Jase. Turning to him, I said, “This is a stupid idea. It’s obvious I’m not going to get what I want from it. So why am I even bothering?”
He tilted his head to one side and furrowed his brow. “You’re giving up before we even begin? That’s not a Lexi Turner thing to do.”
I sniffled and stared blindly at my locker. Giving up just seemed like the best option at the moment. Who was I kidding? Jeffrey wouldn’t care who I was dating, just so long as it wasn’t him. I sighed then, but it came out more like a sob.
“Hey.” Jase took a step closer to me and, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder, he turned me so that I was facing him. “Cheer up, emo girl.” I couldn't help but giggle as he pulled me into a hug.
I fell into his arms willingly, burying my face in his chest. He smelled good. As good as Jeffrey always did, if not better. And he felt good too. Toned and strong. Like he could protect me from just about anything.
“You’ll get your revenge,” he murmured into my ear. “I’ll make sure of it.”
With reluctance I pulled away and gazed up at him through watery eyes. “You’re awesome, Jase.”
He flashed me an arrogant grin. “You’re not the first girl to tell me that.”
I hit him playfully on the shoulder. “I’m sorry I got so emotional there for a second. I promise it will never happen again.”
“No worries. Trish is my sister. I’m used to emotional.”
I chuckled as the bell rang. “We’d better get to homeroom, I guess.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I’ll catch you later. Keep your chin up, okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Totally.”
Easier said than done.
As he walked away, I turned back to where Jeffrey and Amber-Lynne Rose had been standing just a few short moments before. To my complete lack of surprise, they were gone. They’d probably disappeared to the nearest janitor’s closet to make out before going to homeroom. Just the thought of that made me ill.
Because whether I wanted to admit it or not, I was still in love with Jeffrey Weston. And no amount of revenge would be able to change that.
Chapter Eight
All throughout Health class second period, I could feel someone watching me.
It was pretty easy to figure out who it was, but I couldn’t check to confirm because I didn’t want to acknowledge the fact I’d noticed. So I played it cool, staring ahead at Mrs. Patterson as she stood at the chalkboard, rambling on about…well, I had no idea. I wasn’t paying attention.
It wasn’t until I heard her spout something about a “project” that I sat up in my seat, fully alert.
Whenever we had projects in Health class, they involved pairing up. Jeffrey and I always used to pair up because we were going out, and because there was never anyone else in the class we cared to work with.
So naturally I went into panic mode, because this meant I would have to search for a partner that I didn’t know, or didn't care to know. That is, if I didn’t end up being the odd-man-out. Which would have been perfectly fine with me. I didn’t mind doing projects by myself.
She went on to explain that the project would determine our final grade, that it could be done on any subject we had discussed throughout the semester, and that we didn't even have to pair up if we didn't want to.
At that last bit of info, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. And as soon as Mrs. Patterson told us we could take the rest of class to pair up and discuss, I opened up my notebook to begin brainstorming.
However, I was interrupted when a desk was suddenly pushed up against mine.
I glanced up to see Jeffrey staring over at me from said desk. “Partners?”
“Actually, I was planning on working alone,” I replied through clenched teeth.
“That’s lame.” He slouched back in his chair. “We've always been partners.”
Yeah, we have. Until you went and broke my heart, jackass. I wanted so badly to say that out loud, but I refrained from doing so. In all honesty, I didn’t want to work alone. And in all honesty, my heart skipped beats at the thought of working with Jeffrey. So before I could stop myself, I said, “Fine. We’ll be partners.”
He beamed at me. What was the boy trying to do to me? He dumped me for another girl not even two weeks ago, and now he was acting as if I should just forget that little fact and willingly partner up with him. It made me mad. So mad, in fact, that I instant
ly made the decision to tell him that I'd changed my mind and didn't want to be his partner after all.
“So I saw you talking to Holloway earlier,” he said before I had the chance to speak up. He folded his arms over his chest. “You two friends now or something?”
My breath hitched in my throat. So he had noticed me and Jase, and it had bothered him. I somehow managed to stop myself from grinning and played ignorant. “Trish and I have been friends for over fourteen years now, Jeffrey. You know that.”
Jeffrey’s face twisted into a slight sneer. “Not that Holloway. The other one.”
“Oh. You mean Jase?”
“Yeah. I mean Jase.” I could detect irritation in his voice.
I just shrugged. “He gave me a ride home the other day and we waxed nostalgic about the good old days when we used to be friends. Made me kinda wonder why we ever stopped being friends in the first place.”
Jeffrey snorted and shook his head. “I can tell you why: because the guy’s a dick, that’s why. You’d be a moron to start hanging out with him again.”
I suddenly felt very defensive, like it was my obligation to stick up for Jase. I knew there was way more to the story than either boy would ever let on, but since I didn’t know what that was, it wasn’t fair for me to let either one bash the other in my presence.
“Jase is a nice guy. He’s helping me through a rough patch in my life right now.” I lowered my gaze to my notebook at the last part. The rough patch was, of course, referring to Jeffrey dumping me.
He was silent for a moment, and I couldn’t bring myself to glance back up at him. So I doodled little flowers in my notebook instead and waited for him to speak.
“Lexi,” he said finally. His voice was softer now. “I’m sor—”
The bell rang then. Wait, had he been about to apologize to me for the breakup? I glanced up at him in anticipation, silently willing him to finish his thought. But he didn’t. In fact, he looked relieved at the interruption. Moving his desk back to its original spot, he jumped up from his chair.
“We should probably get together later.” He threw his backpack over his shoulder. “You know, work on the project and stuff. Your house or mine?”
My jaw dropped. He expected us to work on this project together outside of school? Of course he did. There was no other time for us to work on it. But his house or mine? Neither one sounded like a good idea to me. Yet, I found myself saying “My house,” before I could stop myself.
“Great. I can drive you home after school.”
“Uh-huh,” I said without thinking, barely paying attention to him anymore. In the back of my mind, I wondered how Amber-Lynne Rose would be getting home if Jeffrey was going to go straight to my house after school. Oh God, unless he was going to drag her along with him.
Oh no. There was no way I was letting that skank into my house. I’d have to disinfect everything afterward.
I was so busy panicking when I exited the classroom that I nearly had a heart attack when a hand reached out and tapped my shoulder.
“Hey.” The tap came accompanied by a male voice.
I gasped and jumped, much to the amusement of my shoulder tapper. I glanced up to see Jase staring down at me.
“Hey,” I breathed. “What’s up?”
Jase shrugged and leaned up against the wall next to the door. “I was just passing by and I remembered you have Health this period. Wanted to say hello.”
“Ah. Well, hello.”
He stared at me as though he was expecting me to say something. “So?”
“So?”
“So…I saw Weston leave a second ago. Did you two talk at all?”
“Oh,” I said, and it slowly began to sink in why he was asking. “Oh! Yes! Actually, we did.”
“And?”
“And he asked about us.”
Jase pushed himself off the wall and thrust his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “What did he say?”
“He asked if you and I were friends, and I told him that yes, we are. And then, I swear he was about to apologize for everything—the breakup, Amber-Lynne Rose, everything—and then the bell rang.”
“Oh, really?” he asked, sounding disinterested now.
“Yeah. With any luck, he’ll finish that thought later.”
“Later?”
We started walking down the hallway. “He’s coming over to my house after school. We’re working on a health project together.”
Jase stopped dead in his tracks, causing me to stop and turn around to glance at him. “He’s going over to your house?”
“Yeah. It’s no big deal. We have to work on this stupid project, and we spent the rest of the class talking about you so we don’t even know what our project is going to be about yet.”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” he began, but then he stopped. “I just think maybe you two should meet at the library, or something.”
I laughed. “I think I can handle being alone with Jeffrey in my house. I’m not going to try and jump his bones, I pinky swear.”
Jase was not amused by my teasing; I could tell by the way his mouth formed into a firm, straight line. “Remember what I said. The second I start to think you’re trying to get back with that loser...”
“Jase, stop it. This is strictly school-related, and honestly I couldn’t be less happy about it. So don’t worry, I’m not going to use this as a way to win back his heart or anything. I just want to pass Health class so that I don’t have to take it again next year.”
He nodded then and let out a long, strained sigh. “Okay.” He reached out and gently pushed a strand of hair away from my forehead, tucking it behind my ear. When he did so, his hand grazed the side of my face. His skin felt warm but rough, like he had spent way too much time under the hood of his car.
I blinked up at him in confusion and, as if to answer my unspoken question of, “what was that for?” he explained in a low voice, “Jeffrey was just watching us.”
“Oh,” I said, swallowing hard. I could feel myself blushing and hoped Jase hadn’t noticed. If he had, he was pretty good at not showing it.
“I’ll see you later,” he said, and then he walked off before I could say goodbye.
I watched him go and suddenly I felt disappointed. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but whenever I was with Jase, I didn’t think about Jeffrey so much. Even though our entire acquaintance revolved around Jeffrey, I could swear my heart felt a little less broken when Jase was around. I couldn’t even say that about Trish.
With a sigh, I spun around to look for Jeffrey. But after a quick scan of the hallway, I found he was nowhere to be seen.
***
Trish almost choked on her ham sandwich at lunchtime when I informed her Jeffrey was coming over to my house after school. “Are you completely insane?”
“Yes, Trish, I am completely insane.” I popped a fry into my mouth. “I just left my straight jacket at home today because it didn’t really go with this outfit.”
“I’m glad you can joke about this!” She let her sandwich drop from her hands as though she didn’t care if she ever saw it again. “Do you even have any idea how serious this is?”
“Trish, why are you getting so worked up? It’s just a project.”
“Right. A project that you’re going to be working very closely together on. And the fact you’re not even concerned about that is the reason why I’m getting so worked up.” She paused for a moment, chewing her bottom lip before adding, “You know, I’m starting to think maybe Jase is right.”
“Right about what?”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, “He thinks you’re trying to get back together with Jeffrey. That you’re still in love with him.”
“That’s ridiculous!” I exclaimed. And then, realizing kids at other tables were now glancing over at me, I leaned in closer to Trish and lowered my voice. “Of course I’m still in love with him! You
can’t just shut off feelings like that as if they were a light switch. But that doesn’t mean I want him back. Because I don’t.”
She pouted and reached over to steal one of my fries. “I want to believe you, I really do. I’m just worried about you, that’s all.”
“And I appreciate that, Trish. But there is nothing to worry about. I pinky swear.”
She grinned over at me as she reached out and hooked her right pinky around mine. Unlike her brother, Trish understood the significance of a pinky swear. “Am I allowed to beat you senseless if I start to suspect otherwise?”
“Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I beg you to. It would be for my own good.”
“Agreed.” She grabbed more of my fries.
“Hey, Trish,” someone said, plopping down into the chair next to her. Taking my eyes off my food, I saw that it was Eric, accompanied by Jase who had opted not to take a seat.
“Hi, Eric,” Trish returned the greeting with no enthusiasm whatsoever. She appeared to be more interested in my fries.
“Hey, Trish’s best friend,” Eric acknowledged me with a nod.
“She has a name, you know,” Jase grumbled, reluctantly taking a seat next to me.
“I know. I just like saying the name Trish as often as I can, for as many reasons as I can. It’s such a beautiful name.”
“Ugh, gag me.” Trish pretended to shove a finger down her throat. “Start calling her Lexi, or I will never speak to you again.”
Eric’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You could never stop speaking to me. Your life would become like an empty void or something.”
“I think I’d survive. Now, what do you two morons want?”
Eric gave her a look that clearly said he wanted her, but she wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, she was looking over at her brother, who had somewhat of a guilty look on his face.
“Okay.” He glanced over at me warily. “Promise you won’t get mad.”
“I’m not promising anything.” A bad feeling began to form in the pit of my stomach. Usually when people began conversations with “Promise you won’t get mad”, they usually followed it up with something unpleasant like, “I hit your dog with my car.” Or, “I accidentally burned down your house.” I had a feeling what he was about to tell me would be worse.