Page 58 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Wednesday

“Are you okay?” RJ asked and stepped in front of me. But I barely registered that he was there. The plan in my head was playing out in my mind.

“She’s fine,” Liam said. “She’s just doing that spaced out thing. She’ll be back with us in a minute.”

“Hey,” Sophie said and stepped in front of me. “You alright, Scar?”

“I’m great actually.” And I meant it. This was like a freaking wake up call. My whole body felt numb, but that was beside the point. “I’ll show you how great I am.” I lifted my head a little higher and then walked over to my table.

“Hey guys,” I said and sat down right next to Jacob. “What’s up?” I grabbed one of Jacob’s fries off his plate and bit into it. “Wow, these are good. Do you mind sharing?”

He raised his eyebrow. “What’s mine is yours, Scar.”

I studied his face. I’d been so blind for so long.

Axel was all I saw. But if I really thought about it…

Jacob was sweeter. And kinder. And never made me feel like shit.

He was the kind of guy that showed up and swung you around in a circle because he was so excited to see you.

I think a part of me knew all along that Gigi was right.

Axel was embarrassed of me. And I was so done trying to better myself for someone who didn’t even care.

Someone who would kiss my sworn enemy. Suddenly Jacob looked a million times hotter.

And he knew I was staring at him. Because his smile grew.

“Scar, can I talk to you for a second?” Axel said.

“I suddenly have a hankering for ice cream,” I said, ignoring Axel’s request. “Want to get out of here and get some with me, Jacob?”

He looked surprised by my request. But then he smiled.

“Are you serious?” Axel said. “You hate leaving school for lunch because you’re always worried about being back on time.”

Sophie, Liam, and RJ joined us at our table. But none of them said a word, even though they knew that was true. Being late was the worst.

“You don’t know everything about me, Axel.” I ate another of Jacob’s fries. “You were gone all summer, remember? A lot can change in a few months.”

“You’re such a baller,” Sophie mouthed silently at me.

I was a baller. And that was the encouragement I needed to keep this up. “What do you say, Jacob? You in?”

There was a smile playing on the corners of his mouth. “Just the two of us?” he asked.

His smile really was endearing. “Mhm.”

“Like a date?”

I stared at him. I knew I had initiated this. But technically this was the first time anyone had asked me out on a date. And my heart was starting to race. “Exactly like a date.”

“Can we please just talk?” Axel said.

I ignored him. I was afraid that if I looked at him or acknowledged him in any way I’d burst out crying.

We didn’t need to talk. What could he possibly have to say that would undo all the heartache he’d caused me basically my whole life?

He couldn’t take back his tongue down Gigi’s throat.

I no longer had a crush on him. He was…dead to me.

“Come on,” I said to Jacob and stood up. “Let’s get out of here.”

Before Jacob could respond, Axel appeared next to me and lifted me over his shoulder like I was nothing but a petulant child.

“Put me down!” I hissed.

He started walking me out of the cafeteria.

“Axel! My skirt is too short, everyone can see my butt.” I tried to reach up to cover what I hoped wasn’t exposed, but it just made me slide farther down his back.

He put his hand on my ass to make sure I didn’t moon the whole school. And for just a second I froze. Because Axel Stevens was touching my butt.

“Maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to dress like a Triple G,” he said.

Excuse me? “You can’t tell me how to dress.”

“Yes I can.”

“No you can’t!” I no longer wanted him to be touching me. “Put me down right now!”

He pushed through the doors and into the empty hallway before setting me down.

I immediately readjusted my skirt before a teacher could see.

“Put this on.” He shrugged out of his varsity jacket.

“No. I don’t need more layers. I’m wearing the perfect amount of clothing.”

“This isn’t you. Short skirts, high heels, and contacts? Seriously?”

“What’s so wrong with contacts?”

He shook his head.

But before he could say anything, I kept talking. “Don’t stand there and keep pretending you ever liked my glasses. And I happen to like these shoes. And this skirt.”

“You’re acting like a child.” He draped his jacket over my shoulders and I tried to ignore the smell of his expensive cologne.

“I am not.” My response was lame, and basically made his point. But I was a little distracted. Why does he have to smell so damn good? Instead of shoving his jacket off, I just crossed my arms and stared at him. “Can I go now? I’m late for my ice cream date.”

“You’re not leaving school to get ice cream. They have ice cream here.”

“Stop telling me what to do,” I said. “What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?”

I glared at him. “You ditch classes all the time. And it’s only lunch. Tons of students leave for lunch.”

“Is this about Gigi?” he asked.

“No. I don’t care who you kiss, Axel. What you do with your whore mouth is none of my concern. This is about ice cream. It’s of the utmost importance to me, you know that.”

He lowered his eyebrows as he stared at me. “Ice cream? Really?”

Fine. It was about Gigi. Gigi and every other girl he’d ever kissed.

But I wasn’t going to tell him that. Because I hadn’t kissed anyone.

Ever. Axel was supposed to be my first and only kiss.

I’d saved everything for him and he’d saved nothing for me.

I couldn’t do this anymore. “You and Gigi make a great couple. Congrats on dating the devil.” Saying it out loud made me want to cry.

Why her? I wanted to shove him. And slap his perfect face.

Why her and not me? What’s so wrong with me?

“I’m not dating Gigi,” he said. “And if you saw the kiss, you’d know I pushed her away.”

I hadn’t watched the whole thing. But I didn’t believe him. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does if you’re upset about it.”

Does it? Because I was upset with everyone he kissed. But he never seemed to care. “I’m not upset.”

“Really?” He reached out and lightly touched the side of my face. “Despite what you said, I do know you. And I know when you’re about to cry.”

God, it was like he loved breaking me. I pushed his hand away.

“You don’t know me, Axel.” If he did, he’d know that I was desperately in love with him.

He’d know and he wouldn’t hurt me like this.

I had nothing to say to him. He was the absolute worst. I just wanted my freaking ice cream.

I tried to step around him, but he grabbed my wrist to stop me.

And I felt the same spark that I always did when he touched me.

Like my whole body was suddenly too warm.

“Don’t flirt with my best friend,” he said.

“Don’t kiss Gigi ever again.”

He drew a fraction of an inch closer to me. I hadn’t realized how close we were before. But now, if I stood up on my tiptoes, I could kiss him. I could finally feel what it would be like. I swallowed hard.

I felt as frozen as I had when I saw him kiss Gigi. But now…was he about to kiss me? I tilted my face up to his.

He pressed his lips together. “Deal.” He let go of my wrist and took a step back.

Wait. What? I grabbed my wrist where he’d been touching me and pulled it to my chest. I didn’t want to make that deal. I wanted to be able to flirt with whoever I wanted to flirt with. To make him jealous so he’d like me back.

But I was standing here in his varsity jacket because he thought my skirt was too revealing.

And hadn’t he pulled me out of the cafeteria because I was flirting with Jacob?

I stared at him. Was he jealous? I wanted to tell him no deal.

That I didn’t want him to kiss anyone. And that I didn’t want to flirt with anyone else.

But he was already opening up the doors to the cafeteria.

“Come on. Before Mr. Hill sees us out here and we get detention on the first day of school. I’ll even buy you some ice cream from the snack line.”

I barely processed his words. “I need to use the restroom first. See you in there.” I practically ran away from him. Because I needed to talk to Sophie. And I couldn’t talk to her right in front of Axel.

I sat down in a stall, pulled out my phone, and shot her a text. “Do you think Axel seemed jealous?”

“Um…yes. You killed it so hard. He went all caveman on you.”

It worked? I can’t believe her plan freaking worked! “He touched my face,” I texted back. And my wrist. And my butt. He’d touched me everywhere.

“Sexually?”

I didn’t know what she meant by that exactly. “I don’t know.”

“Wait, where are you right now?”

“In the bathroom. We made a deal.”

“You and the bathroom made a deal? I really don’t need to hear about your bowel movements, Scar.”

“No, me and Axel. He said he wouldn’t kiss Gigi ever again. If I promised not to flirt with Jacob. That’s good, right?”

I sat there and waited for her response. And waited. And waited. What was taking her so long? I flushed the toilet even though I hadn’t gone to the bathroom. And then washed my hands and waited some more.

Her response finally came. “So you can flirt with anyone but Jacob?”

I stared at her words. I don’t know. “I guess.”

“Screw Axel Stevens. He doesn’t own you. Flirt with whoever you want to. He can suck it.”

“But you said I made him jealous…”

“He’s playing stupid boy games. This is why I love older men.

Because they know what they want and don’t have to play mind tricks.

Get your butt back in here and stay on your mission until Axel begs you to not flirt with anyone but him.

I promise, Scar, it’ll work. You just have to play a better game than him. ”

“But if I keep flirting with Jacob…what if Axel kisses Gigi again?” Just the thought made my chest ache.

“Then they can dine together in hell.”

I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. But Sophie was right. Axel hadn’t asked me out. Not even close. We weren’t any closer to being together. “I’m not good at games.”

“But I am. And with me in your court, we’re definitely going to win.”

The only problem was that this wasn’t a game of tennis.

This was my life. But I trusted Sophie. She’d had tons of boyfriends over the years.

My zero didn’t really compare. And I saw the way that Mr. Halifax had looked at her in class.

She was about to catch her version of Axel. “Okay. So…what do I do?”

“You come back in here looking hot as hell and eat your ice cream.”

I couldn’t help but smile. It was really sweet that Axel had offered to buy me ice cream.

Sophie sent me one final text: “Phase Incest is still a go!”

God, Sophie, don’t call it that. But at least she’d dropped my name from the phase title. I made my way back to the cafeteria.

Sophie’s smile faltered when she saw me walk back in.

Probably because of Axel’s jacket that was still around my shoulders.

But I couldn’t take it off. I’d been not-so-secretly dying for him to give me his jacket for years.

And it smelled too good to return. As far as I was concerned, I’d earned this jacket.

There was a Drumstick waiting for me at my spot. I sat down and smiled at Axel, but he didn’t look pleased. At all.

“Thanks for this,” I said and started unwrapping the cone.

Axel’s frown deepened.

“Figured we didn’t have time to leave today,” Jacob said. “But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have ice cream.”

Oh. Oh. Wow, Jacob really was so sweet. “Thanks, Jacob.”

He leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Next time let’s have that date.”

I felt my cheeks flush. I smiled up at him, but I couldn’t help but look at Axel out of the corner of my eye. It looked like he was about to murder his supposed best friend. Or me. Or both of us. But Sophie was beaming.

“You okay?” Liam whispered to me.

“Yeah, I’m good.” I think. Actually I was really freaking confused.

“This is the best first day ever,” Sophie said. “Everything’s turning out perfectly. And love is in the air.”

For just a second I wanted to kill her.

“That droolworthy computer science teacher is my ticket to love,” she added.

Oh. She was talking about her love life, not mine.

Liam choked on his water. “I guess you don’t know yet?”

“Know what?” Sophie asked.

RJ laughed. “You’ll find out soon.”

“What, is he even hotter than everyone is saying?”

RJ just stared at her. “You asking me that is gross on so many levels.”

“What is with men not being able to rate other men? What about you, Axel? On a scale of 1 to 10 how hot do you think Jacob is?”

God, Sophie.

“A two,” Axel said, deadpan.

“What?” Jacob lifted up a fry and threw it at his face.

Axel dodged it with a laugh.

And just like that, everything felt normal again. All of us laughing and joking around. Any tension completely abandoned. It didn’t even feel weird that Liam and RJ were here. Probably because I was used to them tagging along everywhere we went.

“I can’t wait till coding class,” Sophie said, putting her chin in her hand with a long sigh. “I can already feel the sexual tension in the air.”

RJ made a disgusted face and Liam laughed.

“Me too,” I said. “I mean, not for those reasons,” I quickly clarified. I didn’t really care how hot the computer science teacher was. But I was excited for that class, because it was the only one I had with Axel. And Jacob.

I glanced over at Jacob and he was staring at me licking the side of my ice cream cone.

Our eyes locked. And I swore no one had ever looked at me like that before.

It was the way I dreamed Axel would look at me.

But this? This was real, not just a childhood fantasy.

Jacob and I had always been friends. But we definitely weren’t looking at each other like friends right now.

He leaned down and whispered in my ear again. “I was just kidding earlier when I said you looked hot. Or sexy as hell. Or whatever idiotic thing I said.”

Oh. I could feel my shoulders sag. Had Sophie told him about the jealousy plan without telling me or something? Had he just been playing along? I was surprised at how deflated I felt. For just a second I thought that maybe…

“I meant to say that you look beautiful, Scarlett. You’ve always looked beautiful.”

I looked up into his brown eyes and I swear my heart skipped a beat. Oh crap. I think I might like Jacob too. I was so royally screwed.