Page 66 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Friday

“Axel, put me down!” I screamed over the music as he hoisted me over his shoulder caveman style. This was the second time this week that he’d done this. But this time I almost hit a trapeze artist. “Axel!”

He ignored me.

I stared at his butt in his jeans that hugged him perfectly. “Stop being a Neanderthal.” I slapped his butt and then laughed. I just touched Axel’s butt. Hehehe.

He didn’t respond as he carried me away from the dance floor and past the center ring.

“Axel! You’re showing my butt to everyone again.”

He put his hand on my ass to cover me. “Then maybe you should stop wearing insanely short skirts.”

“Are you kidding me right now?”

“Do I sound like I’m joking, Scarlett?” He carried me into a dimly lit hall and finally set me down on my feet. “We had a deal.”

“What deal?”

“That you wouldn’t flirt with Jacob.”

I laughed. “We were just dancing. I always dance with Jacob.”

“Not like that.”

“Well I would have danced with you, but oh wait…you were too busy flirting with my arch nemesis!”

“I wasn’t flirting with Gigi. And I’m a little pissed off that you’d even think I’d do that to you.”

“You’re pissed off?” Of course he’d flirt with her.

He flirted with everyone but me. And Gigi had kissed him earlier this week.

Had Axel somehow forgotten about that? Because I hadn’t.

Gigi clearly had her eyes set on him. She wanted the hottest guy in school and I’m sure it made her doubly happy that she was hurting me.

“ I’m the one that’s majorly pissed off. ”

“You’ve had too much to drink, let me take you home.”

So that he could come back and flirt with Gigi without me glaring? Screw him. Screw him, screw him, screw him! “Bite me.”

He lowered his eyebrows at me. “Why are you even here, Scarlett?”

Excuse you? Why was he being such an asshole tonight? Scratch that. Why had he been such an asshole for the past several years? “Because I was invited.”

“You’re grounded. You’re supposed to be at home. Not here.”

“Why do you even care? Are you worried I’m hurting your chances with Gigi?”

“What? No.”

“It sure looked like you were trying to hook up with her.”

“What are you talking about?”

Did he think I was blind because I wasn’t wearing my glasses? Or maybe he just thought I was dumb. But I wasn’t either of those things. “I’m sorry that I’m here cramping your style or whatever you’re mad about. How about you just ignore me like you always do?”

“I don’t…”

“Yes you do! You don’t want me here, so just pretend I’m not.” I pushed past him.

“I do want you here.” He grabbed my wrist so I couldn’t walk away.

“Clearly you don’t or you wouldn’t be so pissed that I showed up.”

“I’m pissed because I don’t want your one week of being grounded to turn into two weeks.”

I just stared at him. “Why does that matter?”

He sighed and let go of my wrist. “Scarlett, you’ll miss my first game of the season if you’re grounded next week too.”

I swear my heart stopped beating as I stared up at him.

The corner of his mouth ticked up.

I couldn’t help but match his smile. “Really? That’s why you didn’t want me to come tonight? So I wouldn’t be grounded for longer and miss your game?”

“I’m kind of used to you cheering for me super loudly.”

God, I’d been so mad at him. But that…actually made sense. And it was nice that he wanted me there. Really nice. I was Axel’s #1 fan. I always had been. “I don’t cheer that loudly, Axel.”

He laughed. “You really do.”

I smiled up at him. And just like that…we felt like us again. But that was one of the problems. We only ever felt like us when we were alone. If anyone else was in the room with us, he acted differently. More distant. Dismissive. And it had been a really long time since we’d been alone.

He’d stopped coming over to my place as much.

We used to sit on my bed doing homework together most nights.

And by that, I mean eating snacks and laughing.

God, he always used to make me laugh instead of cry.

And I couldn’t remember the last time we’d done that.

Just us. I was pretty sure it was before high school.

Before he had practice after school every day.

“I would never miss your first game,” I said.

“So you’ll let me take you home?”

Honestly, him taking me home didn’t sound that bad.

It would just be the two of us… But was that actually what he wanted?

Because I’d waited a million years for him to ask me out.

As far as I was concerned, this was the perfect opportunity.

But he wasn’t asking. It still kind of just seemed like he wanted me out of the picture.

“I can do both,” I said. “Seriously, my dad will never know I was gone tonight.”

“Scarlett…”

“And even if I do get grounded again, I can sneak out. RJ cut a hole in the floor of one of the guest bedrooms. I can pretty much come and go whenever I want to now.”

Axel laughed, but stopped when he realized I wasn’t laughing too. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Yeah. And it’s not just for sneaking out. I mean…you could sneak in if you wanted to.” I was giving him the perfect opportunity here. I was practically begging him to agree to sneak into my house to see me. “So you can see me even though I’m grounded for another few days.”

He locked eyes with me.

I stared into the blue hue of his eyes and was completely lost. I wanted Axel to sneak into my house when everyone else was asleep. I wanted him to sneak into my bed. To steal my first kiss. To let me fall asleep in his arms. I wanted all of it with him.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and we broke eye contact. He looked down but shoved the phone back into his pocket, even though it was still buzzing.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“No one,” he said.

Well…it was obviously someone. Probably someone he didn’t want me to know about. Gigi. I pressed my lips together. Two people could play the someone game. “I think I’m going to kiss someone tonight,” I said.

Axel raised his eyebrows. “Who?”

I would have responded “no one” like he just had when I asked him who was calling. But Jacob wasn’t no one. I also wasn’t about to tell him that I was planning on kissing Jacob though. It was really none of his business. “Just…someone. Sophie’s calling it Operation First Kiss.”

“She would call it that.”

That’s all he had to say? “Mhm. By the end of the night I’m going to have had my first kiss. This dress was made for a first kiss I think.”

He shrugged. “Okay.”

Okay? My heart sunk. That was my answer right there. He didn’t actually care who I kissed. And he certainly didn’t think I looked hot in my dress. My first kiss was supposed to be with him. It was always supposed to be him. And now I could barely stand to look at his stupid face.

“Do you still remember your first kiss, Axel?” I did.

It was sixth grade. We were playing spin the bottle at one of his friend’s houses.

He kissed Ava Williams. And I spent the rest of the party crying in the bathroom.

I spent lots of parties crying in bathrooms when I happened to see him kissing someone who wasn’t me. But I wasn’t going to do that anymore.

“Yeah,” he said. “I remember.”

“I guess you always remember your first?”

He shrugged. “I guess so.”

Why did he keep shrugging at me? “Ava Williams.” I tried to say her name not full of disdain, but I probably failed.

“I’m surprised you remember her name,” he said.

Why would he be surprised by that? Her name was seared into my brain for eternity. Axel’s first kiss was supposed to be mine. She’d stolen it from me. And he’d willingly let her. That was the part that stung so much.

I wondered if I’d remember my first kiss as vividly as I remembered Axel’s with Ava. Hopefully my first kiss wouldn’t feel like throwing my heart into oncoming traffic.

Just thinking about it made me want to run to the bathroom and cry. But I’d just promised myself I was done with that nonsense.

“I think I need another drink,” I said. “If you’ll excuse me.”

“Well, don’t drink too much. You don’t want to forget your first kiss.”

“Oh, it’s going to be unforgettable,” I said.

But honestly? I wasn’t even sure I wanted to remember it.

I just wanted it done with. I’d put so much pressure on it.

I’d dreamed of it a million times. All with Axel.

But Axel was never going to kiss me. He just wanted me to be his friend, cheering for him during his game.

“Enjoy the rest of the party,” I said and sidestepped him. This time he didn’t reach out to stop me.

“Who?” he said to my back. “Who are you going to kiss?”

It was the second time he’d asked me. We both knew he didn’t really care about the answer though. And it was a little too late to suddenly pretend that he did. His shrug after I told him my plan was all I needed to know I was making the right decision.

“Who, Scarlett?”

Third time was the charm. I turned around but kept walking backward. “I always pictured it with you, Axel.”

He lowered his eyebrows as he stared at me.

I blamed the drinks I had on saying that out loud. But my tipsy self was proud of myself for finally admitting it to him. I’d certainly waited long enough. And my liquid courage didn’t stop at one line.

“But now?” I gave him one of his own signature shrugs. “I value myself a little more than that. You’re officially off the hook. So don’t sweat it.” I turned around and kept walking.

He wanted me to go have my first kiss with someone else. He wanted me to get over him. I blinked away the tears in my eyes. I didn’t even know why I was upset. It wasn’t like this was surprising news. And I’d already decided who I wanted to have my first kiss with.

Someone kind.

Someone who always made me laugh.

Someone who’d never purposely make me feel like a pile of worthless dog turds.

I wanted to kiss Jacob Miller. And if I was being perfectly honest with myself, I’d been thinking about it since he’d told me I looked beautiful on Wednesday.

I think this was the conversation I’d needed to move on. Axel Stevens and I were never going to happen. And I needed to start living my life instead of lurking in the corner pouting because Axel would rather kiss anyone but me.

The pitiful truth was…I’d saved my first kiss for him. But he’d never asked me to. He’d never wanted it. All the dreams I had about us being together were just that…dreams. Fairytales I’d been telling myself since I was two. But you couldn’t force someone to be your Prince Charming.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” O’Reilly shouted through his megaphone.

I glanced behind me once more before heading back to the party, but Axel wasn’t there. I wasn’t sure where he’d gone. But honestly? It didn’t matter. I walked back out into the circus to see O’Reilly standing on the middle ring again.

“It’s time to take your seats! The show is about to begin!”

I had no idea what he was talking about. But I spotted Sophie climbing into the stands. I quickly hurried over to her and plopped down on the bleachers beside her.

“Have you seen Jacob?” I asked.

“No, he got a call a couple minutes ago and disappeared.”

Huh. Axel had gotten a random call too. I shook the thought away. Stop thinking about Axel. “I need to tell Jacob all about Operation Too Hot to Handle and Phase Incest. Just come clean so he doesn’t accidentally find out about it later and think the worst.”

“To get him on board?”

“No, Operation Too Hot to Handle is officially terminated. I’m done pining over Axel.”

Sophie handed me the bag of popcorn she was holding. She always knew when I needed comfort food.

“Thanks.” I ate a bit of the buttery goodness. I’d finally told Axel the truth and he’d just stared at me. Like he always just stared at me. I was pretty sure he thought I was nuts. Which was fine. Hell, maybe I was crazy.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Sophie asked.

“Axel? No.” I was done talking about Axel. “But Jacob?” I nodded. “I’m going to kiss him tonight. And I don’t ever want him to think I did it because of some stupid operation.”

Sophie squealed. “Yeah?”

I nodded.

“Technically it is still Operation First Kiss though.”

“Yeah, but that sounds loads better. I’m going to do it. I’m going to have my first kiss.”

Sophie sighed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh.” She laughed. “Nothing. I’m so excited for you. I’m just bummed because I was hoping to have my first kiss with Mr. Halifax tonight. I left him a note on his desk inviting him to the party. It was actually a dual Operation First Kiss.”

“You what?”

“Don’t freak out. And I know it was a dumb idea. Obviously. I mean…he didn’t come.”

“You’re as bad as those girls that invited my dad tonight.”

Sophie gagged. “Sorry, still not over it. I’m glad he didn’t let me come over last night. Aunt Penny would have been so confused about why I was dry heaving all over the place.”

“Mhm.”

“But back to your thing. You’re really going to kiss Jacob?”

I nodded. “If I can find him. And explain the whole incest plan thing. Not that I ever really did it anyway. Everything that’s happened between me and Jacob has felt so normal.

” I thought I wanted Axel to see how much I’d changed over the summer.

But maybe it had been Jacob all along. And it wasn’t just me who had changed. He had too.

“I really love you two together. I’m totally Team Jacob. I mean in this case. Obviously in Twilight I was Team Edward. But where do you think Jacob is?”

“I don’t know…”

We both started looking around the stands.

“I don’t see Axel either,” Sophie said.

“Or Liam or RJ,” I added. Actually I didn’t see anyone from the football team…

“Ladies and gentlemen!” O’Reilly shouted. “May I have your attention!”

Sophie and I turned to the center ring.

There was a dinging noise and Gigi walked across the ring holding a sign that said round one.

Normally I would have been very distracted and annoyed by Gigi doing anything. But I was more curious about what “round one” meant. Round one of what?

“First up in the ring we have…Jacob Miller!”

Jacob stepped up onto the center ring wearing nothing but his boxer briefs.

Gigi looked down at the outline of his crotch in his boxers and smiled at him.

What the hell is happening?