Page 12 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend (Port Lane Romances #3)

seven

“This has to be in the top ten worst school lunches ever,” Liv said in disgust. She pushed her tray away with a curled lip. I was just glad I wasn't the only one who felt the same way.

“Are there any other options?” I asked. I looked over my shoulder and squinted toward the serving counter.

There was only one option when I was up there, but sometimes they added a second partway into the lunch period.

It was hard to see from this far away, but I didn't see anyone walking away from the counter without the gross stew the rest of us had on our plates.

“There's always more gross stew,” Liv said, and I could tell she was just as disappointed as me. “I feel like it's going to give me food poisoning. But at least it isn't the macaroni and cheese again.”

“Yeah, that was really bad last time.” I pushed my tray away from me as well and leaned back in my chair. “It seems like a feat to make it this bad, doesn't it?”

Liv and I had been complaining about our school lunch every day this week. It didn't seem to matter what we tried. It always turned out the same — disgusting. We were starting to get sick of it.

“I would kill for a burger right now,” Liv groaned.

“Maybe we should just order some food,” Alexander said.

“It's against school rules,” I said miserably. A stupid rule but one we had to follow, nonetheless.

“Who's going to bust us?” Alexander asked with a shrug. “It's that or actually going somewhere.”

“I don't suppose you have your car today?” I asked hopefully. Alexander's parents let him drive himself to school about once a week, but it wasn't a consistent enough schedule for me to keep track of it.

“Nope,” Alexander sighed.

“We could walk,” Liv suggested. “We're allowed to go out for lunch.”

“To what?” I asked. “There's nothing within walking distance. Not to mention it's freezing out.”

“Good point,” she said.

“Let's just order,” Alexander said. “Nobody has to know.”

I didn't like it, but I guess he was right. The worst that happened was that we got detention, and I would take that over food poisoning.

“Okay, let’s do it,” I said. Alexander looked around carefully and then pulled out his phone.

“So, what are we thinking?” he asked. “McDonald's?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

“Same here,” Liv said. “Just get me a burger and fries.”

Alexander nodded and put in the order. He glanced at me.

“You want a chicken burger, right Penny?” He asked. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“How did you know?” I asked. Even though we pretended to be in a relationship, we hadn't talked about ourselves much. In fact, it was a bit of a wonder that we were pulling this off as well as we were, all things considered.

“It's what you always get when we go together,” he said.

I tilted my head. I couldn't think of a time that I'd gone out for food with Alexander.

While he and I did get along well, we never hung out away from school or when our families got together.

“After ten years of being the one to get fast food for all of us when the adults mess up Christmas Eve dinner, I've gotten pretty good at remembering your order.”

Ah, right. My mom and Alexander's mom had been best friends since college and were actually roommates for three years, and that hadn't gotten any better at cooking since then.

They were always insistent that they had to make Christmas Eve dinner together, just the two of them like they had back then, and nine times out of ten, it failed spectacularly.

Of course, I'd noticed that Alexander always went with one of our dads or brothers to get the replacement food, but I had no idea he'd memorized my order.

It seemed like something I would do — but then, I'd been harbouring a crush on Alexander since we were kids.

Of course, I remembered small details about him.

I just didn't understand why he would remember details about me.

“And the order is in,” Alexander announced with a dramatic click of a button.

“How long until it gets delivered?” I asked. I peered over his shoulder to get a look at the screen. The order page said it would be here in about half an hour. “We only have ten minutes until the end of lunch. Even if it gets here early, we won’t have time to eat.”

“Looks like we’ll have to skip our next class,” Alexander said. He looked toward me with a grin. “What a shame.”

“Well, I suppose we do have to eat,” I said with a matching grin.

“Can’t learn on an empty stomach.”

“Exactly.”

“As fun as that sounds, I have a suspicion that I'm going to have a pop quiz in my next class,” Liv said. She dropped her head on the table. “I forgot how short lunch is.”

“What teacher?” I asked.

“Mr. Chase.”

“Ask to go to the bathroom after the quiz and come meet us,” I said. “Mr. Chase never notices people missing.”

I had him for history last year, and there was one class where we started with everyone there and ended with only five people left. He didn't say a word about it and never even thought to make us take a hall pass or anything.

“Where will you be?”

Alexander and I exchanged a look. Neither of us had thought that far ahead.

“Outside is too cold,” I said since I knew that would be the obvious suggestion. “But maybe we could go to the library?”

“No food allowed,” Alexander said. “And the librarian's always on top of that.”

“There's nowhere else inside to really hide,” I said with a frown. “Except maybe the change rooms or something, but I am not eating in there.”

“The equipment shed,” Alexander said suddenly.

I made a disgusted face. The equipment shed was attached to the school but only easily accessible from outside.

It was a large square room with high ceilings designed to hold equipment for the sports teams, although most of their stuff was kept in the storage room by the gyms during the winter.

As such, it was a pretty good and secluded hiding spot.

But even though I knew that was why he suggested it, it didn't sound very appealing.

I'd never actually been inside, but if it was anything like the gym storage room, it would be constantly cold, smelled disgusting, and covered in dust. If change rooms were off-limits, I didn't know why he thought the equipment shed was any better.

“Oh, don't look at me like that, Penny!” Alexander said. “It's not as gross as you think, and it's surprisingly warm.”

“Okay, fine,” I said with a resigned sigh. “But if it's anything like the gym storage room, I'm leaving.”

“And going where?” Alexander asked teasingly.

“Just leaving,” I said with a shake of my head. “Anywhere. Home.”

“Just giving up on the last period, are we?” He said.

I shrugged. “If I'm already skipping one class, skipping a second one isn't a big deal.”

“What about your parents?” Liv asked. “The school calls if you miss attendance. Won't they find it weird if you miss a half day?”

“You think that would be more suspicious than missing one class?” Alexander asked. “They would get the call, anyway.”

“You can lie and say you missed attendance in one class,” Liv said. She rolled her eyes like Alexander was an idiot for even asking. “A bit harder to use that excuse for multiple classes a day.”

“It doesn't matter, anyway. I'm not skipping my last class,” I said. “But even if I was, my parents have six kids. They don't care what I do.”

Liv choked on her drink and stared at me in horror.

“Six?” She exclaimed.

“Mh-hm,” I said with a nod. “There's Elliot, Charlie, me, Carter, Florence, and Benjamin.”

“Oh my gosh,” she said, staring at me wide-eyed. She looked to Alexander. “How are you not equally horrified by this?”

Alexander looked amused. “I've known her my whole life. I'm used to it.”

The warning bell rang, cutting off any response Liv could come up with.

“Guess I have to get going,” Liv sighed. She grabbed her backpack and tray of uneaten food. “I'll see you guys later.”

“Good luck with the quiz,” I said. She smiled thankfully and headed off. “I guess we should go too.”

Alexander and I collected our books and jackets. Holding hands, we started walking toward the back of the school, where the parking lot was. Within no time, the delivery guy called Alexander to say that he had arrived.

“Here you go,” Alexander said, handing him cash.

“Thank you for ordering from McDonald’s,” the delivery guy said. He handed us the bags of food.

We made our way to the equipment shed, which was surprisingly warm and wasn't as gross as I thought it would be, though the scent of old paint and weather-beaten wood reminded you that this building had seen better days.

It was lit well by daylight streaming in from the small windows high on the walls.

The lofted ceiling looked hand-crafted, with wood that was dark and smooth, though there were signs of age and wear where the joints were.

The silence was jarring when we first went in, but it didn't take long for it to become a comfortable, soothing sound.

“See, I was right. It's pretty warm in here,” Alexander said as he pulled his coat off and hung it on the hook by the door. “And I think we can find someplace to sit.”

He gestured towards a row of metal shelves that ran along one wall of the room.

I followed him over and gingerly sat down on a shelf, careful not to touch anything. It was comfortable, and I was getting a little sleepy from the warmth and lack of food.

Alexander joined me, taking the other side of the shelf. We stretched our legs out in front of us and started eating. I had never had such a good burger.

“This is so good,” I said after swallowing a bite. “Thank you for ordering food for us.”

You know when they say the way to a man’s heart is through food- well, the way to my heart is through food as well, and I really needed this food. He was so quick thinking to come up with this plan. He was always doing something sweet.

“It's no problem,” Alexander said with a smile. We continued eating, gobbling down our burgers in just a few minutes. “So, are you looking forward to Christmas Break?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said unenthusiastically. I dipped a French fry in my milkshake and took a bite.

“You sure about that?” Alexander asked. “Cause you don't sound like you are.”

I sighed and shrugged. “It will be nice to have a break from school...” I needed that break this year more than ever.

Although everything had been getting a lot better since Alexander and I started this crazy arrangement, I desperately wanted to be able to go some time without having to see Nikki or Joseph.

“But I'm not really looking forward to Christmas.”

“Why not?”

“I'm just not in the spirit this year,” I said.

It was hard to enjoy the holiday when I didn't have my favourite people by my side.

Previously, favourite people, I reminded myself.

Sometimes, I caught myself thinking about them as if nothing had ever gone wrong between us, but I couldn't let myself get caught up in that.

That was what they wanted — for me to forgive and forget and go back to being their friend as if nothing ever happened at all.

“That's too bad,” Alexander said. His arm brushed against mine, sending tingles up my body. “Christmas is the best time of year. It's a shame to miss out on the fun for no good reason.”

No good reason. Did he know why I didn't want to celebrate this year? Was that his way of telling me to get over Joseph?

“Yeah,” I said. I stared out the window at the snow falling from the sky, unable to stop myself from remembering once again the hurt I felt when I found Nikki and Joseph. What was Christmas without them? “A shame.”