Page 2 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend (Port Lane Romances #3)

“But...” She reached out to grab my arm, but I ripped it away.

“I mean it, Nikki,” I said in a dangerous tone. “Stay away from me.”

I spun around and walked down the hall, doing my best to ignore the sense that she was staring after me the whole time. Nikki hated being ignored, and I would not give her the satisfaction of seeing me look back.

She was such a two-faced friend. Did she actually expect me to stand there and hear her out yet again?

Listen to her tell me about how she didn’t mean to kiss my boyfriend?

How it just happened so fast? Or worse yet, would she have tried to rub it in my face?

I bet she would love to do that — to remind me of how she was dating Joseph now, and I was just the loser who had been cheated on.

For the sake of my mental health — and so I wouldn’t get detention for fighting — I had to avoid Nikki as much as possible. We had to see each other, but that didn’t mean I had to act like we were friends.

The warning bell echoed through the halls. I picked up my pace. My first period teacher, Mr. Foster, had no mercy on people who were late. I didn't need to get detention this morning.

I glanced around for any teachers who would yell at me for running through the halls.

Seeing none, I broke into a jog, sticking to the side so I wouldn’t crash into anyone.

I took the stairs two at a time and slammed the door open.

The sound of metal echoed through the small space, and I cringed.

The stairs led me to a back corridor that was empty, save for somebody up the way.

I broke into an all-out run. Unfortunately, I was so lost in thought thinking about Nikki that I didn’t see the Caution: Wet Floor sign until it was too late.

The wet floor mixed with my winter boots covered in snow was a terrible combination.

I lost my balance and let out an involuntary shriek as I fell to the ground.

I squeezed my eyes shut and held my arms out to prepare for hitting the hard floor.

But as I did so, I hit someone in the back of the knees and made him fall with me.

We crashed into each other and landed on the linoleum floor with a heavy thud.

My backpack went flying off my shoulder, and my notebook fell out, along with my pencil case and binders.

I groaned. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” the boy groaned back. I pushed myself up to my knees, my lip curling in disgust as I realized I was sticking my hand in a puddle of sludge. “I assume it was an accident.”

“Yes, very much so.”

I looked up and locked eyes with the boy I'd knocked over. I swallowed back a gasp. It was Alexander Rigby — my lovely and very attractive family friend. He and I had known each other for our entire lives, and it felt like I’d been crushing on him for that whole time.

It was inevitable. He was irresistible, and it didn’t help that he was around so much.

With his dark hair and a smile that lights up a room, he was every girl’s dream boyfriend.

Anyone would be lucky to have him. Of course, I knew nothing would ever happen between us.

My crush was only a small one with feelings that only strongly appeared on New Year’s Eve every year when he would kiss me on the cheek at midnight.

But even though our families were so close and we spent pretty much every major holiday together, Alexander and I weren’t that close.

We had a strange friendship where we would spend hours together like best friends whenever our families got together, but we only made small talk outside of that, especially since starting high school.

There was a variety of factors that led to that — from different interests and friend groups to spending less time at each other’s houses since we were old enough to stay home when our moms wanted to have dinner together.

Not to mention that Joseph had always been a jealous boyfriend, and he especially didn’t like me being around Alexander since he knew I liked him before we started dating.

And I didn’t care because I was too absorbed with my friendship with Nikki to give anyone a real chance to bond with me.

“Your lip is bleeding,” Alexander murmured.

“What?” I asked dumbly, my mind still spinning from everything else that morning.

Alexander grinned at my response before gently brushing his thumb against my bottom lip.

My eyes widened at the soft touch. I put a hand to my lip and realized he was right.

There was a cut there, and it was bleeding pretty badly.

“Oh, gosh.” I looked around with a frown. “Where did my backpack go?”

“Is it the one by the fireplace?”

I frowned. “What fireplace?”

Our school most definitely did not have fireplaces, especially not in the hallways.

I spun around and held back a groan as I realized what he meant: a cardboard DIY fireplace that was taped to the wall.

It might have impressed me if I wasn’t so angry about this entire season.

The chimney part of it reached the ceiling, and the “brick” pieces looked so real that I would have believed they actually were brick if I thought that the school had the budget for that.

The only thing that didn’t seem real were the cut-out paper flames.

My backpack had landed in a small puddle right in front of the fireplace. I scrambled over to it and dug through the front pocket.

“What are you looking for?” Alexander asked.

“Kleenex.” I could feel the blood dripping down my chin, and I started digging harder. “I know I have a small pack of them somewhere.”

“Oh.” He grabbed his own backpack and pulled out a small Kleenex pack. He handed one to me. “Here.”

“Thanks.” I took them gratefully and dabbed at the cut on my lip. It couldn't be bleeding that much, right? “Sorry about all of this.”

“It's okay,” Alexander reassured me as he tried to help me stand up. “Let me help you.”

He pulled me to my feet, and I wobbled a little, grasping his arm for support.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern etched all over his face.

I nodded, still trying to process what had just happened. Standing in front of Alexander Rigby, the most handsome boy in school, I knocked him down with my clumsy self and managed to get blood all over myself.

Alexander's gaze focused on something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see what he was looking at. A group of freshmen girls stood in the stairwell doorway, staring at us and giggling. They must have been running late to class as well and decided it was more entertaining to watch us instead. I blushed bright red as I turned back towards Alexander. I’d thought this hallway was empty except for us, but I guess I was wrong.

Still holding the tissue to my face and trying to ignore my light-headedness, I leaned over to pick up all the stuff that had fallen out of my bag.

Alexander joined me. He picked up my purple notebook, which had fallen open.

He turned it over in his hands. The pages were all stuck together, and blue ink was running all over the page.

“It’s soaked,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

I sighed and shook my head. “It’s my fault. I should have closed my bag.”

I took it from him. Of course, the wet page was the one with all the French homework that I’d stayed up late doing.

“You can copy mine if you want.” When I looked at him in confusion, he pointed to the page. “My French homework, I mean. I can guarantee it’s all correct, but it’s better than handing in a blank page, right?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t mind,” he said. I studied his face, not quite sure what I was looking for — some sort of deceit?

Something that would show he was tricking me?

I guess Joseph and Nikki’s actions had done a number on me — I couldn’t even accept help from a friend without wondering about ulterior motives.

But Alexander's eyes were so kind that I didn’t have it in myself to say no, regardless of the consequences.

“Thanks,” I said. “Guess it's one of those days, right?” Actually, it was one of those months, but that would be too depressing to say.

“Hey, why don't we go to the nurse and get out of first period?” Alexander suggested. “No use making the morning even worse with class.”

“You think that will work?” I asked. “You know, considering we're going there after the bell with a bleeding lip as the only injury?”

“Well, I think the solution is obvious.” He pulled me towards the nurse’s office. “We play up our injuries. Tell her you hit your head or something, and I’ll say I twisted my ankle and couldn’t possibly walk upstairs.”

I laughed for the first time in a while. Alexander had always been able to make things feel better, even when they seemed hopeless. And that was what he was doing now—making everything seem like it would be okay.

“I can't believe she's actually letting us out of the first period altogether,” Alexander laughed. We were sitting on the small cot in the office since it was more comfortable than the plastic chairs we were supposed to be in. “I really thought she would just give us a note to be late.”

Nurse Olivia had been in a rush to go somewhere when we first came in — mumbling something about gym class injuries — so she told us to just get a paper towel for my lip and ice for any other injuries and stay here for the whole period if we needed.

I hoped the nurse’s office would give me a reprieve from the holidays, but even Nurse Olivia was in the spirit. Two walls were covered with paper snowflakes of various colours, and the wall behind her desk was adorned with wrapping paper.

“I know,” I said. “I really appreciate it, actually. I hate my English class.”

It was by far my worst class of the day, populated by my ex-boyfriend and all his jerk friends. Back when we were dating, I loved the class. But after getting abandoned by all my friends, the last thing I wanted was to see them every day.

“Not a fan of Shakespeare?”

“Not a fan of other students.”

The smile slipped off his face. “Yeah. I can imagine.”

“I didn't mean you,” I said quickly.

“I know.”

“Or your friends,” I added. I wasn't sure why he looked upset, but I wanted to make sure I hadn't accidentally offended him.

“I know what you meant, Penny,” he said quietly.

“Right. Of course.” How stupid of me to think that anyone at Falcon High wouldn’t know what Joseph did. Alexander would have to be oblivious to avoid all the gossip about me.

We were quiet for a moment, both of us lost in our own thoughts. Then he spoke up again, his voice slightly less tense than before.

“So, uh, you looking forward to the Christmas Formal?”

I pursed my lips. “You really think that's a safer topic of conversation?”

Alexander laughed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to poke the bear.”

I shook my head. “Not your fault. I'm just... I'm ready for junior year to be over. It hasn't exactly been sunshine and daisies so far.”

“Pretty early in the year for that level of pessimism,” Alexander said. He knocked his shoulder against mine. “I'm sure it will get better from here.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I'm sure it will too.”

It was a blatant lie, but it was the easier thing to say. What he probably wanted me to say, like everyone else.

“Keep saying that,” Alexander said. “Maybe one day you’ll even believe it.”