Page 10 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

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Other than everything going on with Jaxon, my week was pretty boring until I left for the grad trip. None of our teachers were assigning new homework because the trip was upcoming, so I had nothing to do for the lunch period while Madison was busy with a club.

I went outside to kill some time. Maybe I’d walk on the track. I didn’t really like walking in a circle on a field, as opposed to walking somewhere with nice scenery, but it couldn’t hurt to try it. Jaxon seemed to like it well enough.

When I got closer to the field, I noticed a small group of girls sitting on the bleachers and giggling. I followed their gaze to the track and immediately understood what they were doing. Jaxon, dressed only in his gym shorts, was running laps.

I wasn’t really looking to speak with him right then but I saw an opportunity to help prove our relationship and I had to take it.

I walked straight past the bleachers and through the gate in the fence that divided them from the field.

I tucked my hands behind my back and leaned against the fence, watching Jaxon come closer.

I guess I hadn’t been far off in my imagination of him running the day before.

Once he was within a few metres of me, I noticed that he was listening to music and staring at the ground as he ran, so he probably didn’t see me.

I took a couple of steps forward, still not going on the red track, but making myself be more in his field of vision.

He must have noticed me in his peripheral vision because he looked up.

His eyes widened when I waved to him and he slowed to a stop.

He looked at me, then at the girls on the bleachers, then at me again.

I wondered whether they were still watching; they probably were but I didn’t want to turn around to check.

Jaxon took the headphones out of his ears and crossed over to me.

“Hey,” he said. He put his hands on my upper arms, though our skin was honestly barely making contact, and kissed me on the cheek. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just going for a walk when I noticed that you were running here,” I said. “I thought I’d come say hi.”

“Hi.” He grinned. He looked me up and down. I blushed a little, even though I was certain he wasn’t checking me out. “Why do you look like you’re dressed for a workout?”

Our school had some weird rules about you could wear instead of your uniform.

The overarching rule was that you could wear athletic clothes when you were either in gym class or planning to use the athletic facilities in the school as long as the clothes were “spirit wear,” aka anything you bought from the school.

I was wearing my volleyball uniform from the tenth grade since it was the only semi-athletic clothes I had that wasn’t my ugly gym uniform.

“Madison and I are going to play badminton after lunch since her class was cancelled,” I said. I pulled my hair up into a messy bun while I was thinking about it. Every time she and I played badminton, I left my hair down and ended up with my racket somehow tangled in it.

“What?” Jaxon asked, looking perplexed.

“Her teacher went home sick and they couldn’t find a sub in time, so I guess they decided it was easier to just cancel the class,” I explained.

“That’s not what I was confused about,” he said. I tilted my head. “I meant, since when did you play badminton?”

“Hey!” I said. I put my hands on my hips. “I’ll have you know I am a phenomenal badminton player.”

It was a total lie. I was probably the worst badminton player to ever grace the earth but Jaxon didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” he said, although his tone made it clear that wasn’t the case. I guess I couldn’t be angry about that, all things considered. “But since you’re dressed for a workout anyway, why don’t you run with me?”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” I said. I wasn’t much a runner, especially next to a track star like Jaxon.

“Come on,” he said. He grabbed my hand and tugged me forward. “It’ll be fun.”

“Running is never fun,” I said.

He kept pulling me. His steps were getting faster so I had to speed up to match.

Soon enough, I was basically running. Finally, I just pulled my hand away and started running.

We weren’t going nearly as fast as he had been before and I could tell he was desperate to stretch his legs but he kept pace beside me, regardless.

“You’re so slow, Evers,” Jaxon said teasingly. I shoved his shoulder and he stumbled with a laugh.

“Shut up,” I said.

I was happy that I was at least somewhat fit so I was having to gasp for breath or anything while running with him.

To my surprise, it was actually a little fun.

We didn’t get to run for long, though, before the school bell rang, echoing across the track field.

It was the five-minute warning for the next period.

“What class do you have now?” Jaxon asked.

“Nothing,” I said. We slowed to a walk and I put my hands on my back as I caught my breath again. “Spare. You?”

He grinned wryly. “Track.”

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “What? You run on your lunch break right before you have P.E.?”

He shrugged. “Can’t hurt, right?”

“Yeah, I guess not,” I said. I ran my hands over my hair. “Anyway, I better go meet Madison. She’ll kill me if I’m late.”

He nodded. “Have fun.”

“Thanks.” I waved goodbye to him then jogged across the field. At least we were pretty much as close as possible to the athletic buildings where we were going to play badminton. I could probably get there in time for the real bell, which was when we had agreed to meet.

“Hey!” one of the girls called as I walked past the bleachers. “Violet!”

I stopped and glanced back, my eyebrows pulled together in confusion. Most people at Bayshore Academy didn’t know me by name, especially students that I didn’t remember ever seeing before.

“Yeah?” I asked.

The girl sitting closest to the edge of the bleachers turned fully towards me. She flipped her wavy brown hair behind her shoulder and smiled at me brightly.

“I’m Hannah Klein,” she said, putting a well-manicured hand to her chest. I looked at her silently, waiting for her to continue. “I’m a junior,” she added, as if that answered all my questions.

“Nice to meet you?” I said slowly. I didn’t know what this random girl wanted from me.

“So, I was wondering,” she said in a preppy voice. “Are you and Jaxon, like… serious?”

“I…” Who just asked a random stranger that? “What?”

Hannah glanced back at her friends, who were all giggling, then turned back to me. A smirk was now present on her face.

“So, like, my friend, Katie—” She gestured at a blonde girl sitting next to her, who was wearing an outfit that could barely even count as the school uniform.

The girl, Katie, smiled fakely and waved at me with her fingers.

“She’s been interested in Jaxon for like ever .

And she was really hoping that he would ask her to prom. ”

I didn’t really know how to respond to that — for one thing, I doubted that Jaxon even knew Katie existed, at least to the extent that she hoped for.

And for another, if he was planning to ask her to prom, he would have done it by now — it was next week for goodness sake.

Besides, as far as these girls knew, I was dating Jaxon.

Why the hell would they ask me something like that?

I smiled apologetically in a way that probably looked as sincere as the smile Katie and Hannah were both still shooting me.

“Sorry,” I said. “But we’re pretty serious. And we are definitely going to prom together. I got him a tie that matches my dress and everything.”

A little white lie but one that I thought was forgivable. All the girls’ faces dropped immediately. I felt a little guilty for a moment, as if I had crushed their dreams, but as I couldn’t help but smirk as I walked away, also feeling a little powerful.