Page 25 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

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Oh crap .

I nearly ripped the door off the hinges as I ran out of the bathroom in search of Jaxon. I was in such a rush that I didn’t even bother to get dressed, instead running out in probably the smallest towel known to man.

“Jaxon!” I yelled as I ran out. I stuttered to a stop as I noticed Sabrina was in the room, since she most certainly had not been when I got in the shower. It was actually good that she was here, though, since she was technically my roommate for the trip.

“Are you okay?” Jaxon asked. He jumped up from his spot on the bed. “What’s?—”

“The teachers are doing bed checks right now,” I said breathlessly. “And it’s already past curfew so you need to get out now !”

Jaxon immediately started pulling on his shoes. “Crap, my stuff is everywhere. They’re going to notice it.”

“Better they notice that than you in here!” I snapped. Despite my words, he started trying to stuff his stuff into his suitcase to hide it.

“Why the heck are they doing bed checks on the last night?” Sabrina asked. “They haven’t done any on the trip.”

“I don’t know,” I said sarcastically. I grabbed some clothes from the floor and started getting hurriedly dressed, hoping that the outfit I threw together would look okay.

“Maybe it has to do with the fact that students are sleeping in each other’s rooms!

” I looked at Jaxon, who was finally closing the suitcase.

“Jaxon, forget your clothes! You need to get out before we all get in trouble!”

He finally heeded my warning and bolted for the door. But just as he put his hand on the doorknob, somebody slammed on it in a poor imitation of a knock. They sounded like they were trying to break down the door or something.

“Bed check!” Mr. Smith yelled from the hallway.

Jaxon leapt back from the door in shock. He crashed straight into Sabrina, who was standing beside the doorway of the bathroom, and they both fell back into the room. Seeing an opportunity, I rushed forward.

“Hide in here,” I whispered. I tried to pull the door shut but Sabrina caught the edge with her hand.

“I should be out there,” she said. “I’m supposed to be your roommate.”

“No, you need to hide with Jaxon,” I whispered. “If the bathroom door is closed, they’re going to think we’re hiding someone in here. If you’re in here with him, then I can just say you’re taking a shower. It’s not like they’re going to come check.”

Sabrina finally nodded and shut the door. A second later, the shower turned on, just as Mr. Smith knocked on the door again. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and double-checked that I had enough clothes on to not be embarrassed of my teachers seeing me.

Reassured, I opened the door. To my surprise, Mr. Smith wasn’t alone in the hall. Ms. Moscowitz was standing with him and they both looked very stern.

“Hello,” I said as calmly as possible.

“Why did you take so long to open the door, Evers?” Mr. Smith asked gruffly.

I smiled politely, well-trained to diffuse situations with angry teachers.

“I’m sorry, sir,” I said. “I just got out of the shower a few minutes ago and wasn’t decent when you first knocked.”

Jaxon once told me that the best lie was the one that was closest to the truth. Considering how much he managed to get out of trouble at school, I was happy to listen to him.

Mr. Smith harrumphed. “Where’s Brooks?”

“Sabrina is in the shower.”

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “But you said you just got out of the shower.”

Okay, stay calm. This is easy to explain away.

“Sabrina decided to take a shower right after me because she wants to go to bed soon.”

Mr. Smith clearly didn’t believe me. It shouldn’t have been surprising since he was generally pretty distrusting of teenagers.

I’d heard from my sister that when she was in high school, Mr. Smith tried to break up a fight between a couple of senior boys and ended up getting his collar bone broken.

Apparently, he became a lot more strict since then, which was understandable.

“Can we come in?” Mr. Smith asked.

I was taken aback by the request. Were teachers allowed to do that? I guess that was probably why they came in pairs but it still struck me as odd and a little invasive. Still, if that was what I had to do to get this over with, then so be it.

“Of course,” I said, stepping off to the side.

They both walked in, though they stopped a couple feet into the room.

I could feel myself veering toward the direction of hyperventilating as Mr. Smith raised his hand to knock on the bathroom door.

Once he did, I was certain he was the one who knocked on our room door as well.

He knocked with the side of his fist and it caused the door to shake like crazy.

Nobody answered at first. My heart started beating a little faster.

I didn’t want to deal with getting in trouble while here.

Mr. Smith knocked again, this time even harder.

Still silence from the bathroom. Then finally, just when I felt like I might pass out, the shower stopped.

“Yes?” Sabrina called from inside. Mr. Smith looked oddly angry that she was actually in there; I wondered how much he found it entertaining to hand out detentions.

“Nothing,” Ms. Moscowitz said. “We were just checking you were there.”

“Okay!” Sabrina called back. The shower turned back on.

Mr. Smith looked to me again and I tried to smile as innocently as possible.

“You should go to sleep soon,” he said. “We have an early morning tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

He ran his eyes over the room one last time before they both walked out.

Once they were both gone, I stood on my tiptoes to look out the peephole.

To my surprise, they remained outside the door for another full minute.

They weren’t even doing anything, like looking at their phones or talking or anything.

No, they just stood there silently, as if they were waiting to catch us sneaking out of the room or something.

They definitely knew we were breaking some rules and were trying to catch us on it.

The real question was how they found it out.

The only people who knew what we were doing were involved in the situation and wouldn’t sell us out.

Was it possible that somebody had seen us going into our rooms every day and put two-and-two together?

It seemed like something Lewis would do, honestly.

My calves were starting to burn from standing on my tiptoes for so long. I audibly sighed in relief when the two teachers continued down the hall and I could put my heels back on the ground. I limped over to the bathroom door and knocked on it.

“You guys can come out now,” I called. The door creaked open an inch and Sabrina looked out. “It’s fine. They’re gone.”

She nodded and opened the door wider, allowing me to see both her and Jaxon… who were both inexplicably soaking wet. I looked them up and down, in both horror and amusement.

“What exactly were you two doing in there?” I asked.

Jaxon and Sabrina just looked at each other, then at me again.

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” I said. It wasn’t exactly news that those two did weird stuff, especially when left alone together without a more responsible person to help them think through their actions.

I could only imagine what their childhoods were like.

“Jaxon, you need to get to your room before the teachers get there. I’m pretty sure they’re onto us, so be careful sneaking out. They stood outside our room for ages.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to switch back after room checks are done?” Sabrina asked.

“Aw, don’t want to be away from Eli for a whole night?” Jaxon said mockingly.

“His parents never let us have sleep overs,” Sabrina said. She ran her hands through her wet hair. “Forgive me for taking advantage of it now.”

“Sorry Sabrina, but it’s probably best not to risk it,” I said.

She could theoretically go to Eli’s room with Jaxon but that opened the risk of her not hiding well enough there or the teachers returning here for some reason and her being gone.

Not to mention, the two of them would leave two wet paths in their wake and that might look a little suspicious.

“But on the bright side, you’ll have plenty of time to share rooms once you move out in September,” Jaxon said.

I checked through the peephole again. The teachers weren’t right outside our door anymore but we needed to wait until they were distracted checking somebody else’s room before we let Jaxon out.

“Sabrina should check the hallway first,” I said. “To make sure the coast is clear.”

“Do you think they’re still there?” Sabrina asked.

“Everyone’s rooms are on this floor,” I said. “It would be a little hard for them not to be.”

“Damn it, I forgot about that,” Jaxon said. He punched his fist against his other palm. “There’s no way I’m getting out of here.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” I said. “You just need to be willing to run if the opportunity presents itself.”

Jaxon rolled his neck and swung his arms around like he was getting ready for a race.

“I can do that,” he said. “I’m not the star of the track team for nothing.”

“Okay, hot shot.” I laughed.

“All right, I’m going in,” Sabrina said. “Jaxon, stand by.”

“On it.”

I frowned in confusion as I watched them get into position.

Jaxon pressed himself flatly against the wall next to the door while Sabrina put a hand on the door and slowly counted down from three with his fingers.

They looked like they were eight-year-olds playing secret agent.

When Sabrina got to one, she and Jaxon both nodded.

Sabrina creaked the door open and stuck her head out.

A second later, she stepped out all the way.

That was where things began to go wrong as she immediately said, “Oh, hello, Mr. Smith.”