Page 29 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

eighteen

I hated the chime of my doorbell. It was long, annoying, and, worst of all, never failed to wake me up when it went off at seven in the freaking morning.

I jolted awake in surprise as the sound echoed through the house and outright groaned when my dad called across the house, asking me to answer the door.

I didn’t have the energy to sit up yet, so I quite literally rolled out of my bed, landing with a loud thud on the ground.

I ended up pulling half my sheets and blankets off with me, which was going to be a pain to fix when I made my bed later, but hey, at least it matched the rest of my messy bedroom.

I finally got up and rubbed at my eyes as I stumbled down the stairs to the front door.

Gosh, this had better be an emergency or something else equally important to drag me out of bed on a Sunday morning.

While I was generally a morning person, I had gotten almost no sleep over the past few days from the grad trip and I was relying on this morning to catch up.

I threw open the door and nearly groaned again when I saw a smiling Jaxon on the other side.

“What?” I said flatly. I was so tired that I didn’t even have the energy to be embarrassed about him seeing me in ruffled pyjamas and with bedhead — most mornings when I woke up on the trip, he was either still asleep or already in the bathroom, so I would get up quickly and try to clean up before he saw me.

Jaxon had the audacity to look amused.

“I thought I’d come by and see if you wanted to go for a run with me,” he said. He looked me up and down. “Now, I generally prefer not to run in my pyjamas but if that’s your vibe, then?—”

“Shut up,” I muttered. I didn’t want to say no when he came all this way, so I stepped aside so he could come in. He did so with a jovial spring in his step. “Wait here, I just need to get changed.”

“Can I watch?” he asked. I sent him a withering glare over my shoulder. He looked around innocently. “Who said that?”

I laughed and ran upstairs. Most of my clothes were strewn across my room but luckily, my workout clothes were generally untouched and therefore easy to find, folded in the back of my closet.

I quickly pulled them on and tied my hair in a messy ponytail.

I stared at myself in the mirror for a second, deciding whether I wanted to make myself look more presentable.

I did want to look good in front of Jaxon, but I also knew that he had already seen me at my worst at this point.

Besides, if we were going for an actual run, unlike the short jog on the track last week, I was going to look like a mess by the end of it anyway.

“Dad, I’m going out!” I called as I walked down the hallway. The shower was running, so I just hoped he heard me.

“Okay, have fun!” he called back.

I nodded and ran back downstairs. Jaxon had moved from my entryway to the hallway, where my dad had a collection of pictures on the wall.

“I didn’t know you played volleyball for so long,” Jaxon said without looking at me.

“Not that long,” I said. I pulled on my sneakers. “Just grade six through grade ten. And only on school teams.”

Volleyball had been a good outlet for my frustration after my mom left.

At the time, I’d been devastated. I had both felt like it was my fault that she’d left and was angry at her for destroying our family so easily.

Now that I was older and could look back on it more objectively, I could see that I was better off without my mom around.

She had been awful to me and I was still in therapy years later, working to undo the damage she had done to my mental health.

“Why’d you quit?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Guess my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.”

He finally spun around and looked at me. He faltered for a second when he saw me. I felt self-conscious for a second before he said, “Wow. You look great.”

I bit my lip to avoid squealing as I blushed and looked away.

“Thanks,” I whispered. I went to tuck hair behind my ears before remembering that my hair was pulled back. I cleared my throat. “Uh, do you want to get going?”

It was probably best that we get out of there before my dad came down for the morning. I didn’t want to watch him and Jaxon make awkward conversation.

“Of course,” Jaxon said. “I was thinking we warm up at the track up the street and then either run there or go to the park.”

“Let’s just stay at the track,” I said. “Nice and close.”

I was glad he mentioned warming up, though, because I definitely would have forgotten and years of gym class had taught me the hard way that that wouldn’t end well.

“So, why’d you quit volleyball?” Jaxon asked as we were stretching on the field.

“I told you,” I said. “My heart wasn’t in it anymore.”

“So, after five years of playing volleyball, you just suddenly quit?” he asked. “Come on, Evers, I know you better than that.”

“I just…” I thought back to that summer when I had to decide.

How much pressure I felt to stay on the team, to be the best player possible.

“When I was in middle school, sports were just fun. And then I got to high school and suddenly everyone was taking it so seriously. They were looking to get noticed and get sports scholarships, especially to the U.S. and well… you know. And while I loved volleyball, I didn’t love it that much.

And I didn’t want the pressure that came with being on the team. ”

Jaxon had to understand the way that I felt, even if he made a different choice than I did. Honestly, with the way he could run, I was surprised he didn’t take an athletic scholarship to somewhere in the states.

“Yeah, I do,” he said. We started running, heading for the park that was a couple of blocks away.

He set the pace but luckily kept it at a light jog for the time being.

“My dad really wanted me to take a scholarship to University of Southern California but my mom wanted me to stay home… Eventually, she won out.”

A pit settled in the bottom of my stomach as I imagined Jaxon going to California for four years.

“And then you considered Ottawa?” I asked.

He nodded. “They also had some good scholarships. But I didn’t know anybody else going out there and I know that university is a good time to meet new people but I wanted to at least know somebody.”

“So you went to Queen’s?” I said.

“Yeah. My parents weren’t too happy about it but Sabrina’s parents helped convince them. Said it would be good for us to go to school together so we could rely on each other, and all that.”

Sometimes, I was in awe of how close Sabrina and Jaxon had remained over the years.

While I loved my sister dearly, she and I had never been very close and now that she didn’t live at home, we spoke pretty infrequently.

I wished I could have had as good of a relationship with her as Sabrina and Jaxon had with each other.

“Did you feel that?” Jaxon asked.

“Feel what?”

He looked up. “I think it was a rain drop.”

I frowned. I hadn’t felt anything, but when I looked at the ground, it did look like it was getting wet.

“I think it’s just sprinkling right now,” I said. “Why don’t we finish the lap and then head home?”

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than the heavens opened up and doused buckets of water down.

“Crap!” I yelled. I threw my arms over my head, not that it made any difference with the amount of rain coming down. Jaxon and I started cutting across the field to get out of there quicker, though we couldn’t go very fast because it was quickly turning into a mudslide.

“Here!” Jaxon said. He ripped his windbreaker off his waist and handed it to me.

It didn’t look very waterproof but anything was better than nothing, so I threw it on.

With my arms free and us off the slippery field, I could run a little faster, so Jaxon picked up the pace as well.

We made it back to my house in record time, me huffing and puffing like I didn’t know how to breathe and Jaxon completely fine.

“Hey, Violet!” Dad called from the kitchen. He stepped out into the hallway a second later and froze in the spot as he took us both in.

“We… went… for a… run,” I explained between gasping breaths. I pointed out the window, unable to get many more words out. “But… rain.”

“We got caught in the rain and had to sprint back,” Jaxon translated.

“I can see that,” Dad said, looking like he was holding back a laugh.

I collapsed forward, letting my hands rest on my knees.

I was pretty sure it wasn’t the best position to catch my breath but I didn’t have the energy to keep standing.

“Come in. I made pancakes and I can make a hot drink to go with it so you can warm up.”

It took another minute before I could breathe properly again, then another thirty seconds before I could stand upright. Man, I really needed to start working out again, especially if Jaxon was going to keep asking me to run with him. I sounded like a dying walrus every time.

“Could I have a hot chocolate?” I asked. “And Jaxon will have a coffee. No cream or sugar.”

“You got it,” Dad said, waving a spatula at us. He went back into the kitchen.

“You can have pancakes, right?” I asked Jaxon. With only a little mocking in my tone, I added, “They’re not against your athlete diet?”

Jaxon grinned and wrapped his arm around my waist before pulling me close. As per usual, I couldn’t stop the little giggle that came out as he did so, especially when he then kissed my cheek.

“I can make an exception just this once,” he said. “Since they smell so good.”

I took off the windbreaker he leant me.

“Here,” I said. “I’m just going to run upstairs and change into something dry.”

He pushed it back towards me. “No,” he said. “You keep it.”

“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t you need it?”

“No,” he said. “And besides, it looks better on you.”