Page 34 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

twenty-two

After our argument, Jaxon and I didn’t really speak.

We occasionally walked down the hall holding hands or pretended to pass notes in class so that people didn’t get suspicious and start some rumour that we broke up, but it didn’t give me the same fluttery feeling that it did before.

It used to feel like some fun game or secret that only the two of us were in on. Now, it just felt like a chore.

I’d been walking on eggshells around Jaxon, not wanting to make him angrier than I already had; I didn’t speak to him when it wasn’t necessary, I didn’t bring up the time after prom again, and I tried to give him space as much as possible.

As such, when I went to the common room during lunch on Thursday, I looked around carefully as I walked in, not wanting to bother Jaxon if he was in there.

As long as I didn’t sit down, I could play it off like I just came in to refill my water bottle or something because everyone knew the cooler water in the common room was the best in the school.

But when I walked in, the only person I saw was Eli. He was sitting on the same couch where I’d first kissed Jaxon. Oh, how the time had changed.

Still, Jaxon not being in the room right then didn’t mean he wasn’t just in the bathroom or something.

Maybe it would be better if I left, just in case.

Though, there was nowhere else for me to go — especially since I couldn’t be sure if he was coming back here or if he was somewhere else in the school where I was at risk of running into him.

“He’s not here,” Eli said without looking up from his book.

“What?” I asked. I liked to live my own little delusional world where everyone didn’t know all of my business, even if I knew that wasn’t true.

“Jaxon and Sabrina went out for lunch,” he said. “I just stayed back to get some reading done.”

“Oh,” I said. I sat down in the armchair closest to the couch.

Eli continued reading his book and I stared down at my hands, unsure of what to do.

I didn’t even have any assignments to keep me occupied.

I supposed I could try to study a little for my exams but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to focus anyway.

“I’m not mad, you know,” Eli said, breaking the frigid silence. I looked up. He was staring at me seriously, his book now closed and off to the side. “About the fake relationship.”

“Really?” I asked. After the way he’d left the other day, I hadn’t been sure.

“I understand why you did it,” he said. “And why it was for the best that you didn’t tell anyone.”

I wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that, so I just said, “Thanks.”

Eli chuckled. “And I’m sorry for telling Sabrina. I’m not sure if you were okay with me sharing it or not.”

I waved his concerns away. “I don’t mind at all. When I say ‘don’t tell anyone’, best friends and significant others don’t count.”

“Yeah, that’s the philosophy I live with too,” Eli said.

“Plus,” I said, “I know everything about your and Sabrina’s relationship. It’s nice that I can finally reciprocate, even if the relationship wasn’t real.”

Eli laughed. “It is nice, isn’t it?”

This felt good. Like we were back to normal again.

“While we’re sharing and apologizing anyway,” I said hesitantly. I shifted so I was sitting with one of my legs crossed under me. “Jaxon told me about some of the awful stuff Lewis said to you.”

Eli’s face dropped and he looked away. “You weren’t supposed to know about that.”

“Why not?” I asked softly. He just shook his head and didn’t answer me. “I’m sorry for being friends with Lew. For defending him. And you really didn’t need to defend my friendship with him.”

“It wasn’t fair of everyone to speak badly about your friend.”

“It wasn’t fair of him to hurt you,” I countered. “And everyone absolutely had the right to say awful things about him because he was an awful person.”

Eli laughed. “I guess I can’t argue against that.”

“I swear I had no idea how he treated everyone else,” I said. “And that’s not an excuse for me being friends with him. I should have listened when other people complained about him.”

“You didn’t know,” Eli said.

“I should have.” I played with the ends of my hair. “I just want you to know that I wasn’t friends with him despite knowing what he did to you.”

Eli shook his head. His wavy bangs fell in his eyes and he brushed them away.

“It’s not your fault,” Eli said. “I don’t blame you at all.”

I moved to sit next to him and rested my head on his shoulder. He instinctively wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I was glad he wasn’t upset; Eli was like my brother and I never wanted to lose him.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

I got caught up talking to Mr. Smith after school that day, so by the time I got to my locker, the hallways were practically empty.

It made it easy to get to my locker quickly, but it also meant that I noticed from down the hall that Jaxon Andrews was standing directly next to my locker.

Feeling a little nauseous, I stared straight ahead as I walked past him and opened my locker.

“Need something?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.

“I wanted to give this to you,” he said. He held out a grey plastic bag.

“Another gift?” I asked, taking it from him. The one he’d given me the other day was still sitting untouched in my room. I hadn’t found a reason to open it yet.

Jaxon’s face darkened. “It’s my jersey.”

“Your jersey?” I asked in confusion. I pulled it out of the bag. It was purple, with some white detailing on it — our school colours.

“Yeah,” he said. He avoided my gaze. “I get to keep it now that I’m graduating. The team always gives it to their significant others. It’s a tradition, I guess.”

“Oh,” I said. My grip around it tightened and I glanced around to make sure nobody could hear us. “But you don’t need to give it to me, right? I mean, I’ll just end up giving it back to you in a few days.”

I felt like I was stealing all his track clothes — first his sweater, then his windbreaker, and now the jersey. Did he just not like having these clothes around when he wasn’t competing or something?

“Most of the sports girlfriends wear the jerseys on the last day of school so I wasn’t sure if you’d want to,” he said.

Now that he mentioned it, I had noticed that they did that. The last day was one of our few non-uniform days, so I never understood why they wasted it by wearing jerseys. I guess that made sense, though.

“Oh,” I said. “Okay.”

Jaxon nodded once, then spun on his heel and walked away. I looked at the jersey in my hand for a second, number 15, then stuffed it in my backpack before leaving as well. I’d told Madison I’d meet her by her car since I was running late, so I really had to get going.

Jaxon’s actions seemed strange to me, though. First, he said he thought we shouldn’t continue this after prom and then he gave me his jersey to wear on the last day of school? That was weird. I wondered whether he was just as confused about where we were going with this now as I was.