Page 35 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

twenty-three

“He gave you his jersey?” Madison shouted. I plugged my ears, very happy that my dad wasn’t home to wonder what on earth we were doing.

“It’s not a big deal,” I said calmly. She climbed over the back of her chair and jumped on the bed

“It is a big deal,” she said. “This proves that he’s thinking about you!”

“Of course he’s thinking about me,” I said. “He has to worry about making sure nobody else finds out what we did.”

Madison rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“He only gave it to me because all the track guys give their jerseys to their girlfriends.”

“So, he considers you his girlfriend!” she said, pointing a finger at me.

“No, he realizes that everyone else considers me his girlfriend,” I said. “I don’t know why he gave me the jersey anyway, honestly… I thought he wanted to end this after prom.”

“Something gives me the idea that he doesn’t really want to end it,” Madison said.

“What do you mean?”

She raised one shoulder in a mimic of a shrug. “Maybe he was just saying it in the hopes you would argue against it.”

I shook my head. “No, definitely not… He didn’t even give me the chance.”

“Then, I don’t know,” Madison sighed. “But the fact that he gave you the jersey means that he’s thinking about it, right?”

“I guess so…”

Her eyes drifted across the room to the box Jaxon had given me.

It was sitting in the corner of my room, behind where my door opened, since I had nowhere better to put it.

The fancy wrapping, with fancily tied bow, stood out against the rest of my room.

She got up from her spot on my bed and went over to the box, circling it.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Just something Jaxon gave me,” I said dismissively. I’d forgotten to mention it to her the other day, what with everything else going on. “And let me tell you, it was a pain to get on the bus.”

“But what’s in it?” Madison asked.

“Dunno,” I said with a shrug. “I haven’t opened it yet.”

Madison looked up sharply. “What? Your fake boyfriend gave you this totally gorgeous gift and you haven’t even opened it?”

“How do you know it’s gorgeous?” I asked.

“With wrapping as great as this?” she said.

“It has to be something nice. Something expensive maybe…” She tried to look at me with alluring eyes but she really just looked like her dog when somebody was holding a treat.

When I didn’t react, she stomped her foot.

“Oh, come on, Violet! We have to open it.”

“No, we don’t.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m going to die of curiosity if you don’t. What reason is there not to open it?”

I shrugged. “Jaxon gave it to me right after we argued about me telling you and Eli the truth. I don’t exactly associate it with positive memories.”

Madison’s mouth twisted and she went back to walking around the bag.

“Why would Jaxon give you a gift if he was mad at you?” she asked. Since telling her the truth about the relationship, I’d kept her comprised of everything that happened between me and Jaxon. It was just better that way.

“I’m pretty sure he just couldn’t return it,” I said. I remembered how annoyed Jaxon had looked when he told me to keep the gift anyway. “He didn’t seem very happy about giving it to me.”

“Maybe we would understand his intentions better if we opened it,” she said. She poked the bag with her toe and looked back at me slyly.

“I doubt it will be anything interesting.”

“But isn’t it worth checking?”

“No,” I said simply. “It’s not.”

Madison was used to getting what she wanted so I wasn’t surprised that she was pushing this so hard. Knowing us, I would give in within the next ten minutes. Still, I wanted to push off seeing the gift as long as possible.

“Well, you should at least read the note.”

That got my attention.

“What note?” I asked sharply.

Madison pulled a small, green envelope out of the bag and twirled it between her fingers. I shook my head. Madison lived for other people’s drama and I could see by the mischievous grin on her face that she wanted to read the note so badly.

I sighed. “Fine. Just read it out loud.”

Madison cleared her throat. “Dear Violet,” she said in a deep voice. I threw a pillow at her, hitting her directly in the face. “Ow!”

“What kind of voice is that?” I asked.

“I’m trying to sound like Jaxon!” she said. “The note is from him, after all.”

“Madison,” I said. I clasped my hands together in front of my mouth and pointed my fingers in her direction. “You are so desperately failing.”

Madison looked affronted at my statement and she stuck out her tongue at me.

“Anyway,” she said. She cleared her throat again.

“Dear Violet. As promised, here are the dresses. I wanted to take this moment to thank you again for agreeing to do this with me. I know you weren’t sure about it when we first started but I really think it was a good idea.

It’s gone even better than I expected and that’s thanks to you — your commitment to seeing this through properly has made it possible.

I promise I’ll make it up to you however you want for years to come. ”

Madison paused in her reading and looked up.

“That’s so cute,” she said, clutching the letter to her chest.

“Yeah,” I murmured. I tugged at a loose thread on my pillow. “Cute.”

She seemed to pick up on my mood as she immediately went back to reading.

“I hope you like the dresses. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to pick them out yourself but I thought this would be a fun way of doing it too.

I did my best to pick dresses that would suit you well.

I did ask for Eli and Sabrina’s help, though, if I’m being honest. The emerald green one is the prom dress.

I think it will bring out your eyes. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this to you but they are the most beautiful shade of green.

And don’t worry, I bought a good tie and corsage so we’ll look like a good, put together couple. ”

My heart ached at how much thought he’d put into this.

Originally, I’d thought I would just pick out my own dress after we got back from the grad trip.

I’d accepted it probably wouldn’t happen after what happened on Monday and I’d made my peace with it.

I couldn’t believe he’d actually done all this — and that the day he was planning to do all of it was the day I went and screwed it all up.

“The blue one is the graduation dress,” Madison continued.

“It’s the same shade as that romper you wore because I think the colour just suits you so well — and it was a happy coincidence that right after I bought it, we ended up getting our toes painted that colour too.

I hope you love the dresses as much as I do and I can’t wait to see you in them.

” Madison looked up at me. “Then, it’s signed Jaxon.

And underneath, there’s a P.S. note says he wasn’t sure if you needed shoes or not, so he bought a pair of heels that would go with both dresses if need be. ”

My heart was aching more than it ever had in my life. I couldn’t believe how sweet he had been. How much I had messed it up. Madison put the note down and looked at the box again.

“If he bought the dress right before the pedicure, this must have been what was in the bag he was carrying around that day,” she said thoughtfully.

“No, it can’t be,” I said immediately.

Madison frowned and tilted her head. “What? Why not?”

“Because he said that was for…” My voice trailed off as I whispered, “Some girl he liked.”

Suddenly, everything clicked into place.

Jaxon being so evasive about the purchase must have been because he wanted to surprise me.

And Sabrina was so insistent that he still liked me, that he still talked about me…

None of it had been fake to Jaxon, either.

We both wanted it to be the real thing and I had gone and ruined any chance we’d had of it working out.

I put a hand to my mouth as I tried to hold back the sob that was building in my chest but I ultimately failed. Soon enough, tears spilled over onto my cheeks as well. All I could think about was Jaxon’s face in the closet when he’d realized what I’d done.

Madison ran back over to the bed. It bounced a little as she jumped on but I barely noticed.

She wrapped her arms around me and brushed my hair out of my face.

The smell of her perfume was overpowering.

While I normally loved it, I found myself oddly longing for the smell of Jaxon’s cologne instead.

“I ruined everything!” I sobbed.

“No, no, you didn’t,” Madison soothed. “Here’s what you’ll do, Violet… You’ll wear the dress to prom and Jaxon will see you and everything will work out.”

“I’m not sure Jaxon even wants to talk to me.” I wiped at the tears with my wrist but it wasn’t any use, since they were still falling

Madison stared at the box on the ground.

“The kind of love he wrote that note with doesn’t just disappear overnight,” she said quietly. “No matter what happened between you two.”