Page 24 of Scarlett and the Fake Boyfriend (Scarlett #2)

Saturday

“Pumpkin, did you hear what I asked?” my dad said.

“Hm?” I hadn’t been listening to the conversation at the dinner table. I was a little preoccupied because the inside of my head felt like a maze I had no idea how to navigate.

“I was wondering what the highlight of your week was?”

“The highlight of my week?” I asked. “What is this nonsense?”

My mom laughed. “We thought it would be fun at family dinners on Saturday to discuss our favorite moments of the week.”

I just stared at her.

“So we can all catch up,” she added when I didn’t answer the ridiculous question. “You’ve been quiet at dinner recently.”

Because my life was in shambles and I couldn’t talk to them about it. “Aren’t you going to be late for your gala?”

My parents were dressed to the nines. My dad was in a tux with a bowtie and my mom was in a dress that was very lowcut. If I wore it, I’d be grounded for sure. They should have been out to dinner at some fancy restaurant before their night out. But they rarely ever missed dinner with us.

My dad looked at his watch. “Nope. We have plenty of time.”

Great.

“So...what was your highlight?”

Oh, I don’t know. Trying to kiss Jacob and him laughing at me?

My kiss thief escaping unmasked from Operation Trap?

Sneezing cum out my nose? Detention with Mr. Halifax?

There were just so many great things that had happened to me this week.

And I wasn’t sure any of them were appropriate dinner conversation. “Pass,” I said.

My mom smiled. “We had fun shopping, right?”

“Yes. That’s my answer.”

“Anything else?”

“I think you said highlight . Singular. And my week has not been great.”

My dad lowered his eyebrows as he stared at me. “What are you talking about? Jacob asked you to be his girlfriend. Doesn’t that make the highlight list?”

Ah crap. That would have been the perfect thing to say! I cleared my throat. “Oh. Yes. Sorry, it’s been a long week. I thought that was last week.”

He kept staring at me. “Well that was my highlight too.”

Liam laughed. “Scarlett getting her first boyfriend was your highlight? Really?”

“Yes,” my dad said. “I’m very pleased about Scarlett’s choice. Jacob is a great boy. And they make a fine couple.”

My dad was so weird about this .

Liam shrugged. “Well, I guess we all thought it would never happen, so there’s that.”

I threw a green bean at his face.

But he dodged out of the way.

“No throwing food at the table, pumpkin,” my dad said.

I sighed. Liam deserved a face full of green beans.

“And what about you, Liam?” my dad asked. “Highlight of the week?”

“That pass I caught in the endzone.”

The two of them high-fived.

“Well, I also loved shopping with you, Scarlett,” my mom said. “We should plan another night out just the two of us soon.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket. But I ignored it. If it was Jacob, I didn’t want to be desperate. My phone buzzed again and kept buzzing. Someone was calling. Which meant it was Soph.

“Aren’t you going to get that?” my mom asked.

As much as I wanted to talk through the warring thoughts in my head, I already knew what Sophie would say. She was Team Jacob. But she didn’t understand. Jacob had literally told me I was no longer his type. He liked big-breasted, confident Olivia. It sounded like she was the worst.

“No, it’s probably just Soph. I’ll call her later.”

But then my mom’s phone started ringing.

Weird. I pulled out my phone to see that my missed call was from Aunt Hailey. Axel’s mom.

“Hey, Hails,” my mom said as she answered her phone.

Wait, why was she calling my mom now? Was everything okay? Had something happened to Axel?

“We’re leaving in a few minutes,” my mom said. “Are you guys already there?”

I guess my parents were going to the gala tonight with Axel’s parents. But that didn’t really answer my concerns...

“Oh no,” my mom said. “That’s terrible.”

I stared at her. Seriously, what was going on?

“I don’t think so. Let me ask them.” My mom pulled the cellphone away from her ear. “Are either of you free tonight to watch Parker? Tyler and Hail’s babysitter fell through. Apparently she caught the flu.”

Parker was Axel’s little sister. I’d been worried about Axel for no reason. And speaking of Axel... “Can’t Axel do it?” I asked.

“He’s out on a date apparently,” my mom said. “And he wasn’t picking up his phone.”

“Out on a date with whom?”

My mom gave me a weird look. “Hails didn’t say. Are either of you free?”

“Scarlett can do it,” Liam said. “She never has plans.”

“Excuse you.” I wasn’t about to go babysit Axel’s little sister while Axel was out making out with someone who wasn’t me. That was so pathetic. “I can’t. I have plans with...Jacob.”

“Liam, can you do it?” my mom asked. “We were really looking forward to spending time with Tyler and Hails.”

“You don’t want me to do it,” Liam said. “If I go, Scar will be here all alone. With Jacob. And who knows what she’ll get up to in an empty house with her new boyfriend?”

What the hell ?

“Yes, Scarlett should do it,” my dad said.

“Dad!”

“You’re not allowed alone in the house with Jacob.”

“That has never been a rule before.”

“Well, it’s a rule now,” he said.

“I never even said Jacob was coming here. We’re meeting up...somewhere else.” I wasn’t hanging out with him at all. I was just trying not to sound like a total loser.

“I’m sure Jacob will understand. He’s a good boy.”

I wondered if my dad would keep saying Jacob was a good boy if he knew that I’d given Jacob head last night. “Well...Liam is dating an older Russian woman. He probably shouldn’t be alone in the house either.”

Liam laughed.

“Don’t make up things about your brother,” my dad said.

“I’m not making it up. Liam is such a slut.”

“Scarlett,” my dad said firmly. “We’ve talked about this. Stop calling your brother a slut.”

“But he is a slut.”

“That’s enough.” He looked at my mother. “Scarlett will babysit Parker.”

Gah!

“Scarlett will be there in half an hour,” my mom said. She smiled and then hung up the phone.

This was so unfair.

“Thanks for doing this, sweetie,” my mom said. “It’s been forever since we’ve had a night out with Tyler and Hails. But your dad got these tickets a couple days ago and they were the first people he thought to ask.”

“Yeah, it’s been forever since I’ve hung out with Tyler,” my dad said. “This is going to be fun. I’ve been looking forward to it.”

I stared at him. “We see Uncle Tyler every Sunday for the football game.”

“I meant just the two of us. With Hailey too of course. I’m very excited about this.”

He was acting weird again. I never really thought Uncle Tyler and my dad were that close. They literally never sat near each other on Sundays. But then again, Uncle Tyler was an Eagles fan. So I got it.

“We should get going,” my dad said and pushed his chair out. “Hurry up and get ready, pumpkin. We’ll drop you off.”

I sighed. “Fine.”

“Have fun, Scar,” Liam said.

My parents had no idea that they were leaving my pervy little brother alone to probably have a sex phone call with his Russian side-chick.

I had been planning on spending the night studying calc. Because I refused to have any more awkward conversations with Mr. Halifax. But no. I had to go babysit Parker while Axel was on a date.

***

Aunt Hails opened the door. “Thank you so much for coming at the last minute.” She leaned down and hugged me.

“No problem, Aunt Hails.”

She was also in a dress that would get me grounded.

“What’s in the box?” she asked.

“Oh, I was going through my room and had some old dolls I thought Parker might like.” I shifted the box under my arm .

“Well isn’t that sweet. I’m sure she’s going to love them. She’s in the living room drawing right now.”

“Awesome.” I actually really liked drawing with Parker. It certainly beat doing calc homework.

Uncle Tyler walked into the hall as he pulled on his tuxedo jacket. “We really appreciate you coming over last minute, Scarlett.” He pulled me into a hug too.

I hugged him back and then awkwardly stood between them.

“What’s in the box?” he asked with a smile. “Are you moving in?”

I laughed. “No. It’s just some dolls for Parker. So...where is Axel exactly?”

Aunt Hails sighed. “You know Axel.” She glanced at Uncle Tyler for a moment and then back at me.

“Right,” I said. “Did you happen to catch the girl’s name?”

“Um...” she looked at Uncle Tyler again. “Did you, Tyler? I know Axel mentioned it, but I can’t remember.”

“I think it started with a G.” He shrugged. “Sorry, I can’t remember either. I think there’s been a lot of dates with girls with names that start with G recently.”

Georgia started with G. And Axel specifically told me last night that he wasn’t going to kiss Georgia next. That asshole. “Cool,” I said, instead of telling them what I really thought of their son.

“He seems to be going through the alphabet or something,” he said. “S isn’t too far away.”

Aunt Hails gave me a small smile of encouragement at Uncle Tyler’s words.

Wait. Did Axel’s parents know about my unrequited crush too? Why did everyone know but Axel? I laughed awkwardly. “Well, he’s a little too late. I have a boyfriend.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Oh? Who?”

Why did everyone always seem surprised by this news? “Jacob.”

“Jacob Miller?” Uncle Tyler asked.

I nodded.

The two of them looked at each other again. Why did they keep doing that?

“That’s...that’s wonderful,” Aunt Hails said.

But her tone was all off. It didn’t sound like she thought it was wonderful at all. She sounded like my mom had when she’d heard the news.

“Does Axel know?” Uncle Tyler asked.

“Yup.”

He glanced at his wife again.

Seriously...why did they keep doing that?

Uncle Tyler’s phone started buzzing. “It’s James. We should get going. We don’t want to be late.” He patted my shoulder. And I swear he gave me a sympathetic look for some reason.

Aunt Hails grabbed her purse. “We’ll be back pretty late.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I have nothing to do tonight.”

The two of them started whispering about something on their way out.

Axel’s parents were just as strange as mine.

I walked down the hall and into the living room. “Hey, Parker.” She was sitting on the floor with a box full of crayons.

She looked up at me “Hi, Scarlett. Ax isn’t home. He’s on another date. ”

“Another date with like...the same person? Or just like another date this week?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Well, either way, I’m not here to hang out with Axel. I’m here to hang out with you. I brought you some dolls.”

“I’m too old for dolls.”

I stared at her. “Parker, you’re nine.”

“Exactly.”

Kids these days. I put the box down on the couch anyway. I guess I’d played with dolls for way longer than I was supposed to. Maybe that’s why I still believed in fairytales and knights in shining armor.

“Do you know who Axel went on a date with?” I asked.

“Maybe.” She kept drawing.

“Maybe? Did he tell you?”

“Yes. He tells me everything.” She didn’t add any more details.

Everything? Really? “Well, what did he say?”

“I’m not supposed to say.”

I laughed. “Parker, it’s me.”

“I think I’m specifically not supposed to tell you.”

What? “Did his date’s name start with a G?”

“Lots of names start with G.”

“Parker.”

She giggled.

“Parker, just tell me.”

“He said it was going to make you mad. So I don’t want to say.”

My stomach dropped. “Was it Georgia?”

“Maybe.”

“It’s a yes or no question, Parker.”

She shrugged. “Yes. But I’ve been calling her George. Because I don’t like her.”

I laughed. “Yeah. That’s a much better name for her. Have you met her?”

“No, but I don’t like Ax’s girlfriends that aren’t you.”

It felt like my heart was cracking. And I wasn’t sure if it was because of the cute thing she’d just said about me. Or the fact that she’d referred to Georgia as Axel’s girlfriend. “Is George his girlfriend?”

“I think so.”

My stomach churned. How long had this been going on? I pulled out my phone and texted him. “Did you seriously ask George to be your girlfriend?”

The minutes ticked by without a response. I slid onto the floor with Parker and grabbed a crayon. “So what are we drawing?”

“That.” She pointed to the window.

I looked down at her drawing of the cityscape. “That’s really good, Parker.”

“I know.”

I shook my head. I could learn a thing or two about confidence from her. I tried to start drawing too. But the red crayon I’d grabbed made it look like the city was bleeding.

My phone finally buzzed.

I pulled it out to see Axel’s response.

“Lol, George? Are you with Parker right now?”

Asshole. “Yes. I’m babysitting because you’re too busy whoring around. Answer my question.”

“I didn’t ask Georgia to be my girlfriend.”

Okay. Well that was good. But... “Are you with her right now? ”

“Yes.”

“Axel, you promised me last night that she wouldn’t be the next person you kissed.”

“There were contingencies to that.”

“What contingencies?”

“We had a deal, Scarlett. I figured if you didn’t want me to kiss her you’d break up with the boyfriend by tonight.”

“Are you serious right now?”

“Yes. So have you broken up with him?”

“Screw you, Axel Stevens.”

“I’ll take that as a no. Have a fun night with my sister. See you in bed later.”

I wanted to hurl my phone out the window.

“Are you texting Ax?” Parker asked. She was no longer concentrating on her drawing. She was staring at me.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because you look upset.”

I sighed. Why was I so transparent to everyone but Axel? “Yes, I’m texting your brother.”

“What did he say?”

“That he’s busy hanging out with George.”

Parker scrunched up her nose. “Want to draw on the walls of his room to get him in trouble?”

I laughed. Maybe. My phone buzzed again.

“What did he say now?” she asked.

“Nothing, it’s just Soph.” She was asking if I wanted to go to that new club across town. I was about to text her back when she started to call.

“Can I talk to her?” Parker asked.

“Sure.” I handed her my phone.

“Sophie, can you come over? We’re going to draw on Axel’s walls because he’s kissing George.”

I laughed.

“No, George is a girl,” Parker said. “But she isn’t pretty. Ax showed me a picture.”

I wished I could hear what Sophie was saying.

“No, Scarlett’s not babysitting me. We’re just hanging out.”

I smiled at Parker.

“Yes, it’s a girls’ night,” Parker said.

I stifled another laugh. I had a feeling Sophie was quoting those Russian single girl rules she’d found right now. I’m pretty sure lots of them were about girls’ nights.

“We can draw on his walls and do that I think,” Parker said.

Another pause.

“Okay. Bye.” Parker hung up and handed me my phone back. “Sophie is coming over.”

“What is the other thing she wants to do?”

“We’re going to look for clues in Axel’s room while we destroy it.”