Page 26 of It Was Always You

I pulled out my phone when I got to my next class and quickly shot Lexi a text.

Me:Can I sit by you at the game tonight? Is that allowed?

It took her a moment to respond, and I was worried she'd say no—which was crazy, since we weren't really dating. But for some reason, my heart raced like it thought she really had the power to hurt me if she turned me down.

I sighed when my phone vibrated with her text.

Lexi:You sure you don't mind sitting with the band nerds instead of your cool friends?

Well, since one of mycoolfriends was hoping to be my girlfriend, I really didn't feel like sitting by her tonight. Plus, I was pretty sure Easton had plans to sit with Mercedes since things were going well for them after their first date.

Me:I'd rather sit by you. And we can try to make your secret crush jealous while I'm there.

Lexi:My secret crush?

Me:Isn't Harrison in the pep-band too?

Had she seriously forgotten about him already? Hadn't she just been trying to snag a date with him on Friday? Not that much could have changed since then. It was only, like, five days ago.

Lexi:yeah, you can sit by me if you promise not to embarrass me too much.

I laughed. That was going to be hard. So I sent her the most honest reply that I could.

Me:I'll try my best.

9

LEXI

The prospectof tonight's game was stressing me out. Not only would I be sitting by Harrison all night, on the bleachers, possibly just inches away from him, but Noah was going to be there too...pretending to be my boyfriend and probably laughing at how anxious I was around both guys.

By the time six o'clock rolled around, I’d already tried on three different pairs of shoes—since shoes were my only chance at looking cute tonight. That band polo really needed to be burned. My dad had thought he was being economical by buying me a size bigger during my freshman year, hoping I'd grow into it as I went through high school. But in the past year and a half, I had yet to grow even a centimeter. I wasn’t going to reach theaverage height like my sister did. Instead, I was most likely going to stay five-foot-two forever.

Easton dropped me off at school thirty minutes early so I could grab my trumpet from the band room and have time to get my stand and music all set up before the game started.

"Don't make it too easy on Mercedes," I gave Easton some advice before he drove off to pick her up for the game. "According to Noah, people want what they can't have. So make sure you don't seem too eager to pick her up."

He shook his head. "That's, like, the worst dating advice I've ever heard."

"I'm just saying it since it seemed to work for Noah." He had all kinds of girls after him. And it had certainly been true in my case. I’d always wanted the guys I couldn't have. Harrison had a girlfriend. And Noah, well...that was just not ever going to happen. Not for real, anyway.

I stopped by the girls’ restroom on my way to the band room, just to make sure the snow hadn't totally flattened my hair—not because I cared what Noah thought of it. I just wanted to look good for myself.

Everything checked out, so I grabbed my trumpet from the instrument storage room and then made my way down to the gym.

The JV game was just finishing up as I gotmy stuff all set up for the varsity game. I decided to sit on the end of the trumpet section, since Noah would be sitting by me. I still couldn't believe that he was choosing to sit with the pep band tonight. He must really be committed to this fake boyfriend/girlfriend thing. And I had no idea why. Most guys would love to date one of the cheerleaders. And sure, Raven wasn't exactly the nicest to me, but she definitely had all the qualities most guys looked for in a girl. She was the kind that guys would call "hot," while I was what they'd call "quirky."

Harrison joined me in the trumpet section a couple of minutes later, his trumpet case in his hand, his shirt messily tucked only halfway into his jeans. It was kind of adorable how disheveled he looked sometimes, like he was always in a hurry and getting dressed as he stepped out the door. It made me miss his hair. It was too short to look messy anymore.

"Do you mind if I share your stand?" he asked, standing at the end of the row.

I caught a whiff of his cologne. He may look messy, but he smelled amazing. I cleared my throat.

"Yeah," I said. "But could you sit on the other side? Noah wants to sit up here tonight, so I’m trying to sit on the end."

"Oh, okay." He seemed a little surprised that Noah would be joining us. Did he somehow know that this whole thing was fake? He probably did. I had never comeout right and told Harrison that I liked him, but I was sure it was obvious to anyone who had watched me very closely. Things had been a little awkward this morning during band, after my horrifying display the day before. But he hadn't brought it up again, so I was at least thankful for that.

Harrison shuffled around me before squeezing into the spot to my right. It was a tight fit, since Chrissa was on the other side, but I could handle bumping knees with him and not going into cardiac arrest, right?

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