Page 70 of Once Upon a Fake Date

“What the hell is wrong with him?”

I bit my lip. “Maybe he just needs help. Are you sure he’ll be okay? He went down pretty hard.”

“Is it bad if I say I don’t care?”

I laughed. “Honestly, no. But what aboutyou, Parker?”

He sighed, like he knew exactly where I was going with that. “Coach won’t be happy with me. But I knew that risk when I did it. Especially since all of my teammates were here. It would be better coming from me.”

“But…” I frowned. “Will you get in trouble?”

“Don’t worry about me, sunshine. It was worth it. But… will you please talk to someone about this?” He asked, those amber eyes looking at me with so muchcarethat my chest heaved. “I can’t stand knowing hehurtyou.” His voice cracked.

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll talk to Professor Woods.” I’d kept her in the loop since the beginning of the semester—minus the whole fake dating arrangement with Parker. But she knew he wouldn’t let me be. I’d done my best not to be alone with him, but even that wasn’t enough if he was going to corner me like this.

“Good. I’ll go with you to talk to campus safety, too, if you want me to.”

“Please,” I whispered. Something that told me that doing it with him, having the courage to talk about what happened with Parker by my side, holding my hand, would be significantly better than trying to do it alone.

“Okay.” He wiped his thumb over my tender cheekbone. “I’m with you, Audrey. I’m always going to be by your side.”

I believed him. “What did I do to deserve you?” My eyes filled with tears once again, but this time it was happy ones.

“Do you remember when we first met?”

“No.”

He hummed. “I do.”

“You do?” I blinked. My family had moved into that house when Ella and I were still small, but I remembered little past that. Only that in all of my memories of the neighborhood, he was there.

“Yeah.” Parker grinned. “There were a lot of other kids around, but none close to my age. I was too young for the big kids and too big to hang out with the babies.” He scoffed. “Then my mom told me there were two twins moving in next door to me, and they were only a year younger. I was so excited. And then I found out you were girls.” He scratched the back of head. “I just wanted someone to play with, you know? Someone who would ride around on bikes with me. Who would play with action figures and nerf guns and swords. And then you moved in.”

“And?”

“And there you were, dressed in a little pink overall set. Your hair was in pigtails, and then yousmiled. And I knew.”

I was pretty sure I wasn’t breathing. “You knew you wanted to be my friend when I smiled?” Turning my head to the side so I could look up at him, I raised an eyebrow.

He shook his head, wrinkling up his nose. “No. I knew that none of that mattered, because my life was going to be changed forever.”

“Ella was there too, you know.” She’d always been around when we were younger.

He hummed in response. “But she wasn’t the one who rode her pink bike to the park with me every day after school. She wasn’t the one who came over to my house and watched cartoons and movies. You two couldn’t be more different if you tried. And even if you wore the same outfit, I’d always know it was you. So yeah, Rosie Girl, you do deserve me. Because you’re the first friend I ever had. And the only one I’ve ever wanted to keep.”

He pressed his lips to my forehead.

“You were my first friend too, you know. Besides my sister. And the first that really felt likemine.Because I didn’t have to share you.”

Parker winked. “Never will, Rosie Girl.”

I hummed in response.

Finally, he said, “So he… never got you off? Never made it good for you?” His eyes looked murderous, and I knew he hadn’t forgotten what I’d said before.

I shook my head. “It’s never been easy for me… with someone else.”

He laughed. “Audrey. No way. You’re telling me that after you came just from grinding against my lap?”

---