So that was how she’d found out. Coco was one of the MGs, and she was in our drama class. I should have figured that one of her friends would have told her that juicy bit of gossip.
“So what? Why are you trying to make it sound like I’ve betrayed you somehow?”
Jessilyn could stand to sound a bit less defensive, but I got where she was coming from. It wasn’t like she’d chosen to be partnered with me. We were assigned to each other.
“Why did you choose Bennett as your partner? You know we just broke up. Are you trying to move in on him for yourself?”
“I didn’t choose him. Mr. Brownley did, so you can stop throwing out accusations.”
“You didn’t choose him?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
She might be calming down now, but she still hadn’t figured out that we had a bunch of kisses in our scene. Coco couldn’t have known that information. She hadn’t read our script. Maybe by the time Jackilyn saw the performance, she would be over me enough to stop caring if I was kissing her sister as part of our scene. A guy could hope, right?
“I still don’t like the idea of you spending so much time with Bennett. Don’t go getting any ideas about dating him. Daddy wouldn’t like it.”
I could feel my cheeks burning. She thought we might get together? Why would she say something like that?
“You didn’t seem to care whether Dad would have liked it when you were dating him,” Jessilyn said.
“That was me. You’re an entirely different story.”
“How am I different?” Jessilyn sounded like she was getting frustrated with her sister.
Wait. Why was Jessilyn arguing with Jackilyn on this subject? Did she think there was a possibility that we might get together?
“You’re naïve. Bennett’s a bad boy. Daddy wouldn’t want him corrupting you.”
Anger welled up inside me. I would never do anything to corrupt Jessilyn. I may be rough around the edges, but I wasn’t the kind of guy to ever disrespect a girl. Jackilyn should know that about me by now. It hurt that she would think so badly of me.
“Bennett’s a good guy. I don’t know why you’re calling him a bad boy.”
My heart warmed to hear Jessilyn talk about me like that.
“Like I said, you’re naïve.”
Jessilyn rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Jacki. Look, I need to go. I have to finish my homework before I go to work.”
“Fine. I’ll talk to you later.”
Jessilyn ended the call and turned to me. “I’m sorry about how Jackilyn was being.”
“Thanks for sticking up for me. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I did. You didn’t deserve to be called a bad boy.”
“It’s true, though. I’m not exactly a model citizen of Sweet Mountain.”
“Oh yeah? And what have you done that’s so bad?” Jessilyn asked.
“Plenty of things.” I didn’t want to go into too many details with Jessilyn. She didn’t need to know everything I’d done wrong.
“Like what? Give me an example.”
I thought for a moment. What could I tell her? “I’ve been suspended. Twice.”