Page 48 of Fake It Till You Break It
Mia glanced over her shoulder at me. Her eyes were wide and a bit startled. She wasn’t the only one. I was surprised by how the unintentional caress made me feel. My hand tingled like a bolt of lightning hit it, but I didn’t pull away. Time almost felt like it stopped and everything else faded away.
We’ve seen each other practically every single day for a majority of our lives. The day we learned to talk and the first day of high school. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when she became pretty. But I knew that this was the moment where she became more than just pretty. She was beautiful.
Bang!
We both jumped at the loud sound. A terrorist shot her screen, ending her game. “Damn it.”
Not noticing the moment—or whatever the hell that was—between us, Ben leaned onto the machine with a grin. “Thatwas pretty cool. Jeez, I didn’t know you were a master at this game.”
She giggled again, and I forced myself not to gag from the cheesiness. I couldn’t tell if he was being sleazy or if he was genuinely this lame. The girls seemed to be eating it up, though. If this were an anime, there would be stars coming out of both Mia’s and Aly’s eyes.
As they walked away, Ben reached out and took Mia’s hand, lacing her fingers through his for a few seconds before placing it on his arm. She looked at him in surprise but didn’t pull away. The uneasiness in my stomach came back.
No, I wasn’t biased. I justdidn’tlike the guy. At all. And I didn’t like the fact that it should be me beside her, holding her hand and smiling down at her.
Instead, all I could do was stand in the background and watch as the girl I liked walked away with another guy.
MIA
ALY SKIPPED AHEAD OF USwith a happy bounce in her step. “That movie was so cool! I didn’t expect that surprise ending at all. ’Course, I guess that’s why it’s called a surprise. We definitely have to watch it again.”
Ben laughed. “I guess we’ll have something to do next weekend. Are you in, Mia?”
I was so lost in thought that I barely heard their conversation. It wasn’t until Jake snapped his fingers in my face that I realized they were all looking at me expectantly. “What? No, I’m not hungry.”
Jake gave me a funny look. “That’s good because nobody was offering you food. We were just talking about the movie.”
“Oh, yeah, I thought the movie was…” I hesitated and stared at each of their faces for a minute before guessing. “Good?”
Thankfully, I guessed right by the nods and smiles on Ben’sand Aly’s faces. Thank God for fifty-fifty chances. Jake was still eyeing me, but I avoided his gaze.
To be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone what the movie was about if they paid me. I was so nervous sitting next to Ben that it took every ounce of willpower I had to stop my leg from bouncing. Aware of every time he moved his hand and every breath he took. Not to mention, I could barely concentrate with Jake burning holes into the side of my head with his stares the entire time.
A part of me actually wished that this date wasn’t happening. Then I could just hold on to the dream of Ben falling head over heels for me because theactualprocess of doing that was so much harder than I thought.
But the other part of me was just yelling at that part to stop being such a wuss and enjoy myself before the night was over. Or before it was midnight and I had to go home before my carriage turned back into a pumpkin as my fairy tale disappeared.
“It’s still a little early. Do you want to get some ice cream?” Ben asked, piercing my daydream.
Jake’s mouth opened, but Aly grabbed his arm and tugged him toward her before he could say anything. “You two go ahead. We’ll just head home first. I’m kind of tired.” Her left hand rubbed at her temple. “You don’t mind, right?”
“Uh, sure,” Jake said, his eyes still on me.
“Are you okay?” She had crazy piercing migraines sometimes. Even had to stay home from school a few times before. Maybe one was creeping up now. “We could—”
“No, go ahead. I’m fine.” Aly pushed both of us along and gave me a wink behind Ben’s back. Her eyes were bright and not at all in pain. “You two just go without us.”
Oh. OH.
“Well… do you want to head out, then?” Ben asked.
“Sure.” My eyes kept peering behind me at Aly and Jake. Especially at her arm looped through Jake’s. She gave me a thumbs-up, and Jake still looked a little uncertain. Probably mirroring the look on my face, but he gave me a small wave as we walked away.
After Ben and I stopped by the ice cream shop, we decided to walk in the park a bit. There were a couple of people still around. Families with small kids on the playground. A couple sitting beneath a tree who looked like they were trying to eat each other’s faces.
“So, what’s with you and Jake?”
I nearly spat out my vanilla ice cream with olive oil drizzle (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it) in Ben’s face. He must have noticed because he dodged to the left, out of the line of fire. “What do you mean?”
