Page 15 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
“Hey!” I said. I put my hands on my hips. “I’ll have you know I am a phenomenal badminton player.”
It was a total lie. I was probably the worst badminton player to ever grace the earth but Jaxon didn’t need to know that.
“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” he said, although his tone made it clear that wasn’t the case. I guess I couldn’t be angry about that, all things considered. “But since you’re dressed for a workout anyway, why don’t you run with me?”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” I said. I wasn’t much a runner, especially next to a track star like Jaxon.
“Come on,” he said. He grabbed my hand and tugged me forward. “It’ll be fun.”
“Running is never fun,” I said.
He kept pulling me. His steps were getting faster so I had to speed up to match. Soon enough, I was basically running. Finally, I just pulled my hand away and started running. We weren’t going nearly as fast as he had been before and I could tell he was desperate to stretch his legs but he kept pace beside me, regardless.
“You’re so slow, Evers,” Jaxon said teasingly. I shoved his shoulder and he stumbled with a laugh.
“Shut up,” I said.
I was happy that I was at least somewhat fit so I was having to gasp for breath or anything while running with him. To my surprise, it was actually a little fun. We didn’t get to run for long, though, before the school bell rang, echoing across the track field. It was the five-minute warning for the next period.
“What class do you have now?” Jaxon asked.
“Nothing,” I said. We slowed to a walk and I put my hands on my back as I caught my breath again. “Spare. You?”
He grinned wryly. “Track.”
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “What? You run on your lunch break right before you have P.E.?”
He shrugged. “Can’t hurt, right?”
“Yeah, I guess not,” I said. I ran my hands over my hair. “Anyway, I better go meet Madison. She’ll kill me if I’m late.”
He nodded. “Have fun.”
“Thanks.” I waved goodbye to him then jogged across the field. At least we were pretty much as close as possible to the athletic buildings where we were going to play badminton. I could probably get there in time for the real bell, which was when we had agreed to meet.
“Hey!” one of the girls called as I walked past the bleachers. “Violet!”
I stopped and glanced back, my eyebrows pulled together in confusion. Most people at Bayshore Academy didn’t know me by name, especially students that I didn’t remember ever seeing before.
“Yeah?” I asked.
The girl sitting closest to the edge of the bleachers turned fully towards me. She flipped her wavy brown hair behind her shoulder and smiled at me brightly.
“I’m Hannah Klein,” she said, putting a well-manicured hand to her chest. I looked at her silently, waiting for her to continue. “I’m a junior,” she added, as if that answered all my questions.
“Nice to meet you?” I said slowly. I didn’t know what this random girl wanted from me.
“So, I was wondering,” she said in a preppy voice. “Are you and Jaxon, like… serious?”
“I…” Who just asked a random stranger that? “What?”
Hannah glanced back at her friends, who were all giggling, then turned back to me. A smirk was now present on her face.
“So, like, my friend, Katie—” She gestured at a blonde girl sitting next to her, who was wearing an outfit that could barely even count as the school uniform. The girl, Katie, smiled fakely and waved at me with her fingers. “She’s been interested in Jaxon for likeever. And she was really hoping that he would ask her to prom.”
I didn’t really know how to respond to that — for one thing, I doubted that Jaxon even knew Katie existed, at least to the extent that she hoped for. And for another, if he was planning to ask her to prom, he would have done it by now — it was next week for goodness sake. Besides, as far as these girls knew, I was dating Jaxon. Why the hell would they ask me something like that?
I smiled apologetically in a way that probably looked as sincere as the smile Katie and Hannah were both still shooting me.
