Page 32 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
It wasn’t hard for me to guess what people were teasing Eli about. There was a long list of reasons the other boys at the school hated him: he didn’t exactly fit into the classic masculinity the rest of them expected, he was openly queer and proud of it, he had a chronic illness that prevented him from participating in sports, and he refused to fight back when antagonized. Even when I hadn’t been a fan of Sabrina and Jaxon, I was happy that he had Jaxon and Sabrina by his side to defend him.
“I think Lewis hated me for more than just that, though,” Jaxon continued.
My eyebrows pulled together as I thought over his words. That was more than enough reason for Lewis to hate him, especially since Jaxon almost always got the last word in between them.
“What else was there?” I asked.
“You,” Jaxon said simply.
“Me?” I looked at him again. “What does that mean?”
“He was into you. I was into you… He saw me as a threat.”
“Right…” Somehow, I’d forgotten how that probably affected their animosity towards one another. “Hence, the bet.”
“Exactly.” He shifted his hands so our fingers were interlocked. “I want you to know how sorry I am for evenbringing your name into our fights, Violet. I know how awful it was to bet on your feelings like that.”
“I know.”
“No, I really mean it,” he said forcefully. “Not in some I’m-sorry-you-found-out sort of way. I won’t lie to you — at the time, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. And honestly, I fully intended to follow through on it. But once some time passed, I realized how wrong that was.”
“I know, Jaxon,” I said sincerely. “Trust me. I can see how much you’ve grown up.”
“You’re too nice.”
“You’re too hard on yourself.”
He laughed a little and shook his head. “Agree to disagree, I guess.”
“What made you care about it so much now?” I asked. He’d told me before that it was just because Lewis was being an ass about it, but I wondered whether there was maybe something more to it. From what I’d heard, he’d been like that for all of high school without me knowing.
“Because… because he was acting like he had won,” Jaxon said. “As if he’d wonyou. And like that wasn’t bad enough on its own, it also made his ego grow like crazy. Originally, I considered just beating it out of him, but…” He shook his head. “Seeing the way that he started to treat Eli again, I realized that I needed to do something bigger. Something that would really knock Lewis down so much that he wouldn’t dare to touch my friends again.”
“Why didn’t Eli tell me about any of this?” I was more so wondering aloud than actually asking Jaxon. “I mean, he told me about the bet and everything, but he didn’t tell me about what happened between him and Lewis.”
“He doesn’t like to talk about it,” Jaxon said. “Or admit how much it bothers him. He likes to just let these things pass over.”
That was true. Eli really let me remain friends with his bully because he didn’t want to hurt me. While I appreciated him paying attention to my feelings like that, I didn’t want him to be hurt at the expense of my happiness.
“You’re a good friend, Jaxon,” I said. I couldn’t believe that I had a genuinely nice thing to say about Jaxon Andrews. That sure was a first.
Jaxon shrugged. “It’s what anyone would have done.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I whispered. I studied him for a moment. “Thank you… For protecting him.”And for protecting me.
“Again,” he said quietly. “It’s what anyone would have done.”
He was being too modest, but I also knew there was no way of convincing him he was wrong. I got the feeling he was also getting uncomfortable with the conversation, so I tried to think of something to change the subject.
“Did you ever actually like me?” I asked.
Jaxon frowned and looked at me in confusion. “What kind of question is that?”
“I mean… back when you made that bet with Lewis,” I said. “Did you actually like me or were you just saying it to piss off Lew?”
Jaxon swallowed thickly. “Sure, I had feelings for you… You know, back in the day.” His voice cracked on the last word.
“But not now?” I asked. My heart ached a little at the idea and I had no idea why. It wasn’t like I wanted him to like me. Besides the fact that I definitely did not want to be with him, it was for the best if he was over his little crush. Fake relationships were a lot less complicated if there were no feelings involved at all.
