Page 36 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
“Oh,” I said. “Right.”
He was right. That should have been obvious.
“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Jaxon asked.
“Yeah,” I said. It was only fair given how much I’d asked him today.
“What happened between you and Lewis?” he asked. “Like, why do you suddenly hate him now?”
I was a little surprised by the question, but I supposed I had no real reason to be. My first instinct was to just say the samething I’d been telling everyone: Lewis and I had a bad fight and I couldn’t forgive him for the things he said, but I faltered. It was technically true, but it left a lot of detail out. Jaxon had shared a lot with me today and it was only fair that I reciprocated. Besides, it would be nice to finally confide in somebody.
“I…” I couldn’t stand looking at him while I told him this story. His eyes looked oddly kind, much kinder than they ever had before. It was unnatural. I rolled on my back again and stared at the ceiling. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time,” Jaxon said easily. “And I always love a good bedtime story.”
“I’m afraid this isn’t one of those stories,” I said. “It doesn’t exactly have a happy ending.”
“Good thing I like tragedies.”
I huffed a laugh. “Well, this sure is one of those.” I licked my lips as I thought about where to begin. “It all started a couple weeks ago when Lewis and I got into a fight.”
“The one that made you skip class that fateful day?” Jaxon asked. He smiled goofily at me, probably remembering the kiss from the common room.
I shook my head. “This was earlier than that. He got mad at me about something… something so stupid that I can’t even remember what it was. I thought we just needed some space from each other and it would all blow over, but instead, the next time I tried to talk to him, he was even angrier.”
“And that was the day of the big fight?” Jaxon asked.
“Indeed it was.” I swallowed thickly, a lump in my throat. It was hard to get these words out after bottling them up for the past two weeks. “He ended up screaming at me that… he said that my mom was right.”
I paused, needing a minute before I said his words aloud. It hurt to remember him saying it, but it hurt even more to remember my mom screaming it. She might have apologizedand I might havesaidthat I forgave her, but it didn’t undo the damage. Besides, she up and left my life a year later, so it wasn’t like she’d really taken the words back.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Jaxon whispered. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
I shook my head. A pressure was building up behind my eyes as I tried to keep the tears at bay.
“No,” I said. I hated how obvious it was in my voice that I was trying not to cry. “He said that my mom was right when she said that I was unloveable and that everyone would be happier if I didn’t exist.”
There was pure silence for a couple of beats. For a second, I was worried that Jaxon had fallen asleep or something. But then he broke it in a more dangerous than I had ever heard from — all he said was, “I’ll kill him.”
I shook my head forcefully. I couldn’t bring myself to talk. That wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to send Jaxon on some mission to get revenge against Lewis for me.
“Why the hell did you stop me from fighting him today?” Jaxon asked. “He deserved it. More than deserved it.”
“Don’t say that, Jaxon,” I said hoarsely.
“I mean it.”
“Lewis isn’t worth it,” I said. “Besides… he was only repeating what my mom already believed.”
Jaxon fell silent again. Then he exhaled loudly and reached over to grab my right shoulder. I wasn’t sure what he was doing until he pulled me towards him, making me lie on my side again, facing him.
“Yes?” I whispered for a lack of something better to say. He tightened his grip on my shoulder so much that it hurt a little, but I didn’t say anything.
“I need to you to listen to me,” he said intensely. He stared me dead in the eyes. “Are you listening to me?”
I had no idea where this was going but I said, “Of course.”
“You,” he shook my shoulder slightly, “are in no way unloveable, Violet Evers.”
