Page 54 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
A pit settled in the bottom of my stomach as I imagined Jaxon going to California for four years.
“And then you considered Ottawa?” I asked.
He nodded. “They also had some good scholarships. But I didn’t know anybody else going out there and I know that university is a good time to meet new people but I wanted to at least know somebody.”
“So you went to Queen’s?” I said.
“Yeah. My parents weren’t too happy about it but Sabrina’s parents helped convince them. Said it would be good for us to go to school together so we could rely on each other, and all that.”
Sometimes, I was in awe of how close Sabrina and Jaxon had remained over the years. While I loved my sister dearly, she and I had never been very close and now that she didn’t live at home, we spoke pretty infrequently. I wished I could have had as good of a relationship with her as Sabrina and Jaxon had with each other.
“Did you feel that?” Jaxon asked.
“Feel what?”
He looked up. “I think it was a rain drop.”
I frowned. I hadn’t felt anything, but when I looked at the ground, it did look like it was getting wet.
“I think it’s just sprinkling right now,” I said. “Why don’t we finish the lap and then head home?”
No sooner were the words out of my mouth than the heavens opened up and doused buckets of water down.
“Crap!” I yelled. I threw my arms over my head, not that it made any difference with the amount of rain coming down. Jaxon and I started cutting across the field to get out of there quicker, though we couldn’t go very fast because it was quickly turning into a mudslide.
“Here!” Jaxon said. He ripped his windbreaker off his waist and handed it to me. It didn’t look very waterproof but anything was better than nothing, so I threw it on. With my arms free and us off the slippery field, I could run a little faster, so Jaxon picked up the pace as well. We made it back to my house in record time, me huffing and puffing like I didn’t know how to breathe and Jaxon completely fine.
“Hey, Violet!” Dad called from the kitchen. He stepped out into the hallway a second later and froze in the spot as he took us both in.
“We… went… for a… run,” I explained between gasping breaths. I pointed out the window, unable to get many more words out. “But… rain.”
“We got caught in the rain and had to sprint back,” Jaxon translated.
“I can see that,” Dad said, looking like he was holding back a laugh. I collapsed forward, letting my hands rest on my knees. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the best position to catch my breath but I didn’t have the energy to keep standing. “Come in. I madepancakes and I can make a hot drink to go with it so you can warm up.”
It took another minute before I could breathe properly again, then another thirty seconds before I could stand upright. Man, I really needed to start working out again, especially if Jaxon was going to keep asking me to run with him. I sounded like a dying walrus every time.
“Could I have a hot chocolate?” I asked. “And Jaxon will have a coffee. No cream or sugar.”
“You got it,” Dad said, waving a spatula at us. He went back into the kitchen.
“You can have pancakes, right?” I asked Jaxon. With only a little mocking in my tone, I added, “They’re not against your athlete diet?”
Jaxon grinned and wrapped his arm around my waist before pulling me close. As per usual, I couldn’t stop the little giggle that came out as he did so, especially when he then kissed my cheek.
“I can make an exception just this once,” he said. “Since they smell so good.”
I took off the windbreaker he leant me.
“Here,” I said. “I’m just going to run upstairs and change into something dry.”
He pushed it back towards me. “No,” he said. “You keep it.”
“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t you need it?”
“No,” he said. “And besides, it looks better on you.”
Butterflies erupted in my stomach. Even though I knew he didn’t really mean it, he was probably just saying it because my dad was close by and he wanted to prove that the relationship was real, I still loved to hear it.
