Page 56 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
Jaxon shrugged. “Yeah, but now if I swim too, it’ll be like I’m training for a triathlon.”
I laughed. “You’re an idiot.”
“But I’m your idiot,” Jaxon said in a false sweet voice. He threw his leg over his bike. “Hop on.”
“What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I was surprised he was even riding the bike over. Eli lived so close that it wouldn’t be work at all to just walk the bike there.
“Sit on the rack,” he said. There was a small rack over the back wheel that was designed to carry stuff. I’d seen him attach a milk crate to it and carry stuff around like that, but never a person. “You’ll fit.”
“There is no way I am riding on the back of your bike when I could just walk over,” I said.
“Come on!” he said. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Apparently it draws the line at riding your bike,” I said drily.
“It will be fun.”
“It absolutely won’t be.”
“You can’t know until you try.”
“I can and I do.”
“People in the Netherlands do this all the time.”
Jaxon and Sabrina had cousins in the Netherlands and visited them quite frequently, so I had no reason to doubt his words, but it also didn’t make me any more inclined to do this.
“Good for them,” I said. He looked at me in a way that I think was him attempting to pout with puppy dog eyes, but just looked weird.
“Please, Violet?” he asked.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You know, in the time we’ve been arguing, we could have walked over already.”
“You know what we could have done even faster?” he asked. He looked at me like he was about to change my world. “Bike there.”
I rolled my eyes but laughed a little. I hated that he could make me laugh so easily.
“Fine,” I said. “But if I fall and hurt myself then you have to help me. And admit I was right.”
“Would be glad to do it,” he said.
I awkwardly got on to the back of the bike, the movement feeling strange and unnatural. The rack was not comfortable whatsoever, but I couldn’t complain, given that it was such a short trip.
“Wrap your arms around me,” he said. “It will help with your balance. Then take your feet off the ground.”
I grimaced as I did what he said. A second later, he started pedalling. The ride was smoother than I expected but still not particularly comfortable.
“I hate this.”
“It’ll be quick, I promise.”
“It was also completely unnecessary,” I said.
“Yeah, well.” I guess he didn’t have a good comeback for that because he just left the sentence hanging there. He turned onto Eli’s driveway and stopped just in front of his garage door. As soon as I felt it was safe to do so, I jumped up.
“See that wasn’t so bad,” Jaxon said. I just glared at him and then headed inside. He followed behind me, laughing. The sound of it made my, admittedly limited, annoyance go away. I’d give in to almost anything he wanted just to hear that genuine laugh.
nineteen
