Page 62 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
“Oh,” I said. My grip around it tightened and I glanced around to make sure nobody could hear us. “But you don’t need to give it to me, right? I mean, I’ll just end up giving it back to you in a few days.”
I felt like I was stealing all his track clothes — first his sweater, then his windbreaker, and now the jersey. Did he justnot like having these clothes around when he wasn’t competing or something?
“Most of the sports girlfriends wear the jerseys on the last day of school so I wasn’t sure if you’d want to,” he said.
Now that he mentioned it, I had noticed that they did that. The last day was one of our few non-uniform days, so I never understood why they wasted it by wearing jerseys. I guess that made sense, though.
“Oh,” I said. “Okay.”
Jaxon nodded once, then spun on his heel and walked away. I looked at the jersey in my hand for a second, number 15, then stuffed it in my backpack before leaving as well. I’d told Madison I’d meet her by her car since I was running late, so I really had to get going.
Jaxon’s actions seemed strange to me, though. First, he said he thought we shouldn’t continue this after prom and then he gave me his jersey to wear on the last day of school? That was weird. I wondered whether he was just as confused about where we were going with this now as I was.
twenty-three
“He gave you his jersey?”Madison shouted. I plugged my ears, very happy that my dad wasn’t home to wonder what on earth we were doing.
“It’s not a big deal,” I said calmly. She climbed over the back of her chair and jumped on the bed
“It is a big deal,” she said. “This proves that he’s thinking about you!”
“Of course he’s thinking about me,” I said. “He has to worry about making sure nobody else finds out what we did.”
Madison rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“He only gave it to me because all the track guys give their jerseys to their girlfriends.”
“So, he considers you his girlfriend!” she said, pointing a finger at me.
“No, he realizes that everyone else considers me his girlfriend,” I said. “I don’t know why he gave me the jersey anyway, honestly… I thought he wanted to end this after prom.”
“Something gives me the idea that he doesn’t really want to end it,” Madison said.
“What do you mean?”
She raised one shoulder in a mimic of a shrug. “Maybe he was just saying it in the hopes you would argue against it.”
I shook my head. “No, definitely not… He didn’t even give me the chance.”
“Then, I don’t know,” Madison sighed. “But the fact that he gave you the jersey means that he’s thinking about it, right?”
“I guess so…”
Her eyes drifted across the room to the box Jaxon had given me. It was sitting in the corner of my room, behind where my door opened, since I had nowhere better to put it. The fancy wrapping, with fancily tied bow, stood out against the rest of my room. She got up from her spot on my bed and went over to the box, circling it.
“What is this?” she asked.
“Just something Jaxon gave me,” I said dismissively. I’d forgotten to mention it to her the other day, what with everything else going on. “And let me tell you, it was a pain to get on the bus.”
“But what’s in it?” Madison asked.
“Dunno,” I said with a shrug. “I haven’t opened it yet.”
Madison looked up sharply. “What? Your fake boyfriend gave you this totally gorgeous gift and you haven’t even opened it?”
“How do you know it’s gorgeous?” I asked.
“With wrapping as great as this?” she said. “It has to be something nice. Something expensive maybe…” She tried to look at me with alluring eyes but she really just looked like her dog when somebody was holding a treat. When I didn’t react, she stomped her foot. “Oh, come on, Violet! We have to open it.”
