“And that’s a wrap for the week,” Mr. Smith said as the school bell rang out on Friday afternoon. I quickly packed up my math books and headed for the door before he could change his mind and hold us back for some reason. He was notorious for keeping his classes in for an extra few minutes after the bell just to prove the stupid point of ‘the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do’. After the hellish week I had just endured, all I wanted to do was go home.
I looked around for Madison as I stepped into the hallway, but in the sea of people in identical uniforms, she didn’t exactly stick out. I missed the days when her hair was bright pink instead of its natural blonde. She’d had it dyed over the summer which made it easy to find her whenever we were out in public, but it had long since faded and she refused to dye it again, claiming she didn’t want to look like Sabrina. I said that a full head of pink hair looked different than black and pink hair, but she heavily disagreed.
The hallway was quickly filling with students, so many that I couldn’t afford to just stand there and wait, so I joined the throng of moving people. She and I had a standing agreement to meet at her locker if we couldn’t find each other after class, so it didn’t really matter anyway, other than the fact that I didn’t like walking alone.
Even less so when I saw Lewis coming towards me.
We were on opposites sides of the hallway, each pressed against a set of lockers as we walked. I otherwise might not have noticed him. But I could feel his eyes burrowing holes into me as he stared; it was clear he was looking to talk to me and that was the last thing I needed right then.
The great thing about going to school in an old mansion, though, was that it was full of secret passageways. At the end of the hall, there was a giant green tapestry with our school crest and motto (a Latin phrase that I never bothered to learn the translation of). Most people didn’t give it a second glance, but four years of avoiding people as much as possible meant that I knew it to be the cover for the entrance to my favourite passageway: the one that led straight to the hallway with my locker. The entrance was a small gap in the wall that made me glad I wasn’t claustrophobic. On the other side, it came out to a custodian’s closet. When I first learned this secret passage, I always just prayed that there was nobody in the closet. Butaround the tenth grade, I met the custodian, Martin, who frequented that closet the most and explained to him that I just used to passage to get across the school without seeing anyone. He was pretty introverted himself and said I could come and go from the closet as I pleased.
I ducked around people to get there faster, then glanced around quickly to make sure nobody could see me. Lewis was stuck behind some people and I could see him looking around, trying to find a way to get by quicker so I seized the opportunity of him being distracted and ducked into the passage. By the time he realized I wasn’t there anymore, I’d be halfway across the school.
I hummed a tune under my breath and walked with a spring in my step, my ponytail swinging back and forth. I couldn’t believe how soon I would be finished with high school forever. Only one more week until the graduation trip, then another week and a half of classes, then exams, and then graduation. I was equal parts excited to be done and scared to see what would come next. At least I knew Madison and Eli were coming to my university — and both Jaxon and Lewis were going far, far away.
I was so focused on my thoughts that I didn’t hear anyone in the closet up ahead. Even if I had noticed it, I would have just assumed that it was Martin getting supplies. What I never would have expected was to walk into the closet and immediately be grabbed by the arm and pulled forward. The tug was hard and I practically flew towards the attacker. My face collided with their chest, before we both fell against opposing walls. He landed on the empty mop bucket and the wheels sent him flying across the room while I fell into the shelf of supplies. I instinctively covered my head with my arms to protect it from any falling items, but to my surprise, the only thing that landed on me were a couple of stray papers. I held the position for a little longer than I probably needed to before I hesitantly dropped my arms and looked up.The shelf was safely upright, probably bolted into the wall, and nothing was falling towards me.
And through this all, my only thought waswow, somebody quite literally pulled me into a closet. This has to be the best bisexual joke ever.
“Sorry,” the person said. “I didn’t expect you to be so light.”
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to…” My voice trailed off as I looked up and properly saw the person who had grabbed me. Sitting in the mop bucket, with roll of paper towels balanced precariously on his dark brown hair, was none other than Jaxon Andrews. He shifted his askew glasses until they were sitting properly on his face and smiled sheepishly at me. If I was being entirely honest, he actually looked pretty cute. But I wasn’t in the mood to share that little tidbit of information with him.
“You have ten seconds to explain why you grabbed me before I scream,” I said. I was being dramatic. He really had ten seconds to tell me what he wanted before I just got up and walked away — I would only scream if he grabbed me again. Maybe go through with my desire to punch him too.
He seemed to take the threat seriously, though, as he immediately blurted, “I need you to pretend to date me.”
Well… I wasn’t expecting that.
I mean who pretends to date someone? There had to be some sort of catch to this. Knowing Jaxon, some ulterior motive.
“Are you just asking me to do this so I end of falling in love with you or some bull, which will make you win your bet with Lewis?” I asked suspiciously.
“No!” he said indignantly. He paused for a beat. “Well— I guess. I mean, kind of. Not really. Like, I don’t expect you to fall in love with me but it does have to do… I mean?—”
Pressing my hands against the metal shelf I was awkwardly perched against, I pushed myself up to a standing position andsmoothed down my clothes to make myself look as presentable as possible. Jaxon cut himself off as he stared up at me.
“Why don’t I leave you for a while to decide what your intentions are and you can get back to me?”Or better yet, don’t. I spun on my heel and headed for the door.
“Wait, wait, Violet!” he called desperately. There was a cacophony of noises behind me as he tried and failed to pull himself out of the mop bucket. I paused with my hand on the doorknob, feeling a little guilty for just leaving him there. I glanced back just as he managed to get on his feet again.
“How did you even know I would be here?” I asked. He pushed his hair back with one hand in that strange way that all guys do. I normally found it attractive but when he did it, it just annoyed me for no discernible reason.
“You always come through this way after school,” he said.
I frowned. “Have you been watching me?”
“What? No!”
“Then how did you know the way I come back to my locker?”
“My locker is like right next to this door,” Jaxon said. “After seeing you come out of the custodian closet every day for three years, I finally decided to check out what was in here.”
“Oh.” It hadn’t occurred to me that anybody might notice that I came this way every day. The hallway was usually busy enough that I just blended in with the crowd and nobody ever gave me a second glance. But if his locker was really there like he said, then it wasn’t a ridiculous thought that he would notice me.
“Listen, I’m sorry about ambushing you like this,” Jaxon said. “I just needed to get you alone.”
“Naturally,” I said. “Can’t have anybody knowing that you’re begging for fake relationships.”
