Page 28 of Taking Care of You
I nod. I put my hands between my legs nervously, thinking he’ll ask something about my mom or my home life. I’m not ready to tell him everything just yet.
Taking a deep breath, he turns his body fully to me and says the strangest thing I've ever heard. “Will you go on a date with me?”
Huh?
“A date?” I squeak out. What is he playing at? No one knows we’re fake dating, so he doesn’t have to go out with me.
He shrugs and looks down, as if shy. “Yeah, a date. I figure that’s another thing you haven’t done yet. We can get some food and, I don’t know, hang out and talk.”
Ethan is blurring the lines bad. A date? My head understands what he’s trying to do, but my stupid traitorous heart is jumping for joy, leaping at the thought that I could possibly be going on a date with my crush of many years.
Clearing my throat and looking at my hands in my lap, I murmur, “We can go as friends. No one is going to see us out anywhere, so we don’t have to pretend.”
For a few seconds, he doesn’t say anything. I peek up at him and see that he’s giving me a weird look like he’s…sad? No, can’t be.
It doesn’t take him long to school his expression, and now he’s giving me that bright smile that I love so much. “Of course, creep. Friends. Is now cool? Unless you’d rather go home?”
“Now is fine. Where to?”
“Uh uh uh,” he tsks at me. “I’m not going to reveal my secrets. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Let your ‘boyfriend’ take care of you,” he says with a wink, air quoting the word. Even when he says it as a joke, my heart flutters.
I’m in way over my head.
10
The next morning, I wake up with a groan. Tonight is the homecoming game. I already promised both Crystal and Ethan I’d be there, and unfortunately, I’d feel bad if I pulled out this late.
Ethan knocks on the door of what I now consider my bedroom, making sure I’m awake. I shout that I am, then gather my clothes so I can get ready for school.
When Ethan sees me coming out of the bathroom after my shower, he pulls me to his room. I follow him like a lost puppy. He goes over to his bed, grabs his jersey and tosses it to me. I look at it, then at him.
“You want me to wear this?” I ask him, taken aback.
“Yep. It’s Spirit Day. And it’ll make the boyfriend story more believable.”
“Am I allowed to?” I know I am. It’s a thing, apparently. I’ve seen plenty of girls wear their boyfriends’ jerseys before.
“Yeah. I paid for it. It’s my backup, I have another that I’m wearing tonight. Wear it to the game too, yeah?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Smiling, he watches me pull the jersey over my head. He walks over and straightens it out, stepping back to give me the once-over. I roll my eyes at his assessment and he chuckles.
Taking my hand, he leads me out to the car. I wonder if he thinks he has to hold my hand all the time with the whole ‘fake dating’ thing. Whatever. I’m going to roll with it because I like how it feels.
Getting out of the car at school is weird. You’d think people never saw someone other than a player wearing a jersey. I don’t think people really believed we were dating. I mean, we aren’t, but still. If nothing else sold it, this is pretty much a glaring message that he’s my boyfriend.
My face is warm as we walk inside, Ethan’s hand in mine. I see a few people’s eyes drop to our hands, and it takes everything in me not to pull away so I don’t embarrass him.
Ethan doesn’t seem to care about the stares or the whispers. People wave and say hi to him, and he returns their greetings and smiles. Some of the people include me as well.
I see Elle and Crystal walking over to me from different directions, so I tug Ethan’s hand so we can stop and speak to them.
Elle comes over and places her hand on her forehead as if she’s about to faint. “I can’t stand the cuteness.”
She does this little twirl thing and falls back, Crystal catching her effortlessly. Crys fans Elle and says, “Well, I declare, I think you've caught the vapors,” in a high southern accent.
“Did you two plan that?” I ask as Ethan laughs beside me.
