Page 15 of The Stand-In Boyfriend

“Noah, I’m so happy to have caught you! I wanted to talk to you about something.” Lisa Gatwitch, the new head cheerleader now that Diamond Morgan has graduated, loops her arm through mine, forcing me to slow my steps to match hers.

Inwardly, I groan. I’m so not in the mood to deal with this now, but it’s not like I can shoo her away like I’d want to.

“What is it, Lisa?” I ask with as much patience as I can muster. “I’m hungry so I want to get to the cafeteria before all the good food is gone.”

Lisa smiles, her perfectly straight white teeth blinding me. “This won’t take long, I promise.”

Yeah, I can already see that.

I should have seen that one coming, but my mind was all over the place. Thinking more about a certain brunette than what was happening around me.

“So, what’s up?” I ask, trying to move this conversation along as fast as possible.

Her smile widens, if that’s even possible, and is she batting her eyelashes or did something fall into her eyes? I’m not sure, but her lashes are fluttering extra hard, so it could be either one of those.

“The first football game is next week and I was thinking…”

I tune her out. As the head cheerleader, she, along with her coach, is in charge of organizing dance routines and whatnot. Sometimes they like to include the team as well, usually for big games like the first game of the season, the homecoming game, and such. They always make a point to reach out to me. I learned early on to just nod and agree with whatever they say because that’s the way the coach would want it. I, for my part, don’t care one bit what kind of routine the girls will do. I’m there to play the game, not mess around.

“What do you think?” Lisa finally asks. I look down at her, and sure enough, her lashes are still batting.

I try to tug my arm out of hers, but she’s holding onto it like a little monkey.

“It all sounds good. I’m sure it’ll be amazing.”

“You’ll ask the guys to go over it with us on Wednesday evening?”

I want to roll my eyes but somehow manage to hold it in. What does she think? That we’re unable to run onto the field without a bunch of girls waving their pom-poms? Seriously, give me a break.

“Sure, Lisa.”

Just then I can see the door to the cafeteria.

An escape.

“If that’s all…”

“Well, not exactly.” Completely oblivious to my exasperation, she continues talking as we enter the already packed cafeteria.Fucking Lisa.I knew I should have hurried up. “Now that Andrew Hill graduated, we need to find a new place to party. Mia talked to Chad about it the other day, and he said his family is cool if we want to use his place. His family owns a barn of some kind that’s separated from their main house so there wouldn’t be anybody around. We could make a bonfire, blast some music, chill…”

Her fingers slide over my forearm, long nails grazing my skin. Icy chills run up my arm, making me shiver. There is nothing pleasant about it.

“That’s amazing, Lisa. I’m sure the team will want to come.” I tug once more, trying to get out of her grasp. I’m so done with this conversation. But she still isn’t letting go. Seriously, how much strength can such a tiny thing have? This isn’t normal.

“And I was thinking,” she blabs on, “that we should go together. You know, as the team captain and quarterback, and me as the head cheerleader, we should present a united front…”

No way in hell, is my knee jerk reaction, but I don’t get to say anything because an overly sweet voice stops her. A hand lands over hers that’s on my arm, and shoves it away effectively, but is soon replaced by a new one.

“That’s so sweet of you, but Noah won’t be able to take you,” Jessica says, her hand sliding down my forearm until our fingers interlock.

The overly exaggerated batting of eyelashes is finally done. Instead, Lisa’s sharp eyes turn to Jessy. “And why would that be, Jessy?”

“Because he’ll be taking me. Hisgirlfriend.”

Chapter Seven

JESSICA

“Jessy, over here!” Evie waves as soon as I enter the door. The students are already mingling around the classroom, chatting while we wait for the bell to ring. Chemistry is the only class Evie and I have together this year.

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