Page 6 of The Midseason Fakeout

I wish. My parents were taken aback when I told them I was dating Aidan. They love him, they do, but they think I should marry a CEO or something, not an NFL prospect. I was ashamed to overhear my dad tell my mom to let my “little flirtation” run its course. That I’ll be pleading to go to Carnegie in no time.

Telling Aidan that part would only stir the pot, so I keep it to myself. “It was,” I lie. “They were happy for us. Plus, you were Darrin’s only reason, too.”

“Except there’s not anus,” Aidan interjects. “And, someday, we’re going to have to break up.”

“Ouch.” Why did that hurt so much? Oh, I know. Because I’ve been harboring a crush on my brother’s best friend for a while.

Aidan sits next to me, knocking his knee against mine, teasing. “That’s kind of inevitable when your relationship is fake.”

A jolt of sorrow pings through me, but then my heart jumps. Peering at him hopefully, I ask, “Does that mean you’ll do it?”

He slides back onto his bed, leaning against the wall. “Why not? What do we have to do? Take a couple pictures every once in a while to send to your parents? Easy. I can pretend.”

Not realizing he’s kicked me where it hurts, he keeps going on and on about how easy it will be to fake this. I flick his leg. “Did you not hear the part about Darrin transferring here? We can’t just take a few photos. It has to be real.”

His eyes bug out of his head. “So, he is transferring here? When?” The pure excitement on his face makes me smile…and only leaves me with a small hole realizing I’m not that person for someone.

“Like, this next semester. Along with me… I hope.” Raising my brows, I watch while he takes everything in.

“So…”

“This is going to be full-on pretending. Darrin will know if it’s a lie, and he has the biggest mouth. He’ll tell my parents for sure.”

“Well, that changes things.”

My heart sinks. “It does?”

“I mean, what are we talking about doing here, Bails? How far are we going to take this?”

My heart starts to take off again. The fact that he’s even considering it means I still have a chance. If Aidan doesn’t bite, I’m going to have to go back home with my tail between my legs, and that would crush me. I already love it here. I saw drunk people and a dorm room.

I swallow. “Well, what would you do with an actual girlfriend? We can do that.”

He runs his hand down his face, staring at me for a few long moments. Outside, tires squeal in the parking lot, and he peers out the window briefly before saying, “Okay, let’s do it.”

I gasp and attempt to hug him, but he puts up a finger, stopping me with my hands straddling his thighs. I’m bent over him, frozen, acutely aware of how close we are and what this position looks like. His next words throw me back into reality, though.

“I want to let you know my intentions aren’t unselfish.”

Sitting back on my calves, I steel myself for another pang of hurt. “Okay…”

He takes a deep breath, his face morphing from relaxed to miserable. “I fucked up. I don’t know if you guys saw that I didn’t play in tonight’s game?”

I nod. Darrin and I were there, actually. We were going to surprise him at the stadium, but he was up and out of there so quickly, and we didn’t know where he went afterward. We’d been waiting for him outside his dorm complex ever since.

He brushes against his pants absentmindedly. “I let QB1 go to my head. There was too much partying. Too many girls.”

Too many girls?Jealousy rages inside. That sounds like he was with a lot, yet he was second-guessing even wanting tofakedate me.

Talk about a sucker punch to the old confidence.

“If you’re my ‘girlfriend’,” he says, using air quotes, “then they won’t be around me all the time.”

“Who’sthey?” I ask, confused.

“Mainly jersey chasers, but there’s a whole slew of girls here. It’s crazy.”

“So, I’ll be, like, your girl repellent?”

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