Page 15 of Caught in a Bad Fauxmance
Julian ignores me, clutching his reddened pinky to his chest. “Did you have to bite me?”
“Hello, you just lunged at me in the middle of the woods, so yes I had to bite you.”
“Fine, I’m sorry.” He holds his hands up in surrender. “Stella said she saw you guys earlier, and I wanted to catch you before you went inside.”
I cross my arms, protecting my rapidly beating heart. “So you decided to scare the hell out of me?”
“I was trying to be quiet.”
“You can be quiet without being a creep,” I scoff, ignoring the way Julian glares at me. “What’re you even doing here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be reciting Latin backward, or something equally obnoxious?”
Julian rolls his eyes. “I want to talk to you, dumbass.”
“About what,dumbass?”
He takes a deep breath, calming himself before replying. “You ran away from me in the bathroom.”
“Yeah, because you cornered me in a dark, empty room. Excuse me for panicking.” I try to put an end to theconversation by walking away, but Julian grabs my arm before I can get very far. I briefly consider walking him toward the edge of the nearby dock, close enough to push him into the lake once his guard’s down. It’s a beautiful mental image, but sabotage never goes well for me, even up against the least feisty Seo-Cooke.
“I only did it because I want to talk to you,” he explains, sounding unusually earnest, but I still don’t trust it.
I let out a humorless laugh and yank my arm out of his grip. “What could you possibly want to talk to me about?” I know there aren’t many other people our age at the lake this year, but I can’t imagine Julian’s so desperate for conversation that he’d come crawling to me.
Julian stays quiet, biting his lip and shoving his hands into his pockets. I start a countdown in my head. I’ll give him to ten to spit out whatever he has to say.
I make it to five before I realize I don’t care enough to make it to ten.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Julian pleads when I start walking away again, running ahead and standing in front of me. “Can you please just hear me out for five minutes?”
He holds his arm out to block my path. I scowl, trying to get around his left side, but he beats me to it. As always, the Seo-Cookes prove that they’re the most frustrating people on the planet.
“You have one minute,” I warn, prepared to start counting out loud this time when Julian blurts out one succinct sentence.
“I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend.”
Hell has officially frozen over.
I start to laugh. Hard. So hard that I double over, clutching my stomach as tears well in the corners of my eyes. This is the funniest thing I’ve heard all year. Just the thought—me and Julian, holding hands and gazing lovingly at one another—sends me into another fit of laughter.
“Holy shit, I can’t breathe,” I choke out in between laughs, finally straightening myself out and fanning my flushed cheeks.
“It’s not a joke.”
Julian says something else, but I don’t bother listening—I’m too busy trying to catch my breath. He mutters something to himself before taking my wrist and dragging me farther into the woods.
“What are you doing?” I plant my feet as best I can in the damp grass.
“Going somewhere more private since everyone probably heard your hyena cackle.”
I stop laughing, ripping my arm out of Julian’s hold for a second time. “I don’t want to go somewhere private with you.”
“Can you please just trust me on this?” he pleads.
“You’ve never given me any reason to trust you.”
Julian holds his fist to his mouth, muffling a scream. “Fine.” He steps back, holding his arms out at his sides. “I have nothing in my hands.” He reaches into his pockets, pulling them inside out, letting his keys and wallet fall to the ground. “Nothing in my pockets.” He takes off his sneakers, tossing one to the left and the other to the right. Birds squawk as they fly off their perches, but nothing new emerges. “Stella and Henry aren’t waiting to jump you.” He slaps his hands back down to his sides. “Believe me now?”
I don’t want to believe him. If I do, it means this absurdidea might be something more than a twisted prank. I’ll probably regret giving in to my curiosity, but…
