Page 14 of Fake It Till You Break It
Her name was Le. Sydney Le.
Jake laughed. “Nice. I turned on the location app on my phone, so now all we have to do is let ourselves get caught bythem on our date. Too bad we couldn’t justtellthem that we were dating or something.”
Now it was my turn to snort. “Yeah, right. Like they would believe us. At least this way it looks like we tried to keep it a secret.”
“True.” His fingers gripped the steering wheel as he turned onto the highway. It was still early enough that there were only a few cars on the street. “Just hope this works.”
“You and me both.”
We didn’t say anything else until we got to the park. Jake wanted to go to the movies or something, but I figured it would be harder for our moms to find us there. At least the park was wide open enough that they could spot us no matter which direction they came from. It was just a big open green space with benches around the four sides, and it was so much more romantic than the movies.
Although I didn’t plan on the sucky weather. I couldn’t help shivering a bit when I got out of the car. With a smirk, Jake tossed me a spare jacket from the back seat of his car. I wanted to refuse it, but the brisk wind made my pride evaporate. I stuffed my arms in and zipped it up practically to my chin.
“So where do you want to hang out for our ‘date’?” His fingers rose to make the quotations at the worddate.
Rolling my eyes, I reached out to grab his hand. Damn, why was his hand so warm in this cold weather? I fought the urgeto press it against my freezing face. “We can just sit on the benches—”
“In the rain?”
“The rain will just make everything seem more romantic.” My other hand swept my damp hair off of my face. “You know, all soft and dewy. Haven’t you ever watched any romantic movies? The kisses in the rain are the best ones.”
“Yeah, who doesn’t want to make out and drown at the same time? Pneumonia is the best.” Suddenly, he cocked his head at me and frowned. “Hold on, we didn’t say anything about having to kiss.”
Good Lord, it was like we were six, and he was afraid I had cooties again. “Jeez, that was just an example. All we need to do today is act like we don’t hate each other when our moms show up. Do you think you’ll be able to pull it off, Casanova, or should we just give up now?”
To my surprise, Jake laughed and pulled me closer until the sides of our arms were pressed together. He gave my hand a squeeze. “If that’s what it takes for me to finally get you out of my life, then I’ll manage.”
I sighed, tugging on the end of my ponytail in frustration. Just then I noticed what he was wearing. Or ratherhowhe was wearing his clothes. His T-shirt was wrinkled, and his jeans actually had holes in them. Small holes that kind of looked too neat to be natural, but still holes. “It’s too bad, too. You gotdressed up and everything. Well, actually dressed down. You know, you don’t look half-bad like this. You look like a normal teenager.”
He smirked a bit before tugging on the collar of his shirt. “Aw, you’re making me blush.”
“… and now I take it back.” I rolled my eyes. Couldn’t even compliment him without having his big head get in the way. Still, at least he was trying.
“Why don’t we just sit on this bench and enjoy each other’s company until our moms show up?”
The bench had a slight sheen from the drizzle, but luckily Jake’s jacket was so long that it pretty much covered my butt. I sat down beside Jake and swung my arms back and forth because I didn’t know what to do. I forgot that I was still holding Jake’s hand, though, so he got yanked along with me.
With his eyes closed, Jake let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my shoulders until my head was pressed against his side. He smelled like laundry detergent. The fresh-linen kind. Not the one that was heavy and smelled like men’s cologne. Just clean. His other hand slightly stroked the side of my arm, making my eyes snap to him. He didn’t seem to notice what he was doing, though, so I didn’t move away. It felt weird. Notbad. Just… weird. How could I feel his touch through all these layers?
Jake and I pretty much never ever touched each other, much less held hands. I mean, yeah, we always had to sit nextto each other, but we made sure not to get too close. Didn’t need to spur on the Jakia fan club.
Even though I was used to having Jake around, this was something completely new.
He suddenly stiffened. “Don’t look up, but I’m pretty sure our moms just pulled into the parking lot.”
I froze. “Really? They must have skipped dim sum and came straight here. What should we do? Should I scoot even closer to you?”
“Any closer and you’ll be sitting on my lap. And I don’t think that’s the impression you should be giving on a first date.” His eyebrow rose. “Or do you?”
“Shut up.” I automatically punched his chest before I realized what I was doing. Instead, I pretended to stroke it. I scrunched my face up and tried to give Jake a loving look, but to be honest, I probably looked like I was constipated or something. Especially judging by the weird look on his face.
Yeah, this wasn’t going well at all. At this rate, our moms would see right through us.
Oh, what the hell. Might as well go for it. I wrapped my hand around his other shoulder and leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. Or at least I tried. He bent his head at the same time and our lips touched. Well, barely grazed one another before I jerked away in shock and he ended up kissing my nose. Right smack on the tip where I slathered practicallya whole bottle of zit cream this morning to cover up the bump.
Oh my God, this was mortifying on so many levels. I’m pretty sure if we weren’t sitting on this bench, I would have just melted away to the ground with embarrassment.
Thankfully, I was saved from saying anything because a bright flash of lightning streaked across the sky. Loud thunder soon followed it.
