Page 19 of Fake It Till You Break It
Holding up a finger, I opened the bottle and basically guzzled nearly half the bottle before breathing deeply. “Why didn’t you pick up your phone?! Forget it. You need to come with me. My mom—” My eyes darted over to Rose. I was pretty sure that Jake probably told her about our deal. I mean, they were best friends, but I wasn’t positive. “You just have to follow me.”
His face was all scrunched up, but he eventually got up. I wrapped a hand around his elbow and steered him toward the exit.
“Uh, do you want to let me know what’s going on or do you just want to keep acting like a crazy person?”
“My mom came to drop off some forms at the office and wanted to say hi. I didn’t want her to go into the cafeteria to look for us. Especially with everyone—Mom!” I nearly smacked into her right outside the doorway. “What are you—I thought I told you to wait for us by the office.”
Aly stood a couple of steps behind her. Both hands rose in a shrug, and she mouthed the wordsorryover and over.
“It’s fine. I parked by the cafeteria anyway. I didn’t want you guys to have to come all the way upstairs to meet me.” Mom beamed at us standing side by side. “Look at the two of you. You’re just so cute together.”
Jake pinched my left cheek. “I’m not sure about me, but I won’t deny that Mia is cute.”
Gritting my teeth to hold in the groan from his cheesiness, I plastered a dorky smile on my face and patted his shoulder. “Oh, you, stop it.”
“I’ll never stop it.” This time he squeezed both of my cheeks. His eyes sparkled with laughter. “Don’t know how I was able to resist your charms all these years.”
Gah, he was enjoying this way too much. Thankfully, Mom couldn’t see my face as I glared at him. After a minute or two, I couldn’t take it anymore and dug my heel into his foot until he grunted and let go of me.
Two could play this game. I reached up and patted hischeek. Hard enough that it could almost be a slap, but I made sure to keep a loving expression on my face the entire time. “All those video games over the years must have made you blind.”
“Maybe.” His jaw was tight, but he kept the smile up before kissing the top of my head. “So I have to stop by my locker to get something, but I’ll see you later in the cafeteria. Bye, Mrs. Le. It’s nice seeing you.”
“Bye, Jake.”
As he walked away, behind Mom’s back, he turned and pointed his index and middle fingers at himself before pointing at me with a threatening expression. I snorted. Mom turned slightly to look behind her, but I pulled her in for a tight hug. “Thanks again for stopping by, Mom. Maybe next time you can sign me out and we could go get lunch.”
“Maybe I’ll bring Mrs. Adler. It could be a group date!” She clapped her hands together with glee.
I forced a bright smile on my face. “Sounds great!”
She patted me on the head twice and tucked a stray hair behind my ear before she turned away to leave. And even then, she would turn her head back every few seconds to wave like a kid. As crazy as she was, Mom could be cute sometimes.
“That was fun. Your mom should come around more often,” Aly said with a grin when Mom was finally gone.
I groaned. “Not unless you want me to have a heart attack.”
“TWENTY-FIVE. TWENTY-SIX.”I shuffled through the scripts again, but no matter how many times I counted, there was one extra. I was sure I only punched in twenty-five copies. Maybe the machine just decided to spit out another one for fun. I picked up a pack to staple.
“Hey, Mia?”
“Yeah?” I looked over and nearly toppled out of my seat. “Ben! What are you—how—I mean, HI!” Why did I sound like such a blabbering idiot? I cleared my throat and tried again. A little deeper. Sexier. “I mean, hey… man. What’s up?”
He slid down onto the stool beside me. His chin was propped on his hand and he gazed at me. “I was just surprised to see someone else here this early.”
My hand brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, and I tried to look cool even though my stomach was in knots. “Oh. I just wanted to make sure everything was set up before rehearsal, that’s all.”
Ben let out a low whistle. “I don’t know what Daniel would do without you. Are you planning to help out next year, too? Maybe try out for a part or something?”
I snorted. “Yeah, right. Like I could ever do that.”
“Why not?” He leaned forward like he was confiding a secret. “I think you would be awesome.”
“Huh?” Were there gold flecks in his eyes or was it just my imagination? Something about Ben made me feel like the eleven-year-old me in Victoria’s Secret for the first time.Embarrassed, awkward, and unsure if I was even supposed to be here.
His beautiful brown eyes were looking at me so intently that it took me a few minutes to realize that he was done talking. “Sorry, what did you say?”
This time he did laugh, but I didn’t mind because it made his eyes almost sparkle. “I was just saying that you should try out sometime. Being onstage is amazing. And to perform in front of a live audience? Seriously, I can’t even describe how that feels.”
