Page 31 of Fake It Till You Break It
“Oh, well, that’s sweet of you. Do you want to hang out until he comes home from work? I think it’ll just be another half an hour or so. I could cook dinner for all of us.”
I was already backing toward the front door. “No, I’m good. I have to meet up with Aly. Still have tons of stuff I have to do for school tomorrow. I’ll see you soon, though!”
“But—”
As I slipped out the door and ran across the street, one thing kept floating around in my head. With or without the music, Rose owed me a heck of a good lunch for all this trouble.
JAKE
I HAD JUST FINISHEDraking the leaves in the front lawn when a navy Accord pulled up in front of Mia’s house. Ben popped out and strolled up the Les’ walkway like he owned the place.
Damn it. If Mia’s mom was home, then our cover was blown.
Dropping the rake, I raced across the street and almost plowed into Ben on the porch. My hand grabbed his wrist just before he rang the doorbell. “Hey, man, what are you doing?”
Ben jerked his hand back. “Oh, hey, Jake. I just wanted to see how Mia was. She wasn’t at rehearsal today.”
“I think she had to do something with her mom.”
“Oh, all right.” His eyes flickered down at my hand still gripping his wrist. “Uh, you think you could let me go now?”
Crap, I was still holding his hand. “Sorry.” I dropped it like a hot potato. “Anyway, Mia probably won’t be home for a while.”
“Oh. Maybe I should have called first.”
I crossed my arms as I eyed Ben. “Yeah, you should have. Especially since our moms think we’re dating. Remember?”
He smacked his forehead. “Crap. I completely forgot about that.”
“Uh-huh.” Even though he was a few inches taller than me, I straightened up so I wouldn’t have to look up at him. “But I’ll let her know that you stopped by.”
“That’s okay. I can just text her later.”
“Right, because you have her number.”’Course he could tell her himself. He didn’t need me. I was an idiot. “I need to get back to my chores. Before it gets too dark.”
Getting my hint, he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked backward toward his car. I half hoped he’d trip on a rock or something. “Oh, yeah, thanks for letting me know about Mia. And it’s nice seeing you again. Uh, maybe we should all hang out sometime.”
Thankfully, neither one of us seemed excited with that idea.
“Yeah, yeah, sure. Sometime.” I didn’t leave the Les’ yard until his car pulled away from the curb and drove down the street. “Hopefully not anytime soon, though.”
AFTER MY SHOWER, Irubbed the edge of the towel against my head and peered out the window at the Les’ house. Mia’s room was still dark. It had been dark all day actually.
Not that I looked over that often. I wasn’t a stalker or something. Just observant.
Where was she, though? Maybe Ben ended up calling her, and she snuck out to see him. Not that I cared. I just worried about her getting into trouble with her mom. Both of our moms.
Or maybe—
Just then, a bright meteor shot across the sky, and an idea lit up in my head. A quick search online later and I grinned. Ah, I knew exactly where Mia was right now.
Grabbing a couple of orange cream Popsicles from the freezer, I snuck out the side door so Mom wouldn’t notice and hurried over to the Les’ house. The backyard gate was locked, but I just slipped through a loose board on the left side. Mrs. Le swore to fix it every year; she never did.
There in the corner of the backyard, I could see the outline of Mia’s body perched on top of the tiny house’s deck. She leaned back on her forearms while she stared up at the sky, searching for a meteor. Right where I knew she would be.
Seeing a meteor was number six on her bucket list. Right after attending Hogwarts for real and before zip-lining through the Amazon forest. Let’s just say she hasn’t been able to cross off much yet.
I coughed until Mia noticed me. It took a little while. “See anything good yet?”
