Page 68 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy
My gaze drifted to the deep end, where Jaxon was busy tackling Sabrina into the pool while Eli watched and laughed. I smiled to myself, a warm feeling spreading through my chest. I couldn’t believe it took me this long to see how great of a guy Jaxon was.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “It really is.”
Madison tilted her head against mine.
“I’m glad.”
We stayed like that for a moment before I pulled away and poked her in the side.
“So, when are you getting in a relationship?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Gosh, you sound like my mother.”
“Think about it, Madison,” I said in a sickly sweet voice. “We can go ontriple dates!Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
“Going out with Sabrina and Jaxon at the same time?” Madison asked sarcastically. She put up a double thumbs up. “Boy, does that sound like fun!”
I laughed. That was a fair response.
“Come on,” I said. I ran my hands through my hair and twisted it up into a bun. It would fall out within two minutes since I didn’t have a hair elastic, but I ended to do it anyway outof habit. “I know you always have a crush on someone. Who is it right now?”
Madison didn’t answer me but her eyes told a different story, as they settled on a dark-haired boy next door, who was doing push-ups on the grass. His shirt was off, showing off his toned muscles, and he was glistening in sweat under the summer sun. Not exactly my type, but definitely Madison’s. He looked a little familiar, like maybe he was a couple years above in school, but I didn’t recognize him specifically.
“You know him?” I asked. Madison nodded without taking her eyes off him. “Who is he?”
Madison didn’t live over here so she wouldn’t know him from being neighbours or anything like that. I wasn’t sure where else she would know him from without me knowing him too.
“He’s my brother’s best friend.”
I gasped. “Madison, you can’t!”
Madison just shrugged with a mischievous grin. She dipped underwater and swam off, leaving me alone to watch the mystery boy. She wouldn’t really do it, would she? Her brother would kill her.
“Violet!” Jaxon called. I shook myself out of the weird trance I was stuck in and looked at him. He waved me over. “Come on! I’ll teach you how to do a flip!”
I jumped out of the pool and walked over to meet him. As soon as I was in arm’s reach, he pulled me in tight and tipped us toward the edge.
“Jaxon!” I yelled. That was all I got out before we crashed into the deep water. Bubbles rose around us as we sank, obscuring all my vision of Jaxon, but he never let go of my hand. Soon, he was pulling me up to the top and I took a deep breath as my head broke above the surface of the water. With the hand that wasn’t still gripped in his, I splashed water in his face.
“Hey!” he yelled.
“That’s what you get for pushing me in!” I yelled back, but I was laughing too.
“Hey, at least I came in with you,” he said. He pecked me on the lips. I would have liked to deepen the kiss but I didn’t think there was any way for us to do that while treading water. They made it look so easy in movies but our legs were already crashing into each other too much for my liking. “What were you and Madison talking about over there?”
“Oh, just some boy she liked,” I said.
“Yeah?” he asked. “You think she’s going to have some epic summer romance?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. I grinned at him. “But we will, right?”
He smiled and kissed me again. “I can’t wait.”
I swam over to the wall of the pool and pulled myself onto the edge. He swam over as well but stayed in the water. I studied him for a second, then asked the question that had been plaguing me since the grad trip. “Hey. Why don’t you ever use pick-up lines on me anymore?”
“I thought you hated those,” he said with a small grin.
“I do,” I said. “I mean, I used to. I guess. But I miss them.”
