Page 20 of Scarlett and the Kiss Thief

Chapter 6 – Grounded

Thursday

Yesterday Axel had given me his varsity jacket. He’d told me I looked better in it than he did. That should have meant something. But he’d also told me he liked my old glasses more than my new contacts. And I had no idea what to do with that combination of information.

I took a step toward Axel’s jacket and then a step back. I crossed my arms and stared at it on the end of my bed. Was wearing it to school today a good idea or a bad idea?

Sophie would know what to do. I grabbed my phone, shot a picture of it, and texted her an SOS message. “To wear or not to wear?”

She responded right away: “Wear it. You’re still in the incest phase of Operation Too Hot to Handle. So while you’re wearing Axel’s jacket, keep flirting with Jacob. Total power play.”

I bit the inside of my lip. That kind of was a boss move. But really, why were we sticking with the name Phase Incest? It was terrible and made zero sense. I wasn’t even related to Jacob. I much preferred good old-fashioned Phase Three of the plan.

Flirting with Jacob was a little easier than I’d thought it would be though. I lifted up one of the framed pictures on my nightstand. It was of me, Sophie, Jacob, and Axel a couple summers ago. We were at my parents’ beach house sitting on the edge of the pool.

The four of us had grown up together. We were all practically cousins even though only Sophie and I were related. But it was very important to note that I wasnotrelated to either of the guys. Not even a little bit. Hence no incest. I’d always thought of Jacob as just a friend. Always. Because for as long as I could remember, I’d been in love with Axel.

But now? I stared at the picture of the four of us. It didn’t quite fit in the frame because there had been some blonde girl next to Axel that I’d cut out of the picture. I wasn’t focused on that now though. I was focused on the fact that Jacob’s arm was around my shoulders. He was making a funny face down at me and I was laughing so hard I could almost remember the feeling of my cheeks hurting. He’d been trying to cheer me up because I’d been glum all day, thanks to Axel’s blonde that I’d cut out of the image.

Jacob was always there for me. He was funny, and kind, and smart, and actually cared if I was in a good mood. Clearly Axel didn’t care what kind of mood I was in. He’d been slowly torturing me for years with all the girls he dated. And when I stared at the picture now, my eyes gravitated to Jacob. I didn’t have just friendly thoughts anymore. I thought about the way that he’d stared at me as I’d licked the side of an ice cream cone.

My phone buzzed.

I looked down at another text from Sophie: “And if you’re wearing glasses when I see you, I’ll disown you.”

I laughed. I wasn’t going to wear my glasses again just because Axel suddenly decided he liked them. He didn’t control me. And I’d worked so hard to convince my dad to let me get contacts. I texted her back. “Axel can bite me.”

“Atta girl. I bet he will want to bite you when you show up in his jacket.”

I rolled my eyes.Unlikely.I shrugged on Axel’s varsity jacket before I had a chance to change my mind. His expensive cologne made me sigh. It would be a lot easier to not drool over him if he didn’t smell so damned good. I walked over to my window overlooking New York City. I took a deep breath and raised my head a little. Sure, yesterday hadn’t gone exactly as planned. But today was going to be better. This was still my year.

I walked out of my room and over to Liam’s. I knocked before opening the door. “Almost ready for day two of hell?”

He laughed as he sat up in bed.

Why was he still in bed? We needed to leave in ten minutes. He knew how much I hated being late for things. “And hurry, please,” I said. “I can’t be late.” The only good thing about yesterday was that Mr. Hill didn’t yell at me once. He would if I was late though.

“We’re not going to be late, Scar. Dad’s never late for anything. And now that he’s our teacher…”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Hence the day two of hell? You’ve always acted like high school is terrible, but it’s actually kind of fun,” he said with a smile.

Were we even going to the same school? It was not fun. It was a chess game of social standing. But unlike chess, I was bad at this game. “Easy for you to say. You haven’t been waiting all night to find out if you’re grounded.” So what if I rolled my skirt at school? Everyone did. But not everyone had a controlling father who took a job at said school just to keep an eye on them.

Liam stood up and stretched.

God, he was going to make me late. “You have eight minutes,” I said. I hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen.

When my mom saw me, she slid a waffle across the kitchen counter at me. “You’re wearing Axel’s jacket again today, I see.”

“Mhm.” I could tell she’d been dying to ask me about it when she saw me come home from school yesterday. She was probably hoping I’d just tell her what happened. But…I didn’t exactly know what had happened so what was there to say?

She put her chin in her hand as she stared at me. “So…does that mean you and Axel are back together?”

Back togetherwas a very generous way to put it. “We dated in pre-school. It hardly counts.” Saying it out loud hurt my heart a little. And I knew my mom could tell.

She raised her eyebrows at me. “You two have been glued at the hip your whole lives.”

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