by Amanda Abram
He shook his head as he opened up the fridge. “You should let her cool off for a while. You know how she is when she gets in these bad moods. Besides, she's probably up there right now writing in her diary about how horrible Eric and I are, and about how college boys are so cute. Trust me, you're better off down here with me.”
Apparently, Jase knew his sister pretty well. I had no doubt in my mind she was doing exactly what he had just described. With a sigh of defeat, I leaned up against the counter and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Are you sure you don't want something to eat?” he asked, pointing to the refrigerator. “I just saw a lemon meringue pie in there that looks pretty good.”
It was eerie, but somehow, that boy seemed to know all of my weaknesses, such as pie. Namely, lemon meringue pie. If I was being banished to a deserted island for the rest of my life, and I was only allowed to bring three items with me, a lemon meringue pie would be one of them. I have no idea what the other two items would be, but one of them would probably end up being just another lemon meringue pie.
“Oh, okay. Fine. Give me pie.” I tried to act like I didn't care whether I had pie or not, but judging from the grin on his face, he knew the truth.
He took the pie out of the fridge and cut two slices, one for me and one for him. I couldn't help but notice the one he gave me was just slightly bigger.
“You know,” he said as he was putting the rest of it away, “if I was going to be banished to a deserted island for the rest of my life and I could only bring three items with me, a lemon meringue pie would be one of them.”
I practically choked on the small bite of heaven I had just taken moments before he spoke. Was he a mind reader or something? “Oh my God. That's what I would choose too!”
Jase smiled as we both sat down at the kitchen table. “I know. I remember you told me that when we were little.”
So he couldn't read minds after all. I sighed with relief. Still, I was amazed he would remember something like that from nearly seven or eight years ago.
“I remember thinking at the time what a stupid choice that would be,” he continued. “But in retrospect, I'd say that was a bit hypocritical of me. After all, one of my choices was Legos, so who am I to judge?”
I giggled. Now that he was mentioning it, I could remember that day he and I and Trish sat around in their treehouse making lists such as that one. It wasn't a particularly memorable day, so I couldn't help but think it was slightly odd that Jase of all people remembered it.
“Weren't Trish's choices her Barbie Dream Home, her Barbie Convertible and her Barbie doll?” I asked, taking another bite of the pie.
Jase laughed as he gave me a nod. “Yeah, I believe so. Man, none of us would have survived for very long on that island.”
“No, we wouldn't have,” I agreed. I realized then that I had the biggest grin on my face, and no matter how hard I tried to wipe it off, it remained exactly where it was. Looking back on fond childhood memories always did that to me.
“You have a pretty smile.”
Receiving out-of-the-blue compliments, however, had the opposite effect, and my smile instantly faded. “Yeah, right.”
“You do. You know how some people smile just for the sake of smiling and you can always tell that it's not quite sincere? When you smile, your whole face lights up. I can tell it's genuine. And it's pretty.”
I could feel myself beginning to blush, which was probably what he wanted. So I quickly said, “Thanks,” before forking the rest of the pie into my mouth in attempt to hide my embarrassment.
“That made you uncomfortable,” he observed with a slightly amused expression on his face.
It took me a minute to finish swallowing before I could say, “I'm not used to getting compliments so, yeah, it kinda did.”
Jase shook his head in what looked to be disappointment. “You should have been given compliments like that every day from your boyfriend.”
Groaning inwardly, I stood up to bring my empty plate to the sink. “Yes, Jase, I know Jeffrey was a lousy boyfriend. We've already discussed that topic at great length. Can we talk about something else?”
He was silent for a moment, as though trying to think of what else we could possibly talk about, other than my epic fail of a relationship. “Okay. How about we talk about our kiss earlier?”
My breath hitched in my throat at his words. “What about it?” I asked cautiously. He was going to tell me how awful it was, wasn't he? He was going to tell me my kissing skills needed to be honed, and then he'd proceed to list off all the things I had done wrong. I grabbed onto the kitchen sink and held my breath, bracing myself for whatever answer he was about to give.
“I'm not sure if Kylie actually saw it or not,” he said finally, and I let out a whoosh of air. Maybe my kissing skills weren't so bad after all?
“Oh. Hmm. Well I hope she did.” I made my way back to the table. “Otherwise, it was all for nothing.”
Jase gave me a devious grin. “Oh, I wouldn't say that, Hot Lips. I'd say we both enjoyed it regardless, am I right?”
I cringed at his nickname for me. “Speak for yourself. I was just counting the seconds until it was over.”
He, of course, did not believe any part of that. “Admit it. Our staged kiss tonight was better than any real one you'd ever had with Jeffrey, wasn't it?”
Yes. I'd be the first to admit it was way better than any kiss Jeffrey and I had shared during our nearly three years together. But there was no way I was going to admit that to Jase. So with a shrug, I replied, “I wouldn't go that far. It was okay. It certainly wasn't earth-shattering or anything.”
He gave me a skeptical look. “What you're saying can't possibly be true. I only give earth-shattering kisses. Those are the only kind I know how to give.”
With a snicker, I pushed back my chair and stood up from the table. “I firmly stand by my assessment. But if you'd like, the next time we kiss I'll try and keep more of an open mind.”
“Honey, the next time we kiss, it will be so intense you'll be lucky if your mind will ever work properly again.”
I could feel a wave of heat beginning to rise in my cheeks. The thought of kissing Jase again scared the heck out of me. Our first actual kiss had already been more intense than I would have liked, even with the interruption. So the thought of an even more intense one, perhaps without Trish there to save the day with her yelling...
Quickly forcing myself to recover, I managed to say, “Yeah, well let's just make sure it's in front of Jeffrey next time.”
“Deal,” he said with a smirk.
I remained standing in the middle of the kitchen for a moment, as I tried to decide what to do next. “I should probably go check on Trish now.”
“Yeah, probably,” he agreed with a nod. He stood up and brought his plate over to the sink.
I turned to leave, but something stopped me: a nagging question I think had been plaguing back of my mind since the party. “Hey, Jase?”
“Yeah?” He turned around to face me.
Clearing my throat I said, “Um, so tonight, when we were all playing Spin the Bottle, and your spin landed on Kylie...”
He glanced over at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish as I searched for the best way to form my question into words.
“What was it like, finally getting to kiss someone you've been in love with for so long?” I finished. “Was it everything you'd hoped and dreamed it would be?”
He looked slightly taken-aback by my inquiry. And then he appeared to mull it over inside his head for a moment, while I patiently waited for his answer.
“Actually, yeah,” he said finally. “And more. It was amazing and perfect and I think I'm even more in love now.”
I could feel a smile instantly appear on my face out of nowhere. “That's great.”
He looked somewhat confused as I spoke, but I didn't question it. I just figured I was reading his expression wrong.
“Goodnight, Jase.”
&nbs
p; He smiled back at me, but his smile looked about as genuine as mine felt. “Goodnight, Lex.”
I turned once more to leave, only this time I did. I had no further questions.
As I made my way upstairs to Trish's room, I replayed that mini Q and A session again in my head, mainly the 'A' part. It was funny. The answer he gave me was the one I expected.
Yet I couldn't help but feel as though maybe it wasn't the one I wanted.
Chapter Eighteen
“I'm swearing off boys forever,” said my full-of-crap best friend the next morning over a plate of blueberry waffles.
She had said that phrase, verbatim, a whopping thirty-three times in the past year alone. And every time she said it, she was lying through her teeth. This particular time was no exception.
“You don't mean that, Trish,” I said over a plate of my own waffles.
“No, I totally do.” She shook her head furiously. “I hate them. I hate them all!”
“Isn't it a little too early in the morning to be exuding all this hostility?” a deep voice asked as its owner entered the kitchen. “At this rate, you'll be kicking puppies by sundown.”
I didn't even need to see Trish's sudden death glare to know the voice belonged to Jase.
“Lexi,” she said to me in a sickly-sweet voice, “would you please inform my sorry excuse for a brother that I am still not speaking to him?”
I immediately opened my mouth to repeat the message, but Jase spoke before I could.
“Lex, would you please inform my sister that, even though her ditzy Valley Girl accent can at times be somewhat difficult to understand, I do not actually need an interpreter for this conversation because I heard her just fine?”
Turning to Trish, I said, “Trish, Jase wants me to tell you that he couldn't ask for a better sister, and also that he thinks your hair looks very shiny today.”
“Hey, that's not what I said,” he grumbled as he reached over my shoulder and, with a fork of his very own, stabbed my one remaining untouched waffle and snatched it from my plate.
“Hey, jerkface, give that back!” I spun around in my chair, grabbing aimlessly at the air in a lame attempt at getting back the rest of my breakfast.
With a chuckle, he dropped my waffle onto a clean plate and then sat down across from me at the table. “'Jerkface'? Shouldn't we be saving all these terms of endearment for when Kylie and Jeffrey are around?”
With a huff, I turned back to Trish. “Please tell your brother that if he doesn't give me my waffle back, I'm going to tell Kylie he's terrible in bed.”
I was pleased when Jase nearly choked on his mouthful of waffle at my words. Trish almost choked as well on her juice, but that was because she was laughing.
“Bitch, you almost made orange juice come out of my nose,” she said through a fit of giggles.
I smirked over at Jase, who looked anything but amused. “So now you're not talking to me either? Women.” He shook his head in disappointment as he finished off the waffle and jumped up from the table.
“I'm heading out,” he said, putting his dirty dish into the sink. “Lex, do you need a ride home?”
“No, she does not,” Trish answered for me.
“Is your name Lex?” He paused and then added, “Hey, you spoke to me!”
“I spoke to you on Lexi's behalf. That doesn't count.”
“Lex can speak for herself.”
“No she can't, because she's not speaking to you either, remember?”
“Whatever,” Jase said, at the same time the doorbell rang. “I'll get that,” he added and bolted out of the kitchen.
“Oh, how I wish I was an only child,” Trish mumbled after he was gone, then turned to me and said, “And this whole thing going on between you two is seriously freaking me out.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just a couple of weeks ago you spent the night over here, and the next morning we sat eating breakfast at this very table, and when Jase walked in you two barely even said 'hello' to one another. Now you're flirting with each other. It's weird.”
“It's all just an act, remember?”
“It's all just an act for Jeffrey and Kylie,” she corrected me. “Do you see either Jeffrey or Kylie at the breakfast table this morning? I don't think so.”
“But,” I started to say just as I heard Jase calling my name from the foyer.
“Lex, it's for you.” He sounded less than thrilled.
I exchanged a curious look with Trish before getting up and making my way to the front door, with her trailing close behind.
“Who is it?” I asked, only a brief second before I saw the answer standing in the doorway: Jeffrey.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Hey,” he said with a half-smile. I averted my gaze away, fearful that if I glanced too long at him, I might just forget how mad I was at him. “I tried you at home and your mom told me you were here.”
“She did?” I was surprised that my mother would give Jeffrey any information regarding my whereabouts, and I made a mental note to scold her about it later on.
Jeffrey nodded. “Can we talk?”
“She can't,” Jase replied for me. “She's busy.”
Jeffrey narrowed his eyes at Jase and then averted his gaze back to me. “Is that true?”
With an indignant sigh, I shook my head. “No, I'm not busy. Let's go outside.”
“You two can talk in here.” Jase moved aside to allow Jeffrey to enter.
Jeffrey, looking perturbed, stepped through the doorway. He stood perfectly still and quiet for a moment, as if waiting for both Jase and Trish to leave us alone, but when it became increasingly obvious they weren't going anywhere, he sighed and turned to me.
“I'm really sorry about yesterday.”
“You should be,” Jase said before I could even get a word out.
“Jase,” I warned.
Luckily for him, he got the hint and proceeded to shut up. I would have hated to get into our first lover's spat in front of Jeffrey. That wouldn't exactly give him the best impression, and would most likely fail to make him jealous.
Glancing back at Jeffrey, I said, “It's okay.”
“No, it's not okay. But I'm going to make it up to you. Are you busy today?”
Before I had a chance to respond, Jase said, “Yes, she is. She's hanging out with me.”
Finally fed up with Jase's apparent assumption that I was unable to speak for myself, I turned to him and said, “May I please speak with you in the other room?”
His gaze flickered over to mine. He looked like he wanted to say “no”, so instead of waiting for him to speak, I marched right over to him, grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the foyer.
When we arrived in the living room, well out of earshot of Jeffrey and Trish, I let go of him. “Listen, Jase, while I really appreciate this possessive, jealous boyfriend act you're putting on, could you maybe tone it down a little just for today? I kinda don't want to flunk this Health assignment.”
Jase sighed and shook his head. “I know, I'm sorry. I just can't help it. The guy stood you up. It would have been different if he had at least called you and told you he apparently had better things to do, but he didn't even consider you. I'm sorry, but it really bothers me that you're out there smiling at him, pretending like he wasn't a complete ass to you.”
It was my turn to sigh. “Jase—” I began, but he instantly cut me off.
“I need you to be honest with me.”
I blinked over at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Your feelings for him. They go beyond some stupid Health assignment, don't they?”
I groaned and slapped the palm of my hand against my forehead. “Oh, God. Not this again.”
“Yes, this again.” His hands were now on his hips, something he did every time he was angry about something. “I may be just your fake boyfriend, but I'm your real friend, and I am not going to just sit back quietly if I think you're
setting yourself up for another heartbreak.”
“I know.”
“And I told you, right from the beginning, the second I start to suspect this plan has anything to do with trying to get back together with that jerk, I'm calling the whole thing off.”
“I know!” I exclaimed in a hushed voice. “Look, Jase, this really is all about that Health assignment, okay? Once it's done and graded, then I swear I will make it a point to never speak to him again. But until then, I'm stuck smiling at him. I'm stuck hanging out with him. And I really wish you would leave your own feelings for him out of this. I know you hate him. I don't know why you hate him, but I know you hate him. You don't have to keep reminding me.”
Jase stared up at the ceiling for a moment before removing his hands from his hips and letting his shoulders slump forward slightly. A sign of defeat. “Okay. Fine.”
I took that to mean he was neither okay nor fine, but the fact he'd said it meant he'd at least pretend to be both. “Good. So we're going back out there, and I'm going to tell Jeffrey I'm not busy today, and you're going to stop answering for me. Okay?”
Reluctantly, he nodded as I turned to head out of the living room. However, I took only two steps forward before stopping and turning around.
“Did you mean it when you said you're my real friend?”
With a shrug, he replied, “Of course I did. I mean, we're certainly not enemies, and we've spent too much time together in this past week to be mere acquaintances, so, yeah. I meant it.”
I couldn't help it; a huge grin formed on my face. “We're friends.” I said it in a singsong voice, causing Jase to roll his eyes as he brushed past me.
We made our way back to Jeffrey, and I was surprised to realize upon arrival that the stupid grin was still plastered to my face. When Jeffrey took notice of it, he scowled, which only made my grin widen.
“Jeffrey,” I said, “I'm no longer busy today, so if you'd like, we can work on our project.”
His expression instantly brightened. “Yeah, that would be great.” He glanced over at Jase with a smug expression, which I'm sure was enough to make Jase want to punch him in the face. “So how is right now?”
