“What is it?” I asked him. “Are you okay?”
I’d never seen him look that serious. Well, only when they’d lost a big football game or basketball game. The look on his face was familiar all of a sudden.
Disappointment.
He exhaled. “Why would you do that?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” I replied, glancing behind me to make sure David was gone. He was.
“It’s bad enough having to pretend that there’s nothing going on between us,” he said. “And now I have to lie about this? He’s gonna ask me about some made-up girl, and I’ll have to lie over and over again to his face.”
My jaw dropped. A knot formed in my stomach as I realized what he was saying. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about that—“
But he turned around and left without saying goodbye.
I watched him go off.
This had not been the perfect idea.
Creating a fake girlfriend for Aaron so we could make this work had not been the perfect cover.
It had only made Aaron hate me.
20
Rachel: Meet me at the creek in 20 minutes. Please?
That’s what I texted Aaron an hour later.
I was sure he needed time alone, and I needed time to think.
I had messed up, and I wanted to fix things.
If there was one thing I would never accept, it was Aaron and me being mad with each other.
That had never ever happened, over anything, and we weren’t about to start now.
So twenty minutes later, I made my way to the creek.
He was already there, sitting on the fallen tree with his back to me.
I joined him silently, and for a few minutes, we just sat there, listening to the creek flow by.
Watching it instead of each other.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured finally.
He didn’t say anything. Just moved his hand so it rested on top of mine.
“I didn’t think,” I went on.
He turned to me. The disappointment was still there, but just barely. “It’s okay.”
“I never really thought about how hard this must be for you,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder.
He put his arm around me and pulled me close. He sighed. “Both of us made this choice. Neither of us wanted to wait to be together. But… I can’t lie any more than is needed, okay? It’s just… I can’t do it.”
“Okay,” I said, wishing I’d thought to ask him before going through with the whole fake girlfriend thing.
He was right. I hadn’t really thought about before, but if it had been me and Scarlett, and I had to lie to her?
I would hate it.
It would feel all sorts of wrong.
We went back to silence.
A thought entered my mind. “Do you think we made the right decision?” I asked him. “Because if you’ve changed your mind or—“
He took my other hand. “I haven’t changed my mind,” he replied. Then he kissed me. “It’s not ideal, hiding this, but I wouldn’t change it.”
I smiled up at him. “Good.”
“I can’t wait until we don’t have to do this anymore,” he said. “But until then, I can’t be just your friend anymore.”
Later, when I walked back home, I thought about that.
He was right.
There was no more going back to being just friends for us anymore.
We’d crossed that line, and it was impossible to go back to the other side of it now.
We just had to make the best of it until this summer, when David left for college.
Things would be easier then.
He wouldn’t have to go on lying to his best friend.
I walked in the front door, and right away, Dad walked up to me. “Where have you been?” he asked.
I glanced at Mom, who was standing a few feet away, arms crossed. “I was at the creek. I went for a walk.”
He held up his phone. “Why didn’t you answer any messages?”
I grabbed my phone, realizing it had died. I showed it to him. “Sorry, Dad,” I told him in Spanish. “I need to charge it. I didn’t notice.”
David gave me a sympathetic glance from the living room and his video game, but he didn’t say a word.
Dad looked just as mad. “You know I don’t like it when you go to the creek by yourself,” he said. “Something could happen to you.”
“Sorry, Dad,” I said, “It won’t happen again. I’ll make sure my phone is charged and—“
“No,” he yelled. “How do you expect me to trust you with a car of your own if you can’t remember to keep your phone charged so we can communicate with you?”
I wanted to shrink down to the size of a seed and disappear.
“Pedro,” Mom told him, touching his arm lightly. “Let’s talk about it again later.”
With that, Dad left, heading into the garage and presumably outside to work on his latest project.
Mom came up to me. She touched my shoulder but didn’t say anything before heading back into the kitchen.
I headed up to my room and let myself fall on the bed.
I couldn’t get anything right today.
The things that I wanted seemed so simple.
A normal relationship with my boyfriend.
A car. A little freedom.
But for some reason, it was impossible to have any of it.
At this rate, I had no idea how I was going to get through the next several weeks at all.
21
Scarlett showed me the prom tickets Ben had just bought.
They’d been on sale as of that morning, and he had practically been first in line so he could ask her. Like that wasn’t sweet enough, he’d done it with a bouquet of flowers and her favorite fast food breakfast in his hands too.
I had to hand it to Ben. He had the boyfriend thing down pat.
I took the tickets in my hands. They were gold and shiny with embossed letters, like an invitation to a fancy party. “I am so jealous,” I told her, mostly playing.
It had been a full month since that date with Aaron, and we hadn’t had a chance to go on another once since. Not with everything we each had going on.
Not to mention the fact that David was just around all of the time. Sometimes it felt like we were the three musketeers, forget Aaron being my boyfriend.
I handed them back, and she placed them carefully in her bag. “I can’t wait. You have to help me choose a dress. This is Ben’s senior year, and I want everything to be perfect.”
I glanced back at the table. There was still a long line of students purchasing their tickets, and I wished I was one of them.
Scarlett glanced back too. “What’s up?” she asked.
I sighed. “I hadn’t really thought about this before,” I told her. After shutting my locker, we walked together to lunch. “How is this supposed to work? I mean, if this whole thing between Aaron and me is a secret and no one can find out, then that means that we can’t go to prom together.”
Saying the words out loud had a frog appearing in my throat and my eyes tearing up.
This was going to be the winter dance all over again, but so much worse.
This was our junior prom. He was my boyfriend.
And we wouldn’t be able to share a dance or take a cheesy picture together that we’d look back at in thirty years and feel completely mortified over.
We wouldn’t be able to be together on such a special night or create any memories together.
All of a sudden, I was doubting everything.
Maybe this had been the wrong choice.
I hadn’t really thought it through, not this anyway.
We would never be able to go to prom together, and I hated that.
Scarlett stopped me and gave me a hug. “I’m so sorry, Rach.” She looked at me. “There has to be some way to figure this out.” After a second, the flash of hope in her face morphed to disappointment.
There wasn’t a way t
o make this work.
This was going to be the most special prom yet. The student committee was going all out, they’d rented a special venue, and the theme was absolutely glamourous.
And I was going to be going alone. Maybe not at all.
I had to talk to Aaron about this, but one thing I knew for sure.
It was impossible for us to go to prom together. I just couldn’t see a way around it.
Scarlett and I continued walking towards the cafeteria. “You’ve got a few weeks. Maybe by then… you guys will have figured something out or you guys can tell your brother?”
I shook my head. “I just don’t see how that would help. Him knowing would only make things worse.”
Scarlett exhaled. “What if you guys went out on a date instead?” she tried. “Everyone would be at prom. You guys could do your own thing?”
I shrugged. “I guess, but…” I teared up again at the thought of missing prom, though. “I just wouldn’t be the same. It sucks that we’d have no choice but to miss out on prom. And if neither of us went, I’m pretty sure my brother would get suspicious anyway.”
A knot formed in my chest. Why hadn’t I thought this through better?
I cleared my throat. “You go. I’ll catch up in a few minutes, okay? Bathroom.”
Scarlett gave me this look like she wanted to help me, but she knew there was absolutely nothing she could do. “Okay.”
She left, and I headed in the opposite direction towards the nearest bathroom. I closed the stall and sat down.
Tears fell down my cheeks.
It wasn’t just prom.
It was the past several weeks. Our one-month anniversary had come and gone, and we hadn’t been able to do anything.
We hadn’t been able to go on a single date since our first one ages ago.
Prom was coming up in a few weeks, and we wouldn’t be able to go together.
On a daily basis, we were hardly able to get a moment alone.
In the beginning, it had felt so easy.
Now David was going to practice every day again, which meant that he rode with us in the morning and in the afternoon.
We didn’t have those afternoon car rides home together anymore, not for a while.
The fact was that we didn’t get any time together.
It was impossible.
Before, a moment here or there had been enough.
But this? This wasn’t enough.
Not going to prom together?
That wasn’t enough.
I wasn’t sure I could do it for another month, month and a half.
I knew this would be hard. I just hadn’t expected it to be this hard.
And I knew it had to be even harder on Aaron. Lying to his best friend like that.
Acting like everything was fine when he was kissing his best friend’s little sister behind his back and breaking all kinds of bro code rules.
He hadn’t said anything, but I could see it sometimes when David was around.
I could see it when I walked up to them after cheer practice and we went home. I could see it after basketball games, at Bobby’s, in that flash of a second when Aaron grabbed his food and then glanced at me before walking over to David.
He didn’t like having to lie to his best friend about us.
And all for what?
For a stolen kiss here and there?
Had this really been worth the cost?
I didn’t know anymore.
In fact, I had no idea.
22
I got to chemistry early and waited for Aaron.
We had to talk about this.
There had to be a way for us to go to prom together.
Maybe it was time to tell David. Maybe we could tell him a week or two before prom, give him time to cool off…
I just needed to hear what Aaron thought of the idea.
If we were going to do this, then we both had to agree that it was for the best, no matter how difficult it got.
And of course, that meant Dad finding out too, which would be double the people mad at us.
Aaron could potentially lose a friend and would be facing the wrath of my Latino father, so if anyone had to agree to do this, it was him.
And if he said no, that he couldn’t do this, then I had to be okay with it. Had to be okay with missing out on prom with Aaron.
I would have to make my peace with it. My gut told me, though, that it was time to give this a shot. It had been over a month of being Aaron’s girlfriend. This was real.
But I never got the chance to talk to Aaron. He came in just as the bell rang, and Coach Collins started the class right away.
He gave me a quick smile as he sat down and began taking notes.
When the bell rang again signaling the end of class, I put away my stuff and stood up. “Hey,” I told him.
He glanced up at me as he swung his bag over his shoulder. “Hey.”
“I’ve hardly seen you today,” I began. We made our way to the hallway.
“Sorry,” he replied. “It’s been a crazy day. My last class was in the library, and it took me forever to make it across campus.”
The few minutes we got in chem was usually our time, as ridiculous as that sounded.
“Listen,” I said, wanting to tell him about prom before he had to go. “I was thinking that—“
Just then, David came up to us.
I froze.
“Hey, man,” David said. “Hey, sis.” He turned back to Aaron. “You know that homework from last night?” Just then, he seemed to notice that I was still there. A puzzled expression crossed his face. I didn’t usually hang around.
I opened my mouth to say something, but Aaron saved me just in time. “Uh, Rach. I’ll send you the study guide for chem later?”
“Oh,” I said, way too loudly. “Yes, thank you. Bye.” I gave them a wave and turned to leave. I headed into the girls’ bathroom.
When I came back out, David and Aaron were talking just a few feet away. They were just starting to go when I heard David say, “See, I knew it couldn’t be true. You’re my best friend. I knew you’d never do something like that.”
What?
What was he talking about?
Did he know?
A familiar knot formed in my stomach, and I realized I needed to get to class.
I got there in the nick of time, but even as I sat down, my mind couldn’t stop racing.
What had David been talking about? Did he know? Had he heard something?
I really needed to talk to Aaron, not just about prom but everything.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. I could hardly focus.
One class, then another.
Notes, a pop quiz, and more notes.
Before I knew it, it was the end of the day.
I met Scarlett and the rest of the cheer squad in the locker room. The varsity boys had a big game tonight.
It was our job to cheer them on along with the varsity girls before that, and in the meantime, we needed to eat something to hold us over but not make us too heavy.
Not to mention warm up and practice.
Coach Collins came into the locker room as I laced up my cheer sneakers. Scarlett finished adjusting the bow on her head and turned to face her. “Alright, ladies. Remember, we’re doing the new stunt tonight. We’ve been practicing hard and nailing the moves at practice. Now it’s time to go out there and do it.”
She paused, looking around the room at each of us. When it was her gaze on me, I glanced back down at my sneakers.
“You can do this,” she went on. “I know you can. Make me proud. Make yourselves proud. I know you don’t need me to remind you that we’re more than just cheerleaders. What we do matters. Let’s make it count.”
She left after that, and I exhaled a shaky breath. I was hungry, but I knew I couldn’t eat. I had a bad case of nerves, and the last thing I needed was to throw up at practice in the middle of a string of backflips.
It was odd beca
use whenever Coach Collins gave us an awesome pep talk like that, the whole energy in the room shifted. My energy shifted. I took charge and pumped up the rest of the squad the whole time.
But tonight?
Tonight I felt heavy and tired and like this was the opposite of any kind of story with any kind of happy ending I’d ever heard of.
This wasn’t a story. This was a guy and a girl trying to make it work and not figuring it out.
And only causing themselves pain in the process.
We shouldn’t have ever gone down this road.
Maybe that was it.
We’d gone down the wrong path, and it was time to turn around.
Prom was a sign of that.
That conversation earlier was a sign of that.
Keeping secrets from my brother and parents was a sign of that.
Or maybe I had no idea.
Maybe I was wrong. What I did know was that I needed another voice in my head besides my own.
I needed to talk to Aaron and find out what David had said to him.
He would know what to do.
Normally, I might try to get through the rest of the night and find him later, but this couldn’t wait.
The thought of being anxious like this for five more minutes was too much.
I hated to go search for him know when his team was getting ready to practice too, though.
This was a big game, but it would only take five minutes, and both of us would feel better after.
Just five minutes.
That was it.
I made sure my uniform looked fine in the mirror along with my make up. Then I turned to Scarlett. “I’ll be back in a minute,” I told her.
She looked up from adjusting her socks. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I just need to talk to Aaron really quick. Before the game starts and then we all get busy.” I could hear the stress in my voice, and I was pretty sure she could too.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, standing up and coming close.
I shifted my weight and told her what I’d heard David say earlier.
She frowned. “Yeah, maybe you should go talk to him.”
Coach Collins popped her head in then and told us we had two minutes before she expected us in the gym.
Dating Aaron & Other Forbidden Things (Garcia Brothers Book 2) Page 9
