The Stand-In Boyfriend

by Doherty, Emma

  The Stand-In Boyfriend

  Copyright © 2018 by Emma Doherty

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Other Books

  Acknowledgments

  “STOP DROOLING.”

  My head jerks in the direction of the voice and I see Sophie Steele, my best friend since forever, smirking at me. I roll my eyes like her comment doesn’t bother me, but the heat in my cheeks gives away my embarrassment. “Shut up.”

  She grins. “Your boy’s looking hot. Has he been hitting the gym?” I turn to my locker and start rummaging through it, picking out the books I need for homework and transferring the ones I don’t need from my bag to my locker. She leans against the locker next to mine, her eyes still focused down the hallway. “Someone really needs to tell him to stop wearing yellow though. That’s really not his color.”

  I hold back a laugh. She’s right—it’s not his color. I look back at him and see he’s heading our way. I ignore the butterflies in my stomach—which seem to be getting stronger every day—and instead focus on his face, which is covered in a huge smile as he stops near us. My heart actually pounds in my chest. This is what he does to me—Jessie Stephenson, my other best friend and the guy I’ve been in love with for years.

  “I thought today would never end,” he tells me in greeting.

  “Right?” I agree, turning away from Sophie and giving him my full attention.

  “Stephenson, you really need to stop wearing yellow. It doesn’t work.”

  “Bite me, Sophie.”

  I bite down on my lip to stop myself from laughing out loud. These two are always like this. The three of us have been inseparable since we met Jessie in middle school and let him join our little gang, but sometimes Jessie and Sophie are just one step away from ripping each other’s hair out. I’ve had to play peacemaker on more than one occasion.

  “I’m serious—you look like you got dressed in the dark.”

  Again I have to bite back the grin that wants to break out over my face. Yellow really doesn’t go with his auburn hair.

  He turns to me, eyebrows raised, and I feel a pang of pride that he’s not just taking her word for it and wants my confirmation. “There are other colors that look better on you,” I confirm.

  He flips us both a finger but laughs good-naturedly and turns around as we all file down the hallway and out the main entrance of Grove Valley High School, heading toward our cars.

  Jessie turns to me. “You don’t have practice?”

  I shake my head. “No, Coach canceled it because there was a history trip and a bunch of people aren’t back from it yet.”

  He nods and leads us over to some picnic benches by the parking lot, throwing his bag down on top of it before sitting down. I raise an eyebrow in surprise, expecting him to want to head straight home as usual, but instead he positions himself so he can see the school entrance, and Sophie collapses into the seat next to him. I shrug and take a seat across from them, stretching out my neck as I do.

  “You guys got any food?” Sophie asks.

  Jessie shakes his head, barely shifting his eyes from the doors as I reach into my bag and dig around for one of the granola bars I always keep on me before pulling one out and tossing it to her. I turn my attention back to Jessie, but he’s focused on something behind me. I turn to see what he’s looking at, but there’s nothing unusual happening, just kids streaming out of school and heading home for the weekend.

  “Everything all right?” I ask.

  He turns to me. “Yeah, just glad this week is done.” He grins wide and my stomach actually flips. I don’t dare look at Sophie because I know for a fact she’ll be smirking at me. I can’t help it; I actually love him.

  I’ve always liked Jessie—always, ever since we met him when we first got to middle school—but it’s past that now. It’s to the point where I’m constantly looking out for him, thinking about what he’s doing, and hoping he’ll notice me as more than just his best friend. That’s what he sees me as: his best friend, Livy, the girl who can kick a soccer ball better than he can, the girl who ends up doing his homework for him (no matter how many times I tell him I won’t), and the girl he has no clue has been in love with him ever since Sophie pushed him over because he cut in front of her in the lunch line and I helped him stand up. I still remember that day, still remember seeing his dark brown eyes and freckles for the first time and feeling like his laugh was the best thing I’d ever heard.

  He started hanging out with us immediately, not caring that his best friends were me, a total tomboy, and Soph, the girliest drama queen you could ever meet. I thought he was the greatest thing ever. It took me a year or two to realize I had a crush on him, but I think Sophie spotted it from day one. After a couple of years, I finally admitted to myself that I didn’t just want to be his friend, and now I swear my crush is bigger than the entire country. Honestly, even I think it’s ridiculous how gigantic it’s gotten. Even though we hang out every day and I know I’m his closest friend, he still doesn’t recognize that I’m a girl, and no matter how many times Sophie tells me to do it, I just can’t make the first move and tell him how I feel.

  “You’re coming over tonight, right?” Sophie asks, looking at me.

  I nod my head. She doesn’t need to ask. I’ve been turning up at her house for Friday night meatballs for as long as I can remember; it’s tradition. Sometimes Jessie joins us, sometimes he doesn’t.

  “You guys want to come over tomorrow and watch some movies?” I ask, looking over at Jessie. The thought of going all weekend without seeing him does not appeal to me.

  “Aren’t you working?” Sophie questions, taking a bite of the granola bar.

  I nod. I work in my mom’s bakery most Saturday afternoons and pick up the odd shift during the week when I don’t have practice. “I meant afterward. Tomorrow night? We could order pizza?”

  Sophie nods in agreement but Jessie doesn’t respond, doesn’t even glance my way. His eyes are once again fixed on something behind me and I’m just about to turn around to look at what it is when Sophie sits up straighter too, focusing her gaze, flipping
her hair over her shoulder, and smiling coyly.

  “Hey, guys, hey!” Jessie calls out, and I turn in confusion to see Chase Mitchell and Aaron Wilson cutting across the grass behind me toward the parking lot. They turn at Jessie’s shout and after glancing quickly at each other, they divert toward us.

  Of course. It’s my turn to smirk at Sophie as she tilts her head to the side and eyes Chase through hooded lids. Sophie has had a crush on Chase Mitchell for years—along with the rest of the female population of our school. He’s the star of the boys’ soccer team, and as far as I can tell, actually an okay guy. We played co-ed soccer together way back when we were little, but the most interaction we ever have these days is a nod of acknowledgement on one of the rare occasions I might see him outside of school or a couple of words when he gives me his order at my mom’s bakery. Inside of school, he sticks to his own crowd, and I stick to mine. Still, as far as popular guys go, he seems to be okay. Aaron is his best friend and is crazy popular too, but more in a friendly sort of way than Chase’s big-man-on-campus way. They’re both on the soccer team, which is undefeated this year and has a huge number of fans that show up every week to watch them play. Honestly, the discrepancy between how many fans they have and the number the girls’ soccer team has is embarrassing. The boys’ team is a big deal around here, and Jessie has tried out for it every year since we were freshmen but has never made it past JV.

  I bite back a snort as Sophie repositions her body, pushing her chest out, and she subtly gives me the finger, never once taking her eyes off the guys approaching us from behind me. My focus shifts to Jessie and in truth, he’s not much better than Sophie. He has this stupid grin on his face and he starts to rise in his seat to greet them before thinking better of it and sitting back down. I swear Jessie’s crush on Chase is almost as big as Sophie’s. He seems to idolize the guy, always trying to hang out with him and his friends and talking about soccer whenever he gets close to him. If I didn’t find Jessie so adorable, I’d probably find it kind of pathetic.

  “Hey guys,” Aaron says as they get closer. He stops at the end of the table between us, his eyes scanning around. “Sup, Chapman?”

  I grin back at his greeting. I never spoke to Aaron until junior year. I knew who he was of course—everyone knows who he is—and he’s on the soccer team so I’ve seen him play a bunch of times, but I’m pretty shy and our paths barely crossed. Then we got paired up in chemistry last year and have been lab partners ever since. I get why he’s so popular now—he has me in stitches almost every class.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, great game last night.” Jessie starts looking directly at Chase. “That second goal was insane, man. Totally your best one of the season.” Chase doesn’t even bother to crack a smile at the compliment, just kind of nods in agreement. Jessie doesn’t let up though. “Seriously man, the scouts there were going nuts. You’ll be able to go to any school in the country after this season.”

  Aaron coughs suddenly, which I’m pretty certain he’s just doing to cover up his snort. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Jessie fangirl over Chase.

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see,” Chase mutters.

  “And think of the girls—they’ll be lining up to cheer you on.”

  I screw up my face at this. Ew. Why does it always come back to this? Why can’t Chase just want to play soccer for the enjoyment of it? Who cares about girls cheering him on?

  Chase just stares back at him. “Whatever, man.”

  “Don’t mention girls lining up to Abigail,” Aaron says, grinning next to Chase and glancing over at him. “She’ll poison you before your next match.

  Chase starts to laugh. Abigail Baker is Chase’s on-again, off-again girlfriend. She’s the sort of girl you have to look twice at just to make sure she’s real—she’s that hot. With her huge boobs and tiny waist, tanned skin and blonde hair, she’s every teenage boy’s wet dream, and I know Jessie thinks she’s amazing, something that bothers me way more than it should considering she’d never look twice at him. “Dude, I told you this morning, that shit’s done.”

  Sophie sits up straighter in her seat at this news like it interests her, and I feel like rolling my eyes. She’s delusional if she actually believes they’re over. I’m hardly the fount of all knowledge when it comes to the two most popular kids in school, but even I know they’ve been breaking up and getting back together for the last three years. They date, Abigail throws a fit about something, they break up, Abigail dates someone else, Chase dates someone else, Abigail gets jealous, is a total bitch to whichever girl is brave enough to be with Chase, and then inevitably Chase and Abigail get back together before the whole cycle starts all over again. If you cared enough to pay attention, you’d probably get whiplash from all the back and forth.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Aaron responds, rolling his eyes.

  “Honestly man, it’s over.”

  “Is that so, Chase?” Sophie asks, cocking an eyebrow, her attraction to him obvious.

  Chase turns to her and a smirk covers his mouth. He knows Sophie is into him; she’s not exactly subtle. To be honest, I don’t know why they’ve never gone there. They’ve definitely had the chance to in the past. While Jessie and I are not exactly unpopular—I’m on the girls’ soccer team and Jessie is nice enough to ensure we’re never without friends if we need them—Sophie is on a different social level than us. Loud and outgoing, she’s been a cheerleader since we were freshmen, is in all the school plays, and the fact that she has curves to die for means she’s never been overlooked by the popular guys in school. She could totally run in Aaron and Chase’s crowd if she wanted to, but she doesn’t. She always sticks with me and Jessie. She’s friends with everyone else, but I know we’re her number ones, and I love her for the fact that she’s still totally loyal and would never dream of ditching us.

  “Jesus.” Aaron snickers. “Get a room guys.”

  Chase starts laughing and turns his attention away from Sophie. “Shut up, dude. We’re just playing.”

  I refrain from glancing at Sophie; I’ll just start laughing if I do, because she’s definitely not playing.

  “Must be something in the air,” Jessie comments, eager to get back into the conversation. Chase turns to him. “Courtney and I are done too.”

  “What?” The word is out of my mouth before I can check myself. I can feel everyone’s attention turn to me. “When did that happen?”

  Jessie shrugs like it’s no big deal and I’m not hanging on his every word. “Before first period.”

  My jaw falls open. We had lunch together and he didn’t think to mention that he broke up with his girlfriend?

  “What happened?” Sophie asks, and I send her a grateful glance. It’ll look much better if she questions him than if I do. I know I wouldn’t be able to hide my feelings and would regret it later.

  Jessie shrugs again. “We just kept arguing. She was pissed I didn’t want to go to her uncle’s party or something and we just called it quits.”

  “Did you end it or did she?” Sophie asks, sending me a subtle look. I feel like I can’t breathe properly. I have been waiting for this day for months, ever since they hooked up at the start of summer vacation, waiting for him to wake up and realize they shouldn’t be together, realize she’s obnoxious and arrogant and the fact that she has big boobs and hands out blow jobs like they’re going out of style does not mean he should be dating her.

  “Uh, me, I guess. Couldn’t be bothered with another fight.”

  I’m frozen in place as I process this news. Jessie is single again, finally. Maybe this will actually be it. Maybe now that Courtney won’t be hanging around all the time he might actually begin to see me differently. I glance away from Jessie when I see Aaron subtly nudge Chase in the arm. I glance at the pair of them and their gazes are both fixed on me. I swallow and try to force my face into a nonchalant look. The last thing I need is my crush on Jessie becoming public knowledge.

  “Wait, Liv, you don’t think it was d
umb for me to break up with Courtney, do you?”

  I glance back at Jessie, who is now looking a little confused. He probably wasn’t expecting the radio silence his announcement brought. He probably thought it was a way to bond with Chase, but instead Chase and Aaron are just staring at me, which is totally unnerving. I clear my throat. “No, no, I think it’s good.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. She’s nice and all, but I don’t think you were right together.”

  He grins at me and I know he feels reassured. He turns to Chase and Aaron. “You guys heading to Ferguson’s?” he asks, apparently done talking about Courtney and ready to get to the real reason he stopped them from heading straight to their cars. Ferguson’s is a burger joint downtown, hands down the best burgers in Florida. It’s a popular hangout for Grove Valley High, and most of Chase and Aaron’s crowd heads there every Friday after school.

  Aaron opens his mouth but then a shout from the parking lot captures his attention. I glance that way and the rest of their group, a combination of the most popular kids at school, are standing around their cars waiting for them. Aaron throws his hand up, waving a finger in the universal gesture for one minute before turning back to me.

  “You don’t have practice?”

  “No, got canceled.”

  “When’s your next game?”

  “A week from Thursday.”

  “Plenty of time for you to get that paper ready for Donaldson then.” He grins.

  “Dude,” Chase says sharply. He glances at me then his gaze flickers over to Jessie before turning back to Aaron. “Do your own damn homework. Don’t make her do it.”

  I open my mouth to respond but Aaron gets there first, rolling his eyes and shoving Chase in the shoulder. “We take turns, idiot. I did last week’s paper for us.”

  “Right,” responds Chase, looking past us to his friends and giving off the air of someone who is incredibly bored, all the humor of a couple of minutes ago gone from his voice. “Whatever. I just think it’s shitty to let someone do your work for you.”

  I bristle in my seat and Sophie lets out a not-so-subtle cough. I refuse to look at her; I know she’ll only look self-righteous. She’s always nagging at me for helping Jessie with his homework, but I’m not about to let him fall behind in class. The only ones who know about that are me, Jessie, and Sophie. Chase Mitchell certainly doesn’t know I do Jessie’s homework for him, so he can stop looking so judgmental.