The Stand-In Boyfriend

by Doherty, Emma

  I shake my head but can’t help laughing. I’m glad he’s finding my awkwardness in this whole situation amusing. He’s right though—Chase is way better at this than I am.

  Two arms snake around my waist, pulling me back into a chest. I immediately go to jerk away, but Chase isn’t having any of it. “Relax,” he whispers, pulling me closer to him.

  Aaron’s nearly killing himself laughing at us, but eventually I settle back into Chase’s chest and act like this isn’t totally weird.

  “I’m sorry I messed up with the date,” Chase mutters quietly in my ear. I turn to face him in surprise. “I just wanted to take you somewhere nice and make you feel special.”

  I’m touched.

  “You deserve to feel special.”

  I shake my head. “Chase, you don’t have to do anything, but I had a great time with you tonight. Honestly, it was really fun.”

  “Yeah?”

  I grin. “Yeah, best fake date I’ve ever been on.” And only date, for that matter.

  “Dude,” Aaron suddenly says under his breath. We both turn to see Abigail is now in the room and is backed up against a wall with some guy I’ve never seen before. They’re making out—hard.

  “Jesus,” Chase mumbles. I step away from him, my eyes not moving from Abigail.

  She breaks off from the guy for a minute while he gropes her ass, her eyes straying to us for an instant before she’s hooking back into the guy again.

  I wince and look over at Chase. It’s probably no fun seeing your ex hook up with someone else, even if you were the one to end it. He presses his lips together and turns to Aaron in irritation. “How much has she had to drink?”

  He shrugs. “She was pretty wasted when I got here, and she’s probably kept on drinking.”

  “Fuck’s sake,” he mutters, more to himself than to anyone else. I turn back to Abigail just as the guy reaches for the front of her skirt and tries to put his hand up there. Chase is by her side in a second, pushing the guy away. For a second it looks like this random guy is going to square up to him, but Chase is taller by a couple of inches and Aaron and Brendon appear behind him. The guy shrugs and walks away, not even bothering to say anything to Abigail. Abigail just sort of laughs and steps closer to Chase, trailing her hand up his arm. Chase pushes her away and says something that just makes her laugh harder. Eventually he realizes everyone in the room is staring at them so he grabs her hand and pulls her outside, though not before Abigail sends me a triumphant smirk over her shoulder.

  “What a douche.” I turn to see Sophie at my side. She looks unreal, as per usual, and has Mark beside her. They’re standing pretty close, and Mark definitely seems to be succumbing to Sophie’s way of thinking.

  I turn back to the door Chase and Abigail have just exited through and find myself shaking my head. “She really likes him, Soph.” That much is obvious. I had no idea how genuine her feelings were until just now. It’s killing her to see me with Chase.

  Sophie shrugs. “He’s been with other people before and she hasn’t acted like this. She’s just drunk—and pathetic.”

  I shake my head. Somehow I think it’s more than that. Abigail Baker has always been the perfect girl of Grove Valley High. She cares what she looks like, cares how people see her. For her to get wasted in front of everyone and have that random guy pawing all over her—that’s not normal. She really wanted to get Chase’s attention, and that I can relate to. Being in love with someone who doesn’t love you back is no fun for anyone. “She’s not pathetic. She’s sad.”

  Sophie screws up her face and tells Mark she’ll be back in a minute before pulling me over into a far corner. “So how was the date?”

  I smile. “It was fun, and Chase is really nice.”

  “And hot,” she adds. “He’s really hot.”

  I laugh. He is good-looking, but he’s my friend, so despite what the rest of the school thinks, I just don’t see him like that, and he certainly doesn’t see me like that. “How’re things with Mark?”

  She shrugs. “He’s making me work. He’s interested, but he’s pushing it.”

  I laugh. “Good. You deserve it.”

  She pouts playfully. “Traitor.”

  I glance around the kitchen, looking for the one reason I’m here. “Is he here yet?”

  She doesn’t need to ask who I’m talking about. “He was in the front room before.”

  I immediately start looking for the exit. She rolls her eyes, indicating that she doesn’t think I should go chasing him, but she then leads the way regardless. The only reason I’m here is to see Jessie; I’m not going to pretend it’s not. There are more people in the front room than in the kitchen so I have to swerve and maneuver my way around, and I try not to wince when Tia comes rushing over to hug me and spills her drink all down my back. I might have looked good at the start of the evening, but I definitely don’t now. All I need is someone else to spill another drink on me and it will be a hat-trick.

  Sophie leads me over to some sofas on the far right, and that’s where I find Jessie…with Courtney right beside him.

  He looks up, and for once, he doesn’t dismiss me. “Hey, when did you get here?”

  “About twenty minutes ago.”

  He glances at Sophie. “Why didn’t you come together?”

  “Chase took her on a hot date first.” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, and I don’t miss the look of irritation that flashes across Jessie’s face at the mention of Chase’s name. It’s fleeting, but it’s there.

  “Where did he take you?”

  “Uh, Luigi’s,” I tell him as Sophie whistles, sending a sly glance at Jessie. She knows exactly what she’s doing. “But then—”

  “No way!” This comes from Courtney. She sits up straighter in her seat. “I still can’t believe he’s dating you,” she tells me, her face deadly serious, like she’s not throwing an insult at me. “And now he’s taking you to Luigi’s? I’m so jel!” Jessie’s jaw clenches, and one glance at him tells me how pissed off he is, but I can’t tell if it’s because of me or because of Courtney. I’m hoping it’s because of me. “Babe, why don’t you ever take me to Luigi’s?”

  Jessie’s eyes bug out, and I can’t help it—I help him out. “It’s not that amazing. It’s kinda pretentious.”

  Jessie looks at me, his eyes meeting mine, and something passes between us, something like understanding, something like the old days, before Courtney and before Chase. “Yeah?” he asks.

  “Yeah,” I tell him, returning his smile. Suddenly I wish more than anything it was just him and me alone in this room.

  Courtney clearly isn’t happy about the way we’re looking at each other and chooses that moment to grab his hand and pull him out of his seat. “Come on, Jessie, I want to dance with my boyfriend.”

  My heart drops through the floor. Boyfriend?

  Jessie avoids my stare, and although he tries to pull away from Courtney’s grip and deter her, she won’t listen. Soon enough she’s pulled him into the middle of the room where a bunch of people are dancing to the music, and within seconds, she’s grinding all over him, shoving her ass in his groin and generally making me feel nauseous.

  “Skank,” Sophie mutters. She squeezes my arm in a gesture of support, but it doesn’t make me feel better.

  Boyfriend? I want to hurl. I know she’s been blasting their relationship all over social media, but I didn’t know they were an official couple again. Part of me knew it was only a matter of time, but this still hurts. “He’s her boyfriend again?”

  She shoots me a sympathetic glance. “I guess. He didn’t tell me.”

  I can’t stand to look at them anymore and I turn away. “What is the point of this then? What’s the point of this stupid thing with Chase if Jessie is back with Courtney and doesn’t give a damn?” I swallow hard. I’m dangerously close to tears. I had a plan. This was supposed to work!

  “He’ll come to his senses one day, Liv.”

  I bite my lip to stop it f
rom quivering. “I want one day to be now.”

  She offers me a small smile. “I know, but if it helps, you look lit and she doesn’t even begin to compare.”

  I try to smile in response but can’t manage it. What does it matter what I look like if Jessie doesn’t even see me?

  An arm drops around my shoulder and I turn to see Chase. “You okay?”

  I force myself to nod, and even though I know it’ll kill me if I glance back at Jessie and Courtney on the dance floor, I do anyway. It’s a mistake—she’s got her hands all over him.

  Sophie makes her excuses and disappears to find Mark as Chase leans against the wall, pulling me into his side as we watch the scene in front of us. The room is crowded and the dance floor is heaving. I can’t pull my eyes away from Jessie, no matter how much it’s hurting. I’d like to say I can’t believe he wants her over me, only I can. This is all too familiar; the people I want—my dad, Jessie—they never seem to want me back.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Chase asks again.

  I sigh and find myself leaning into him, resting my head against his shoulder. Him being here makes me feel not quite so alone. “She called him her boyfriend and he didn’t correct her. They’re official again.”

  “That sucks,” he tells me.

  I don’t say anything to that. He’s not wrong.

  Another couple of minutes and I remember the reason he disappeared for so long. “Is Abigail okay?”

  He snorts. “She threw up twice.”

  I wince at the thought of it.

  “Sasha’s taking her home. She needs to sleep it off.”

  “She really likes you, Chase.”

  He shrugs, looking uncomfortable. “She’ll be okay.”

  I turn to face him fully. “Are you sure you two can’t work it out? I mean, I know you broke up, but she clearly really likes you and I can tell you care about her.”

  “Sorry, did you miss the guy she was dry humping?”

  I roll my eyes. Boys can be so clueless. “She was doing that to get your attention, Chase. She just wanted you to notice her.” He raises an eyebrow and a cocky smirk appears on his face. I immediately feel uneasy. “What?”

  He reaches out and turns me then starts moving me backward, doing it so quickly I don’t have time to resist. Suddenly my back is to the wall with him standing in front of me, crowding me in.

  “Uh, what are you doing?” I ask, my heart rate speeding up.

  “You don’t need to worry about Abigail. She has some things going on and she can’t deal with change, but she’ll get used to us being done permanently,” he explains, speaking conversationally like he isn’t standing so close to me I can see his green eyes have flecks of gold in them, something I’ve never noticed before.

  “Oh, o-okay,” I stammer out nervously as he takes a step even closer. What is he doing?

  “You know, it really is a good way to get someone’s attention—kissing someone else in front of them.”

  I gulp as he raises his eyebrows questioningly, and I know exactly what he’s hinting at. We haven’t kissed since that day in the cafeteria and if I’m honest, I knew it was only a matter of time—not that that makes me feel any better. He purposely shifts slightly to the right so I can see over his left shoulder, and my gaze immediately falls on Jessie. He’s looking right at us, paying no attention at all to Courtney, who is prancing around in front of him. We definitely have his attention.

  I start to shake my head, suddenly incredibly nervous. “But, um…Abigail isn’t here, you know, so…it, um…it won’t benefit you at all.”

  Chase grins down at me, knowing I’m nervous but still pushing me a little. “I’m willing to take one for the team.”

  Our eyes meet, his dancing mischievously, and I know he won’t force this on me. He’s made it obvious that he’s down for this, but if it’s going to happen, it’s my decision, and I have to make that final move. My chin automatically tilts up, like I have no control over it, to give him better access to my mouth. His grin gets wider and he drops his head down toward mine. He hesitates for a second as if waiting to see if I’m sure, and even though all I can see is Chase’s laughing eyes at the moment, Jessie’s face flashes in my mind and makes the choice for me. I don’t wait any longer; I reach up on my tiptoes and press my mouth to his.

  Chase doesn’t hold back—not at all.

  I match him completely, and as his tongue slips into my mouth and his arms wrap around my waist and haul my body against his, all thoughts of Jessie leave my mind and I’m there. I’m there in it as Chase kisses me like there’s no tomorrow, like this is his last night on earth, and I’m responding. I’m definitely responding as my hands weave through his hair and I’m pulling him farther into me. If I thought our last kiss was hot, this one is scorching. Seconds turn into minutes, and I don’t want to stop. So, I don’t, not for as long as possible. It’s only when I genuinely think I might run out of air that I pull away.

  I take in big gulping breaths and can hear Chase doing the same, his arms still wrapped around me, and I’m grateful because if he let go of me right now, I think my legs would actually buckle. I keep my head straight, eyes level with his chest, and I don’t look at him. I can’t look at him right now, not after we just did that. He squeezes my waist and steps slightly back, somehow sensing that I need space. He turns so he’s standing beside me, no longer blocking my view of the room, and I can see eyes on us. Yeah, people definitely noticed that. Anyone who might have doubted us before certainly won’t now. I catch sight of Sophie in the corner with Mark and Aaron, both of them smirking at us, and Sarah Billington is of course blatantly staring, but it’s Jessie that I focus on. He’s standing frozen in the middle of the dance floor, ignoring everyone around him as he stares at me. Our eyes meet then he turns on his heel and walks out of the room, leaving Courtney and everybody else behind.

  Chase drops an arm around my shoulder, but I still don’t look at him. I’m still reeling from what just went down and the look on Jessie’s face. He leans in and drops a kiss on my temple before his mouth finds my ear. “Yeah, babe, I definitely think he noticed.”

  I FEEL STRANGELY NERVOUS GOING to school on Monday. After the kiss on Saturday night, I didn’t know what to do. I mean, I definitely kissed Chase back, and I was into it—way too into it. I’m scared he realized as much, but I mean, that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s supposed to look like we’re together, like we’re into each other, and if Sophie’s word is anything to go by, we definitely looked like we’re into each other. She wouldn’t stop going on about it yesterday when she came over, but after twenty minutes of her chattering on and on about how hot we were together, I banned her from talking about it again.

  There’s no denying it: I’m worried about seeing Chase. After our kiss, I kinda froze, and he definitely noticed. I mean, you couldn’t not notice. I stood there rigid as hell and barely spoke a word for the rest of the night, not even when Tia and Maria came over and tried to get us to join in a drinking game. Eventually he drove me home and I barely managed to mumble my thanks for the evening, the date, everything, before I practically ran inside.

  I walk through the entrance to school and head down the main hallway then cut a right toward my locker. Before I have time to think about switching directions, I see Chase leaning up against it, eyes locked on me and not giving me an opportunity to duck away.

  I stop a couple of steps away, my eyes darting around nervously.

  “Hey.” His voice is low, gentle almost, like he knows he needs to talk like that to avoid spooking me.

  “Hi.”

  He stares at me for a minute. “You didn’t answer my texts yesterday.”

  I nod. I didn’t. I didn’t know how to act after that kiss. It’s not like I’ve been in this situation before. “Sorry, I was, uh…” I trail off. Who am I kidding? I don’t know what to say.

  He turns so his back is leaning against the locker next to mine, no longer looking at me, and it gives me room to bre
athe. I take the last couple of steps to my locker, spinning the combination and throwing it open.

  “So we did some pretty good acting on Saturday night, huh?”

  I slide my eyes to him and see he’s looking at me, his eyes twinkling.

  Acting.

  He’s letting me off the hook, and I manage a smirk, relief flooding me. Yes, that’s what that was. I was caught up in the moment and when you’re acting like someone is your boyfriend the whole night and they’re being so nice to you, you’re bound to get confused and carried away.

  “Acting?” I ask, because I need it confirmed to stop these weird butterflies in my stomach.

  “Yup, acting. I mean, I’m so good at it I should consider auditioning for the school play.”

  I snicker. He really is ridiculous sometimes.

  “We definitely had Stephenson convinced, and I got a bitchy text from Abigail so it obviously got back to her and worked there too.” I want to hug him. I want to hug him for bringing it back to what it is and reminding me why we’re doing this in the first place, for not making it weird.

  I shrug. “I mean, we were pretty good.” I can’t believe he’s managed to make me joke about this. This is so unlike me. I was freaking out about it all day yesterday and now I’m joking around? Not stressing about it at all? Chase has skills.

  He turns to face me fully, leaning toward me slightly. “And you, Chapman—you might pretend to be all shy and shit”—I shake my head but can’t help the smile that crosses my face—“but you have serious skills. I see an Oscar in your future. Seriously, I should get your autograph now while you’re still willing to be seen with the little people.”

  I laugh out loud, because he’s that outrageous. I reach out and shove him away from me, shaking my head.

  He crosses his arms over his chest. “We good?” He might look confident, but there’s a hint of caution in his voice.

  I smile and nod. “Yeah, Chase. We’re good.”

  “He’ll get bored of you, you know.”

  I glance up from my notebook. I’m at my desk in trig waiting for the teacher to arrive and start the lesson. I frown when I see Abigail standing over my desk. She’s not in this class.