We were both captains of our respective basketball teams and shared most of the same classes. It was one of many things we had in common.
“Diana wants to go to your game on Thursday with me,” Rex said.
I tensed at that. We always went to one another’s games for moral support. Always. It was one of our many ‘things’—the habits and rituals that made up our tight friendship. “Do you want to bring her?”
He’d never brought a date to one of my games before. I could handle it; I never let my personal feelings affect my game. But I wasn’t loving the idea of him sitting in the audience with his attention divided between me and Diana. Games were our thing.
“Nah,” he said, his tone resigned. “I should have the talk with her before that. It’s time.”
I heard the conviction in his voice and felt for Diana. When Rex made up his mind about something, he never ever wavered.
If he made a vow, he didn’t break it.
Ever.
Not even if he’d made that vow in middle school.
I swallowed down the familiar pain. I’d gotten so used to it over the years, I could almost ignore it. I could forget that I’d gone and fallen in love with my best friend at some point when I wasn’t paying attention.
It was just harder sometimes than others. Like, times like this when I had to pretend that I didn’t care that he was dating someone else. Or when I had to coach him on how to break up with a girl I’d known wasn’t right for him from the start.
He started to laugh and I looked over at him. He arched his brows. “Do you know, she tried to pull the whole Love Quiz thing on me?”
I winced. Love Quiz was this stupid app that some high schooler from the East Coast developed and it had swept through high schools and colleges like a plague. It was being hailed as the dating app to end all dating apps. But it wasn’t really a dating app, it was more like a super invasive big brother app that monitored your social media and online interactions and claimed to tell you who your true love match should be.
It was total hogwash, obviously. Neither of us believed in it.
Though that hadn’t stopped either of us from installing it.
I grimaced now because I knew what poor Diana was hoping. She wanted him to be her match after a couple weeks of dating.
“I told her it was probably too soon to tell,” he said.
“Very tactful of you,” I said approvingly.
He scoffed and nudged my elbow with his arm. “Well, it’s not like I could tell her that I get you every time I open the stupid thing, now could I?”
I laughed because I knew that was what was expected. We’d both installed it on the same day, right around the time that everyone was getting into it. We didn’t check our results for the first few weeks—the app said to give it time. But we’d checked it randomly and repeatedly these past few months and we got each other as our love match every time.
Every. Single. Time.
Even when he was in the midst of “dating” someone new. Nothing we did seemed to budge the results.
Granted, I didn’t date, but still…
That’s right, I was that weirdo who’d never gone on a real date. I’d never had a real kiss. I was a loser, plain and simple.
For the record, I’d been asked out before, I’d just never said yes. It didn’t seem fair to go into a relationship knowing that I’d already given my heart to my best friend.
“Did she want to see your results?” I guessed.
He nodded. “Apparently, this is the new thing with couples. Sharing your results is like a relationship status or something.”
I wrinkled my nose at this new insight. Rex was always three steps ahead of me for what was the norm with kids our age. He joked that I lived like a grandma. Maybe I did. All I knew was, I had a full plate with schoolwork, basketball, and charity work that I did at the hospital. I didn’t have time to date even if I wanted to.
And I didn’t want to. Not unless a certain clueless basketball star came to his senses and realized that we were basically already dating.
Minus the kissing.
And the romance.
And…okay, yeah. We weren’t dating at all. We just had the meaningful conversations and the trust and the fun and the inside jokes. But we’d never date, because that would just be going way too far. I mean, dating? Gasp. The horror.
My sarcasm had a way of coming out in my thoughts. It was the only way I managed to get through the day without smacking Rex upside the head.
“So yeah,” he was saying. “I mean, she pulled the Love Quiz card, which means I really have to end things now, right?”
He gave me a quick glance. He was looking for my approval. Rex was a sweetheart. One of the good guys. He never wanted to hurt anyone, least of all a girl he liked enough to date.
I let out a sigh disguised as a loud exhale as we rounded a bend that took us back onto my street.
It would be so much easier to move on and like someone new if Rex wasn’t such a good guy. Just once I wished he’d do something totally callous and mean. Something that would help me get over him like ripping off a Band-Aid.
But nooo.
I knew him too well. Even if he did something thoughtless, I knew that deep down, he was the kindest guy I knew.
“If you don’t think you two have a future, then ending it now is probably for the best,” I said.
He nodded. “You’re right.”
He looked so glum thinking about the potential breakup, that I gave him a little shove that made him laugh as he stumbled and then righted himself, sprinting faster to catch up to me.
“Want to race the rest of the way?” I asked.
“Those there are some big words, Jessie May,” he teased, using the nickname my mother called me. “Guess somebody finally woke up.”
I picked up my pace, loving the rush of adrenaline that flowed through me whenever he and I were caught up in a challenge—be it a race, a Monopoly game, or just a dare. I thrived on that sort of rivalry with him, and Rex did too.
I felt him keeping pace beside me, I heard his breath rushing in and out. When we ran like this, it felt like we were two parts of a whole, pushing each other. Making each other better.
These were the moments that made all the heartache and longing worth it.
I’d get over those feelings for him one day. I had to, right? I mean, it wasn’t reciprocated and I wasn’t a masochist, so…yeah, one day this would pass. And when it did? I’d still have my best friend at my side.
That’s why we made our deal in the first place, and it was why I’d been keeping my mouth shut these last few years.
“Woohoohoo!” I cheered for myself as I hit my driveway, my hands over my head like a champion.
Rex bent over and rested his hands on his knees. “No fair,” he said with zero heat. “You got a…” He stopped to pant. “A head start.”
“Uh huh,” I teased. “You keep telling yourself that, Rexman.”
He grinned as he came toward me. I knew what he was going to do and I squealed with laughter before he even reached me. When he tickled my sides, I bent over and the two of us fell onto the ground in helpless laughter.
“You jerk,” I said. “You’re such a poor loser.”
“And you’re too easy to torment,” he said.
This was true. Tickle torture had been his way of getting even whenever I won starting sometime in junior high. It was the only way he could get the best of me, and he knew it.
We lay there panting for a bit, winded from tickling and running and in no hurry to start the school day.
Rex sat up first. “Come on, sunshine.” He reached a hand down to help me up.
It was a platonic move he’d done a thousand times. The fact that I felt a jolt of electricity meant nothing.
It was in my head, and I knew it.
If it was real, he’d feel it too, right?
I tugged my hand out of his when we were standing. “You stink, Rex. I bet I can shower
and be back out here before you…”
This was a typical start to our day. Rex drove me to school and we were forever trying to beat each other out the door. It was a good thing I didn’t mess much with makeup and hair or I’d never win.
I looked over to Rex, anticipating that slow grin I loved so much, but his attention was fixed on the house next door to mine.
“He’s back,” Rex said.
I glanced over and saw Tommy Miller’s beaten-up old Subaru in the driveway. Even if we didn’t recognize the navy blue clunker, the U of M bumper stickers were a dead giveaway. We hadn’t seen much of Tommy since he went off to college and when he came home it was always big news.
Why?
Because it gave Rex ammunition to tease me. As if he needed more of that.
His grin was wicked and full of mischief as he came over and bumped my hip with his. “Lover boy is home,” he said in a ridiculous sing-song voice. “Maybe this time you’ll get up the nerve to make a move.”
I rolled my eyes as heat crept into my cheeks. “Shut up,” I muttered.
One time I admitted to having a crush on my neighbor—way back in fifth grade—and Rex never ever let me live it down.
Truth be told, I’d stopped crushing on Tommy Miller in sixth grade and I’d barely given him a second thought since. But Rex had gotten it into his head that I had a longstanding infatuation for Tommy and having him believe that took some of the pressure off me when the topic of crushes and boys came up.
It was easy enough to just let him believe that I was pining away for my college-bound neighbor rather than let him suspect that the reason I had no interest in the boys of Coleridge High was because I’d gone and fallen in love with him.
I eyed the car in the driveway warily. If he was home, then Rex would never stop teasing me. I barely survived Tommy’s trip home for Christmas break without snapping at Rex to leave it alone already. He’d been hellbent on getting me to ask him out, fully believing that I’d just been too shy to make a move on my crush. I’d barely seen the guy since he’d gone off to college, let alone had any meaningful conversations with him. I had no idea why Rex thought that I was still hung up on the guy, but he did.
He was wrong. So very wrong.
But I wasn’t about to tell him that.
But now Tommy was back—in February, which was weird. And I had no idea how long I’d have to deal with Rex’s well-intentioned nagging.
I shoved him away from me and started toward my house. “Ten minutes, Rexman,” I called to him over my shoulder. “Don’t be late.”
Chapter 2
Rex
“Aw, come on,” I said to Jessica as she sank down onto the bench seat beside me in the cafeteria. “This could be fun.”
She pursed her lips and arched her brows in a way I knew very well.
She didn’t believe me. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure how this would go down, either, but I was willing to give it a shot. See, in our psych class we’d been assigned to be a part of a group project. We had to either try and prove or disprove the Love Quiz app and the theory behind it that love could be quantified and predicted.
Our group obviously chose to disprove it. The app was a joke. It was as accurate as horoscopes or fortune cookies, and anyone with half a brain knew that. I mean, look at my results. Jessica and I kept getting each other even though we were only ever best friends.
Always had been, always would be.
Everyone knew that, which was why our team leaders—Edie and Dane—had chosen us to be the twosome who proved just how wrong the app could be. To do this, they wanted to set us up with people they thought would be a better match. At the Valentine’s Day dance in a few weeks, we’d most likely still be matched together because from the data, Jessica and I probably looked like the perfect couple. But in real life, hopefully, we’d both have found a real romantic match and just in time for V-day.
I thought it was a hoot. I mean, how awesome was it that to get a good grade, all we had to do was let Edie and Dane choose people for us to date over the next few weeks. It sounded like a blast to me, but to Jessica…
Well, she was still staring at me like I’d just suggested that eating dog poop would be a good time.
It was hard not to laugh when she was giving me that look. It was the same one she gave me when I’d assured her that she wouldn’t get scared watching Scream if I was with her. It was the look she gave me every time I tried to talk her into a double date. It was the same look she’d worn when I’d tried to convince her to ask Tommy Miller out on a date once and for all.
I freakin’ loved this look. It was so very Jessica—practical, naturally funny, and not afraid to tell me when she thought I was being an idiot.
“Come on,” I said, stealing one of her carrot sticks and sliding some of my fries off my plate and onto hers. Somehow, without even talking about it, we’d fallen into a routine where one of us went full-on healthy in the cafeteria line while the other snagged all our favorite snack foods and then we shared the two meals.
We got our healthy fix and our guilty pleasures. Win-win.
Everything was like that with me and Jessica. We were like this living, breathing yin-yang symbol. An ever-shifting balancing act that just seemed to happen naturally between the two of us. When one of us struggled in some area, the other stepped in to help. When one of us won, we shared the victory.
Honestly, we had just about the best partnership known to man, if I did say so myself. But I hated the fact that I was holding her back. Or, at least, I thought I might be.
I mean, what sixteen-year-old junior never dated? My best friend was a total hottie—all tall, blonde, and beautiful with long legs and perfect curves. She was a ten on anyone’s scale…so why on earth had she never even been kissed?
I leaned forward and took the pickles off her half of the burger.
She hated pickles.
“This could be good for you, Jessie May.”
Her lips did that pinched thing they did whenever I whipped out her mother’s nickname for her. “Don’t you Jessie May me,” she said. “And how on earth is being set up on blind dates supposed to be good for me?”
Before I could respond, she snagged one of the fries and dipped it in the ranch dressing on my plate. “I don’t even think this is legal. Being forced to date for a school assignment?” She furrowed her brows as she chewed. “That’s got to be breaking some law, right?”
I couldn’t stop grinning at her. Honestly, it was rare to see her so worked up about anything. She was pretty laid-back, overall, except on the basketball court. She had a competitive streak, for sure, but when she wasn’t in the midst of a battle, the girl was all slow Southern charm and zero drama. However, ever since we’d walked out of today’s psych class she’d been on edge.
That was why I’d snagged the fries. One look at her in the cafeteria line and I’d known she was in a state that only a salty greasy snack could help.
Sure enough, she shoved the rest of the carrots my way and took more than her share of fries. Any other day I might have teased her about it, but not today.
The girl was freaked, and I thought I knew why.
“Hey,” I said, placing a hand on hers when she reached for my ranch dressing. “If you really don’t want to do this thing, we can talk to Edie and Dane.”
She blinked big blue eyes at me and I got this crazy urge to hold her close. If she wasn’t currently eating and we weren’t sitting side by side on a bench seat, I would have. As it was, I just squeezed her hand and gave her the most reassuring smile I could muster. “We’ll just tell them that you’ve never been on a date before and you don’t want your first time to be some assignment.”
Her jaw fell open. “You wouldn’t dare tell them that.”
I arched my brows. “Why not? It’s the truth. It’s not exactly a secret that you haven’t had a boyfriend.”
She frowned at me, but it wasn’t like I was being mean. I was just stating the facts. “That doesn’t
mean I want to announce it to the world,” she muttered. “If I say that I don’t want to be a team player because…because…” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Ugh, I’d sound pathetic.”
I was frustrated too, but I tried not to show it. This was one topic that Jessica never really wanted to discuss and she always found some way around it.
“Why don’t you want to go out on a date?” I asked.
She shot me a withering glare like the answer was so obvious. Like I was being purposefully obtuse.
I wasn’t.
I mean, I thought I knew what her hang-up was, but there was no way I could help her unless she was willing to admit it.
I sighed and leaned back in my seat. “Jessica, be honest. What are you holding out for?” I gave her a small, teasing smile. “True love?”
She turned away quickly but not before I caught her cheeks turning pink. She ducked her head a bit so her long blonde hair fell forward and covered her face.
Ah crap. Now I’d gone and made her feel bad. I shifted so I was leaning forward and she couldn’t hide. “Jessica, look at me.”
She bit her lip and shook her head.
One of my basketball buddies called out but I ignored him.
I reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, ignoring her sidelong pout and the way she moved away from me.
That was fine. We were touchy-feely friends, but there were limits. I knew that. Sometimes she shrugged me off when I had my arm around her for too long, or she backed away when I was in her space for too long.
The girl had boundaries and I respected that. We’d established our limits a long time ago when we’d made that deal, and there was no way I’d risk her friendship by pushing too far.
But not wanting me to toy with her hair was one thing. Avoiding a major topic was another.
Jessica and I didn’t do secrets and I was tired of pretending like she wasn’t holding out on me.
I grabbed her arms and turned her upper body so she was forced to look at me. “I think I know what’s going on here,” I said.
The Deal Breakers (Love Quiz Book 2) Page 2
