15

I STILL FEEL bad about holding out on Chase with my mom's message.

She had told me to invite him over for dinner, but he'd been with Grace, and I didn't want to dump that on him. Not to mention I could feel—or maybe hoped—that he was slowly starting to grow more comfortable around me.

I didn't want to butcher that because my mom likes my fake boyfriend more than I do.

I couldn't.

And I don't know why. We're hardly friends—three weeks ago, I'm almost ninety percent sure he didn't even know my name, and now...now things have changed. I think.

I actually look forward to seeing him. I like that I have a friend again. Maybe a little too much, I'll admit.

And I will do anything to make sure I don't harm our new friendship. Even if that means lying to my mom and saying he wasn't feeling well.

It made sense in my head—at least at the time. Chase's business was hardly mine—so no way could it be my mother's.

And I knew it would be if I had invited him over with his little sister and her big brown eyes. Mom would have a party.

And even though I had managed to escape her questions yesterday, that didn't stop her from coming to me this morning and telling me to ask if Chase was feeling any better so that he could come over tonight instead.

And I'd had no choice but to agree, knowing if I didn't it would look way too suspicious.

I stuff my head into my locker, groaning.

"Hey, Matthews," I lift my head to see a boy with his arm wrapped around a girl's shoulders nodding his head in my direction.

He walks away casually, as if we've known each other for a long time and always address each other that way. But that can't be true because I have no idea who he is.

My only guess is that he's on the varsity football team, judging off the varsity jacket he has on. And he looks sort of familiar, but not familiar enough I can place a name to his face.

My eyes widen instantly and I turn my gaze back to my sticker-decorated locker, quickly grabbing the last of my textbooks and practically sprinting out of the hallway.

I run a hand through the ends of my hair, turning in the direction of AP Lang when I run into Chase.

And I mean that literally.

My face smashes against his chest, hearing his sound of surprise, and I land promptly on my butt, groaning.

"Jesus, where's the marathon, Matthews?" He chuckles, extending a hand out for me. I accept it gracefully and he hauls me up with zero effort.

"I think you bruised my head," I say, rubbing at my hairline.

"You sure that's not just your ego?" He retorts, grinning. I shoot him a pointed look.

"This will be the second time you've bruised me, you know?" I say, my mind flashing to that day on the field.

"Relax. You got me back for that. And besides, there's no bruise this time," he cups my cheeks in his hands and inspects the crown of my head. My breath lodges in my throat and I can faintly smell that cologne of his.

I instantly back away, "Yeah. Okay. Got it."

I take a few more steps back, trying to ignore the odd look on Chase's face. "I'll see you later!" I shout, cringing at myself and lack of slyness.

His brows only furrow further before his face lights up and I can practically see a lightbulb go off in his head. "Meet me in the cafeteria?" He says, cupping his hands around his mouth.

I bite my lip, but give up almost instantly. "Meet you in the cafeteria." I confirm, and before he can say anything else, I spin on my heel and make my way to class.

The only thing I hate more than secrets and the word "sorry", is West Flynnell High's school cafeteria.

I've always done everything in my power to avoid this place, from its food down to the chatter of students, it all makes me nauseous.

Usually, I hide in the library during this time, occasionally I go in sit out on the quad. But that's only during the winter time. I'm a sucker for snow.

But as it turns out, I have a right to avoid this place. And I realize that the moment I walk in through the double doors, trying my hardest to scan the crowd for Chase.

He had said to meet here, and yet I can't seem to find him anywhere.

And it's not like Chase has a specific physical trait that sets him apart from everyone. There's about a bazillion guys in here with light brown hair.

I stuff my hands into the pockets of my red bomber jacket and crane my neck up further, trying to see past the sea of students at the food line.

"There you are," I recognize the voice almost immediately, and I turn around, coming face to face with Lucas.

He grins at me and offers out a hand, like we're about to waltz through the crowd or something. I hesitate before I huff and let him guide me out of the crowd.

"I was looking for you everywhere, Li. Chase got stuck in a conversation with Coach and asked if I would go and find you," he gives me a look. "You're welcome, by the way."

I drop my arm out of his and sigh. "Thank you so much," I mutter under my breath.

He nods, grinning brightly at me. "Blake and the others are at our table just around the corner," he jerks his head in the direction of one of the large columns but my mind is still going over his previous words.

"I'm sorry—the others?" I sputter. I wasn't told there would be others. Just Chase and I, like how it usually is.

Though I guess it would be kind of odd if Chase didn't introduce his friends to his supposed girlfriend, wouldn't it?

"Yeah, come on, you can sit with us while you wait for lover boy to come back," without a further warning, Lucas jerks me toward the table.

My eyes widen once they've landed on the large seating area. There's about five different guys—all of which I know are on the football team—seated with a tray of the cafeteria's inedible food, and when Lucas slides in next to Blake, making our presence known, all eyes go to me.

Shit. What do I do? I shouldn't wave, right? No, that would be weird.

I settle for a hesitant smile instead, and carefully make my way to the empty spot across from Blake.

To say that the gaze of five huge football players is intimidating would be the understatement of the century. I feel like I'm sweating bullets as each one of their curious gazes probes the side of my face.

Until one of them—which I now realize to be the guy that acknowledged me in the hallway—smiles at me and says, "We heard you have a knack of spilling things over your boyfriends head, think we're gonna see that today?"

I clear my throat, looking toward Lucas who has a sheepish expression on his face, letting me know he was the one who probably told the story and laughed his ass off with the rest of the guys. "That depends on if he decides to show up," I say, trying my best to sound light-hearted.

Though, I'm kind of freaking out. What if they think I just regularly go around spilling water over people's head? I'll admit, that wasn't my brightest idea, but it had felt pretty good when I'd seen the utter shock on his face.

The beer afterwards I could've done without.

"If who decides to show up?" My head lifts at the sound of his voice, and I raise a brow. Chase smirks down at me as he gracefully slips into the seat right beside mine and without another word plants a kiss on my cheek.

I freeze. Like genuinely freeze. I'm pretty sure it looks like I'm playing a good ol game of freeze tag to anyone paying enough attention but I can't help it.

Chase Rhodes just kissed my cheek. And I didn't hate it.

I try to sneak a glance at him as he makes conversation with Blake, but besides the faint blush on his cheeks, there's no indication that what he just did wasn't normal for us.

But that's exactly what it is to the people at this table. Normalcy. Couples usually have at least some small PDA. He's trying to make sure we look like the normal couple we're supposed to be.

My shoulders relax, but some part in the back of my head is frowning at this discovery. I shake it away.

By time lunch is almost over, I've learned everyone's names, indenting them into the forefront of my brain. The one that sticks out most, though, is Kell Daniels, the boy from the hallway and now I recognize as also the boy from Jack Hyde's party.

"I swear to God, she's being way over extravagant for this," Lucas whines, poking holes in his juice box with the sharp end of his straw.

He's been complaining about his sisters choice of party activities for the past five minutes, and with the way no one's aiming to shut him up, I'm guessing he's going to keep going till lunch is over.

Kell throws a football back and forth between his hands, "Didn't you rent a bouncy house the size of your backyard for your eighteenth?"

"Don't act like you didn't have the time of your fucking life on that thing," Lucas grumbles, pointing his straw in Kell's direction. "Besides," he shrugs. "It was a good deal."

Blake rolls his eyes, "I still think you have no room to judge."

"You know what—" Lucas starts but Kell cuts him off with a loud clearing of his throat.

"Why don't we save that energy for the field?" Kell mumbles while absentmindedly turning the football between his fingers.

I have to agree, as much as Lucas and Blake's arguing can be entertaining, I think everyone knows it can go a bit too far.

By the time most of the guys have left for class, Chase sets down the water bottle he had been chugging for the past five minutes and raises a brow at Lucas. "I almost forgot to mention, do you think we can bring plus one's over to Nina's?"

Lucas lifts a shoulder though his eyes are trained intently on his phone, "I doubt she'd notice the difference. You know my sister."

Chase's lips tilt up and he looks over at me, a question glinting in his eyes. I don't know what to say.

For one thing, I haven't exactly had the best luck at high school parties so I have no idea how this might go down.

But I can see a hopeful shine in Chase's eyes and I roll my eyes, "Yeah, sure. Why not."

He grins at me and leans his head next to my ear, his breath warm on my skin, "Thank God," he says. "I suck at picking out gifts but you've just saved my life."

I bite my lip to hide a smile.

Lucas groans, "Can you guys not? I'm eating here!" He points down to his tray that's actually almost empty and Blake whacks his arm.

"Don't be jealous, Lucas. I'm sure you'll find someone that will be able to tolerate your presence," Chase smirks.

A laugh bursts out of me before I can stop myself.

"Oh, I see," Lucas narrows his eyes. "Now that you guys are happy in couple-land or whatever it's called, you're going to gang up on me now?" He grumbles then turns to me. "I thought we had something real here, Li," he sniffles.

A smile tugs at my lips but I do my best to keep my face as stoic as possible. "Sorry, Lucas. It just wasn't meant to be."

"Hey, back off," Chase grumbles playfully, throwing an arm around my shoulder. The weight of it is heavy on my shoulders, but in more of a comforting way than anything.

Lucas fake pukes and begins to pack up his things, "Yeah. Not gonna happen, see you love birds later!" He hollers, making his way to the double doors.

I watch as he exits and instantly feel the loss of warmth when Chase removes his arm and begins to gather his own trash.

I suddenly don't want him to leave, which is why when I call out his name and he turns to me with curious eyes I blurt, "My mom was wondering if you could come over today? You know, for like a dinner...it's just you haven't technically met my parents and my mom is—"

Chase cuts me off with the shake of his head. "I'll be there, Matthews."

I blow out a breath, realizing how much easier that was than I thought it would be. I keep underestimating the understanding person that is Chase Rhodes. "Great," I clear my throat. "I'll let her know. And I'll text you the rest of the details, okay?"

He smiles, leaning a bit closer. "Okay."