He's With Me (3 page)

“Great, okay,” she said. “Sounds like fun.” She looked back from the

doorway. “Coming, Jake?”

“You bet,” he said, standing up and stretching. “Where my girlfriend goes, I

go.”

Lexie shivered.

I always thought my first boyfriend would be Jake. But I never thought it

would only be pretend….

Chapter 2

The next morning, Lexie was sitting on the front steps, tracing shapes in the dew

with her sneaker, when Jake’s bike appeared at the end of the block. She jumped

and checked for the tenth time whether her tennis racket was securely fastened

to the back of her bike.

“Bye,” Colin said from the doorway. Once of their pugs, Thorn, pressed his

face against the screen door next to him and made a sad noise. “Have fun.”

“Yeah, right,” she said. “
You’re
the one who’s going to have fun. I wish I

could stay home all day, too.”

He nodded, looking down at the ground. Mrs. Willis came up behind him

and swung open the screen door. Thorn trotted out and nosed Lexie’s ankle.

“Are you wearing enough sunscreen, Lexie?” her mother said anxiously.

“Did you bring extra? What about the hat, did you pack the hat I gave you?”

“Yes, Mom,” Lexie said. “I’m wearing enough sunscreen to cover the entire

population of Australia. I think I’ll survive the sun; it’s the pain and humiliation of tennis you should be worried about.”

“Hey, Willis family,” Jake said, skidding to a stop in the driveway. “Ready to

go, Lexie?” She was glad he didn’t make a girlfriend joke in front of her mom. That

would have been tough to explain.

“Sure.” She swung onto her bike. “Bye Colin.”

“Bye.” He went back into the house. Mrs. Willis stayed on the porch,

waving, until Lexie and Jake were halfway up the block and couldn’t see her

through the trees anymore.

Lexie had hardly been able to sleep all night. What was going to happen

that day? What did being a pretend girlfriend mean? What would she have to do?

Who would Jake tell? What would peopll think? She had no idea how to act

around a real boyfriend, let alone a pretend one.

The wind whipped her hair back from her face as they coasted down the hill

to the stop sign. Lexie could feel Jake glancing over at her, and she wondered

whether she looked like a sweaty mess already. As they paused at the corner,

waiting for a car to pass, suddenly he leaned over and put one hand over hers on

the handlebars. Lexie froze. She wanted him to leave it there, but she didn’t want

to seem obvious about wanting him to leave it there.

“Lexie,” he said. She loved the way her said her name.

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay? You look nervous.”

“Well,” she said, “you know, tennis. Me and sports, a bad combination.”

Wow, could I sound like a bigger dork?

“You don’t have to do this,” he said. “If you don’t want to. It’s okay. I can

find another way to get rid of Bree.”

“Oh, that?” she said with a nervous laugh. “I’m not worried about that.

Seriously. Um. It’s the tennis. Never-wrecking tennis.”
Oh, and maybe the fact

that I’m alone with Jake. No Colin. No Karina. Just me and Jake.

“If you’re sure,” he said, taking his hand back to his own handlebars. Lexie

took a deep breath.

“Besides, didn’t you e-mail her already?” she said. “We wouldn’t want her

to think I got sick of you that fast.” She tried to smile.

“True,” he said with a grin. “Okay, but just remember I really appreciate

this.” He lifted up and pedaled ahead, and it took her a minute to recover enough

to follow him.

Summerlodge was down a winding road through pine trees. The camp had

a pool, tennis and basketball courts, sports fields, and a large barn for indoor

activities when it rained. A couple of different summer programs used the camp,

but the one Lexie and Jake were doing was Tennis for Teens.

As they coasted into the parking lot, Lexie spotted a thin, tan figure in white

shorts and a fitted white baby tee leaning against the big Summerlodge sign.

“Uh-oh,” Jake muttered.

“I thought you told her,” Lexie said. “Didn’t you e-mail her?”

“I did,” Jake said. “She didn’t write back. Maybe she didn’t get it.”

Lexie felt an anvil of cold dread settle into her stomach. She’d spent so

much time thinking about how to pretend to be Jake’s girlfriend that she’d

completely forgotten about what Bree McKennis might do to her. Stealing Bree’s

chosen boyfriend – that was definitely didn’t qualify as staying under her radar.

“Just ignore her,” Jake said.

“Very funny,” said Lexie.

They got off their bikes and rolled them into the bike rack. As Lexie knelt to

wrap her lock through the front wheel, she heard the clip-clop of Bree’s high-

heeled sandals coming closer, as if an elegant angel of death were approaching.

“Hi, Jake,” Bree said in her sultry voice. Lexie had always thought Bree was

too skinny to have a voice so low, but it made her sound like an old-time movie

star. It also made her sound bored a lot of the time. That, or she really was that

bored.

“Hey, Bree,” Jake said. How did he sound so casual? “This is my girlfriend,

Lexie.”

Lexie’s hands were shaking so she could barely clip her lock into place, but

she finally snapped it in and stood up. Bree McKennis was studying her with

narrow blue eyes. Her hair was pale, shiny blond and perfectly straight, cut in a

close bob so that a sharp wing of hair hung down on each side of her face. She

kept pushing it back with one long, tan, manicured hand. Bree loved to wear

white to show off her tan, and she always seemed to stay that color all year long.

Colin was convinced that it was fake, and that she went to a salon or used some

product. Whether that was true or not, Lexie’s mom – World’s Most Enthusiastic

Supplier of Sunscreen – would have been appalled to see it.

“Lexie Willis,” Bree said slowly. “I have seen you before.” She narrowed her

eyes even more. “I thought you moved away in elementary school.”

Nope. I just got quieter and better at staying out of your way.

“Guess not,” Jake said when Lexie didn’t respond. “Lucky for me.” He came

around his bike and started helping Lexie unfasten her tennis racket from the

back. Bree leaned against the bike rack, watching like a snake poised to strike.

Lexie could barely breathe, she was so nervous. Could Bree tell that they were

just pretending? What would she do if she figured it out?

Behind them, a car pulled up.

“Howdy-doo, Lexie!” a voice called, and Lexie winced. It was Mrs. Kim, her

mother’s friend. The Kim had moved to town a year before and Mrs. Kim worked

with Mrs. Willis at the library. At first Lexie’s mom had been convinced that Mrs.

Kim’s daughter Sally would be a perfect new best friend for Lexie after Karina left.

But Sally was much too cool to hand out with Lexie. Bree latched on to her from

day one, so now Sally was one of the most popular girls in school.

Lexie waved at Mrs. Kim as Sally got out of the car and bounced over to the

bike rack. Sally moved like there was always dance music playing in her head. She

had perfect, really long, straight black hair, now back in a ponytail, and although

she was short, like Lexie, she always looked long and graceful. She was wearing

bright clean tennis whites, and Lexie glanced down at her scruffy khaki shorts and

red T-shirt.

“Hey, Bree,” Sally said as she came up.

“Sally,” Bree said with a note of scandalized disapproval in her voice.

“You’re wearing whit.”

“Well, yeah,” Sally said. “They’re tennis whites. That’s the idea.”

“White is
my
color,” Bree said.

Sally giggled. “Don’t worry, Your Highness. My bathing suit is green. By the

time I get to the pool, no one will ever know that I was so out of line.”

Bree sniffed. “Sally, you remember Jake,” she said meaningfully. “This is his

girlfriend.
”

Sally squinted at Lexie. “No way. I didn’t know you guys were dating.”

Lexie suddenly had the horrible realization that if Sally knee, Mrs. Kim

would know, and that meant Lexie’s mom would hear the news before Lexie even

had time to get home. But it was too late to do anything about that now.

“Um, yeah,” Lexie said. “It’s new.”

“Really?” Bree said, rolling her
r
. “When did you guys get together?”

“Last Wednesday,” Jake said.

“Friday,” Lexie said at the same time.

Bree’s eyebrows shot up.

“I asked her on Wednesday,” Jake said quickly, “but she didn’t say yes until

Friday.”

“Oh, how cute,” Bree said in a tone that sounded more like “of, how

repulsive.”

“How did he ask you?” Sally said. She sounded more interested than Bree.

“Was it adorable? Or was it weird?”

Hmm, let’s see. I think I’d have to go with weird.

“You know,” Jake said, perhaps sensing Lexie’s panic.”I just asked her. No

big deal. We should go on it, shouldn’t we?” He started forward and Bree stopped

him with one hand on his chest. Looking straight at Lexie, she draped herself over

his shoulder.

“Oh
boys
,” she said in a teasing, aren’t-we-all-friends-here way. “They

never care about the details. To get the real story, you have to ask the girl. Right,

Lexie? So tell us the details. I want to hear every single thing.”

“It’s totally boring,” Jake said. “And we’re going to be late.”

“We have a few minutes,” Bree said, resting her other hand on his arm so

both hands were holding him in place. “Unless there’s some reason you don’t

want her to tell this story, Jakey.”

Jake and Lexie exchanged glances. Hers said,
She totally knows we’re lying.

His said,
Help! What do we do?

Lexie took a deep breath. Well, she had imagined Jake asking her out a

thousand times. She could describe the perfect scene pretty easily.

“Um,” she said. “It was Wednesday night. I decided to walk Thorn and

Alanna – those are our dogs – to the park on the corner. When I came out the

door, Jake was there, on the porch. He looked like he’d been waiting for a while,

thinking about ringing the doorbell. I thought that was weird, but he asked if he

could come to the park, and I said sure. I gave him Alanna’s leash because she

doesn’t tug on it as much as Thorn does.”

“Your dogs are named Alanna and Thorn?” Sally interrupted. Bree glared at

her, but she didn’t notice. “Seriously?”

“It’s from this series of books I like,” Lexie said, blushing furiously. “Alanna

and Thorn are twins, like me and Colin, so that’s why we picked those names.”

She hadn’t ever thought about her dogs’ names being embarrassing before.

“Go on,” Bree said. “So you and Jake walked up to the park.”

“Yeah,” Lexie said. “And we let the dogs off the leashes in the fenced area,

and then we sat on this bench by the fountain.”

“I know that fountain,” Sally said. “Wow, that’s so romantic.”

“
Sally
,” Bree said. “Stop
interrupting.
”

“And then he put something in my hand.” Lexie said. She had imagined it so

many times, it was like it was real in her head. She could practically see the

expression on his face in the moonlight. “I looked down, and it was this little

origami whale. On one side it said, ‘Lexie…’ And when I turned it over, the other

side said, ‘…will you be my girlfriend?”

“Oh my
God
,” Sally said. “That is the cutest thing I’ve
ever
heard.”

“How could you read it in the moonlight?” Bree said suspiciously.

“There are, um, lights in the park,” Lexie said, jolted back to reality. She

glanced nervously at Jake, but she couldn’t figure out the look on his face. Was he

freaked out? Did he think it was weird that she had come up with that whole

story off the top of her head?

“Oh,” Bree said. “Well. That’s sweet.” She shoved Jake away from her. “I

don’t know why you didn’t want to tell us
that
story, Jake.”

“Guys don’t like girls to know how romantic they can be,” Lexie said, trying

to sound like she had any idea what she was talking about.

“But you waited until Friday to say yes?” Bree asked. Lexie felt like she was

being interrogated. The bright lights and water torture couldn’t be far off.

“Um. I guess I was nervous,” she said. “I haven’t – I mean, Jake’s my first –”

She faltered. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t say, “Jake’s my boyfriend.”

“The important thing is she did say yes,” Jake said smoothly. He put one

arm around Lexie’s shoulders and used this other hand to wrap her arm around

his waist. “Now that you have all the details you need for an in-depth

encyclopedia on the subject, may we please get to camp, Miss McKennis?”

Bree lifted her chin so her wings of hair swung back from her face. “Of

course,” she said, linking her arm through Sally’s. “Come on Sally.” They swept on

ahead, down the path leading to the check-in booth.

Lexie’s heart was racing. Jake’s whole side was pressed against hers, and his

bare arm was resting lightly on her shoulders, and her arm could feel the muscles

in his back through his shirt, and it didn’t seem possible that she could be