Archaic (8 page)

"It was nice to see you, Jared," Anne said back before turning to me. "I'm going to finish the gardening in the back yard."

As Anne turned to go back inside the house, she raised her eyebrow and smiled at me. I would have some explaining to do later...

"As much as I would like to stand outside your front porch and take in the scenery, it would be better for us to talk somewhere no one can hear us," Jared said.

I didn't see any point in fighting him on that.

"Follow me," I said with a wave of my hand, motioning him to follow me as I led him into my house. I turned back to make sure he was following me and I could see him looking around the house as he followed me up the stairs. Even dressed casually in a faded pair of jeans and a plain blue T-shirt, he still looked like he had stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine.

Reluctantly I led him up into my bedroom. I really didn't want him in my house, never mind in my own room, but I didn't really have a choice. It was the only place I could guarantee someone wouldn't interrupt us. He walked in and I closed the door firmly behind him. I stood watching him while he walked over to my bed and sat down casually on the edge. There was no way I was going to sit next to him on the bed, so I leaned against my bedroom door and crossed my arms, looking at him expectantly.

"To keep it believable we keep the story very close to what actually happened last night. We saw each other at the party and we couldn't keep our hands off each other," he exaggerated with a smirk on his face. The blush that crept into my cheeks made his smug smile bigger. He knew the effect he had on me. Correction: the effect he had on the opposite sex.

"We decided to leave the party and come back to my place and continued our make-out session." Thoughts of the near kiss on his bed in his bedroom made me blush all over again. He saw my reaction and smiled again. It was a dead giveaway that last night had gotten to me. It might have been a game to him, but it had been real to me.

Stupid! Stupid girl
, I cursed internally.

"Then later I walked you to your house," he finished as he stood up and walked over to me.

"What about Felicity?"

"What about her?" he asked back with a frown.

"Aren't you guys..." I began to ask.

The crease in his forehead deepened as he waited for me to explain what I was getting at.

"...dating?" I finished.

He shook his head.

"No. There isn't anything going on between us."

I hadn't expected that.

"You thought there was something between Felicity and I?" he asked with a smirk.

"I'm not the only one," I said, trying to defend the fact I wasn't the only one who had taken their closeness for something else.

He walked to me and stopped in front of me. I just wanted to wipe that smug smile off his face. Instead I turned and opened my bedroom door and ushered him out of my room.

As he was about to leave, he stopped and turned around. "I haven't told anyone in my group about you discovering our secret. At the moment I think it's best to keep it quiet."

"Fine. It isn't like I was going to wander up to them at school and tell them that I know all about them," I said sarcastically, causing him to smile.

For a few moments his eyes held mine.

"See you at school," he said, and then he turned and left.

He was barely out of the front door before Anne was in front of me, wanting details.

"He is such a nice boy," she said, and I rolled my eyes.

He was anything but nice. Hot, anger provoking, more than human, but not nice.

"Did he really just come by to get notes?" she asked and I realized for the first time how perceptive she was.

She gave me a knowing smile when I hesitated.

"Yes," I said quickly, not wanting to give her the wrong impression. "He came over to get some of my English notes."

"Really?"

I narrowed my eyes at what she was suggesting. "There isn't anything. He and I are never going to happen." Hopefully that was the end of the conversation.

"I saw the way he looked at you." She wasn't letting go.

I gave up. Nothing I said was going to convince her otherwise. I gave her a quick kiss on her cheek before I watched her walk to the back yard to continue with her gardening. I still didn't know how anybody found putting their hands into dirt relaxing.

My phone started to ring and I went into the living room to retrieve it from the coffee table.

"Hi," I answered.

"Hi," Kennedy greeted before getting straight to the point. "So what happened last night?" she asked. There was no beating around the bush.

I held my breath for a moment, trying to organize my lie.

"He kissed me," I lied. We'd nearly kissed, and then he'd pulled away. Anger flared in my veins when I remembered my reaction to him.
Douchebag!

"Wow!" she squealed, and I rolled my eyes. "That's great! Did he kiss well?" she asked.

I wanted to tell her that he was a lousy kisser, but she wouldn't believe that. Looks weren't everything. It didn't matter how hot he was, he was still a douchebag.

"Yeah."

"Are you going to see him again?" she asked with bated breath.

"I'm not sure," I replied, hating the fact that I'd been pushed into a situation where I had to lie.

We talked for a few more minutes before we said our goodbyes and I promised I'd give her more details on Monday when we were back at school.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. My house was starting to feel like a train station. I opened the door and Stacy bounded in with my overnight duffel bag and jacket from last night in her hands.

"I want all the details," she said excitedly as she dragged me to my room. "I want to know everything. Don't leave a thing out."

She sat expectantly on my bed.

"It was nothing."

"Nothing? You went home with Jared Walker! That's not nothing." She made it sound like I had gone home with some celebrity and not just a guy from our school.

"We kissed and made out. And that was about it." I saw from the expression on her face that I hadn't given her enough details.

"How was it?"

"It was okay," I replied, unsure of how to describe it. How could I describe a kiss that hadn't actually happened? In reality there had only been an almost-kiss to prove a point.
Asshole!

Stacy sat there and blinked.

"Just okay?" she asked. My description was clearly not living up to his reputation.

"It was great. He was a good kisser," I lied as well as I could. Stacy smiled, happy with my answer.

"So are you guys, like, together or was it just a one-off thing?" she prodded. I didn't have an answer to that question. He'd just said to tell people that we hooked up, he hadn't said anything about an ongoing thing. Problem solved.

"I think it was really only a one-time thing."

"You're so lucky," she gushed. "He's never been seen with a girl other than Felicity. So the rumors are wrong, if he's hooking up with you?" She looked at me for confirmation.

"Apparently." I felt a knot in my stomach. Felicity. I hadn't really thought this whole situation through. Although Jared insisted that there was nothing going on between him and Felicity, I was pretty sure that she still had a thing for him. My life was getting more and more complicated by the day. One thing was certain: tomorrow was going to be interesting.

Stacy stayed until nearly dinnertime, talking about the previous evening. When I finally changed the conversation away from Jared and myself to her and David, she told me about how much she really liked him but she wasn't sure he felt the same. They both openly flirted with each other, but neither of them seemed brave enough to cross the line and make a move on the other person.

"You're not the shy type, so why haven't you made a move on him yet?" I asked her.

"Normally I'm anything but shy, but with him I am. I'm a little old-fashioned. I want him to make the first move. Just hope I don't die of old age waiting for him," she said and sighed. "I wish he'd drag me away to make out like Jared did with you."

If only she knew that it was a lie and nothing had happened between us. And despite wanting to dislike him, I didn't. There truth was I liked him a lot.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The next day at school was completely and utterly nerve-wracking. When I arrived at school, everyone stopped and stared at me. They'd all probably heard about Jared and me and they were trying to figure out what Jared saw in me. In their shoes, I'd be contemplating the same. At least that was the only reasonable scenario that I could think of. Unsure of how to deal with all the unwanted attention, I tried to ignore everyone and continue as normal.

Kennedy had wanted more details about Jared and me. Under her curious gaze I lied as well as I could, hoping she, along with Stacy--who was standing beside her with a similar look on her face--would believe me.

"Did it give you butterflies?" Stacy asked with a dreamy expression.

Everything about him except that smug mouth of his gave me the butterflies.

I nodded and she said, "That's so romantic."

And I wanted to roll my eyes. Even though I was pretty sure I was developing a crush on him, it didn't mean I was going to fall at his feet like some lovesick puppy. I remembered how he'd almost kissed me, and that had been anything but romantic. There was no reason to add to the lie that was Jared and me. In a few days everyone would forget about it and move on to something else.

I made my way with Kennedy and Stacy to our first class of the day, which was English. I was nervous as Jared would also be there, and I was still unsure of how to act around him. I decided to ignore him and act like nothing had ever happened. Kennedy and Stacy took their usual seats on either side of me while I nervously tapped my pencil against the desk and tried not to focus on the classroom door. I didn't even have to see him--I wasn't sure how it was possible, but I could feel him as he entered the classroom.

He strolled in casually and walked past me, sitting down behind me. I fidgeted anxiously, feeling the heat of his gaze on the back of my head. I just sat there, unsure as to whether I should greet him or just ignore him. It felt like the easier option was to keep my eyes fixed in front of me. It also didn't help that Stacy and Kennedy kept looking back at him during the lesson. I was about to walk out with my friends as the bell sounded when I felt a hand wrap around my wrist. I paused, gulping at the feel of familiar fingers on my skin, and turned to see Jared holding my wrist.

"Hi," he said, looking intently at me and smiling. His smile made my knees go weak.

Stupid girl
, I thought aggressively in my head.
Don't let him affect you so much!

But it was like one smile from him turned my insides to mush.

"Hi," I greeted back, almost nervously, and wet my lips with my tongue.

My friends looked at us and then decided to make themselves scarce. They would be drilling me about this later. All the other students had left the classroom already so that left us completely alone. His smile disappeared and he released my wrist. He'd been putting on a show in front of my friends and the rest of the students.

"Did they believe the story?" he asked calmly as he ran his hand through his hair. His tousled hair fell back into place.

"I think so..." I replied, slightly unconvinced. I held my backpack strap a little tighter.

"Good," he replied, and without another word he turned and walked out of the classroom, leaving me standing there on my own.

I felt dejected.

I knew that the whole hookup thing was a cover-up for the truth. He knew it and I knew it, but I couldn't help the feelings that surfaced whenever he was around me. A glance from him set the butterflies in my stomach fluttering and that damn smile made my knees go weak every single time. Yes, he'd proven on Saturday that we had chemistry, but I had to find a way to ignore those feelings because I could never act upon them. I took a deep breath and psyched myself up.

You can do this
, I kept chanting in my head as I walked to my next class.

At lunchtime I walked into the cafeteria. I glanced toward Jared's table and saw Felicity sitting with Neve. Neve's attention was on Felicity as she was talking, but Felicity had her gaze fixed firmly on me. I could tell by the anger on her face that she'd found out about Saturday. I turned from her glare and walked toward my usual table.

I saw Andrew with his back to me sitting at the table with Stacy and Kennedy sitting opposite him, leaving the only space for me being right beside him. My friends looked up when I got to the table.

"Hey, there," I greeted them, putting my things down on the table.

I could tell from their excited expressions that they were dying to find out what Jared had said after they had left, but they couldn't ask with Andrew sitting at the table. That led me to my next question. Why was Andrew sitting at our table instead of at his own?