For Real (Rules of Love, Book One) (24 page)

“Well, well, well. The triumphant two have returned. How was your day?” He leans on the back of the couch and wiggles his eyebrows.

“Well, we robbed a bank, and then we bought some drugs, and then we sold them, and then we stole lollipops from children, and then we stole a few cars and blew them up. We had a full day, didn’t we?” I say to Jett who just gives me a look. Javi laughs.

“I like you. You can stick around after this little scenario is over. Why don’t you just come clean with your friends? Or whatever they are now. I mean, what’s the point of keeping this up? It’s clear that you two don’t want to be Fake Dating.” What? What is he talking about?

I look at Jett, but he’s glaring at Javi. I think I’m missing something. Something big.

“And with that, I’m going to keep my mouth shut,” Javi says, grabbing the grocery bags from Jett and heading for the kitchen. He starts humming loudly and I look at Jett for an explanation.

“Are you going to explain?”

“Nope.” His voice is sharp and angry. I’ve only heard that tone a few times before, but I’m feeling feisty after all the rule breaking today, so I’m not letting it go.

“What is he talking about, Jett? Answer me?” I touch his arm, but he turns away from me.

“Just drop it, Shannon. Leave. It. Alone. I can’t talk about it with you.” He starts off angry, but then he’s pleading. Just like when I’d ask him about his family and he would beg me not to ask. He wasn’t ready to tell me.

“Fine. Come find me when you’re ready.” I walk around him and head to the kitchen. The fun part of the day is over and my mood is a little sour now, but that’s not going to stop me from making the most epic nachos ever and then consuming them.

So that is exactly what I do, with Javi’s help. Jett watches, but he’s quiet and withdrawn. No reaching him now. Javi senses there is tension, so he’s extra “on.”

“Your friends are blowing up my phone again,” Jett says quietly, showing me the texts. They’re in all caps and quite forceful. I still don’t want to deal with them. I’d said what I wanted to say, and they needed to sit and think about it for a little while. Didn’t they have anything better to do than worry about me?

I tell Jett to ignore the messages, so he does, and turns his phone off. That’s enough of that.

The nachos we make are of astronomic proportions. Hot dogs, hamburger, pepperoni, hot sauce, jalapenos, olives, onions, tomatoes, fresh cilantro, chicken, ranch seasoning, black beans, mushrooms and two different kinds of cheese.

“Those are some insane fucking nachos,” Javi says as we watch the cheese bubble while they’re in the oven. It’s going to take forever to cook with all that crap on it, but we’re patient. Or at least I am.

“I think I will . . . go to my room for a while so I don’t disturb the cooking process,” Javi says with a look from me to Jett. Subtle.

As soon as the door shuts, he turns his music on so loud he couldn’t eavesdrop, even if he wanted to.

“What’s up with you? I know you don’t want me to ask, but I’m going to ask. If you don’t want to do this, then we don’t have to do this. You can say the word right now. End it. Done.”

Jett licks his lips and grips the counter.

“I don’t want it to end.”

“Well, we still have another week or so.”

“No, I don’t want it to end in a week. I don’t want it to end . . . at all.” The silence at the end of his sentence makes me swallow hard. Words evade me as I think about what he’s just said. I almost want to make him repeat it to make sure I’ve heard him right.

“Please say something. I didn’t want to tell you, but you backed me into a corner, Shan.”

“Hold on, I’m thinking. This is unexpected. I didn’t plan for this. I mean, I know I fell for you, but I didn’t think that you would—” I stop. Oops. Didn’t mean to tell him that.

“You fell for me?” His voice is so quiet that I almost don’t hear it.

Then the stupid timer dings and it’s like a gunshot. Both of us jump as if we’ve actually been fired at. Robotically, I move away from Jett and to the oven, turning it off and pulling out the nachos. I hear Jett move behind me and his arms are on my shoulders and he’s breathing in my hair . . .

“Shannon?”

There’s a frantic knock at the door.

“Mother fucker,” I say as Javi bursts from his room.

“Don’t mind me, carry on.” He looks out the peephole and then back at me, his face dropping.

“It’s Hazel. And the rest of the friendtourage. What do you want me to do?” Jett keeps backing away from me and I can’t think straight from the quick turn of events.

“We can do this later,” Jett says, backing even further away from me. He’s shutting down again, so even if I tell them go to away, he and I are not going to deal with this right now.

Hazel pounds again.

“Come on, Shan. I know you’re in there. I just want to make sure you’re okay. I’m worried about you and I miss you and the girls are here and they feel even more like shit and they’re here to apologize. So tell Javi to let us in.” I sigh, but nod to Javi. Guess my idea of letting them think about what they’ve done for a while was a stupid one.

He unlocks the door and opens it slowly.

“I am letting you in because she told me to. If she tells me that she wants you to leave, then you will leave. Understand?” He flexes his muscles just a little bit for good measure.

“Are you her bouncer now?” Hazel says as she walks in and heads right for me. She tries to put her arms around me, but I step back. The rest of the “friendtourage” shuffles in behind her, looking like they’re being led to the gallows.

“You left your phone and I’ve been worried sick. I knew you were here and you needed some time, but I couldn’t take it anymore. We need to talk about this. I can’t stand fighting.” And then she bursts into tears. Ugly, sobbing tears. That’s all it takes for me to melt and put my arms around her. Just like last time. I can’t stand to see her getting that emotional.

“I’m so sorry for treating you that way. You’re right. I take advantage of you, and I was pressuring you and it was wrong and I know that now. I’ll do anything for us to be besties again. You make me a better person. I was such a bitch before I met you.” This makes me laugh a little.

“I was aware of your bitch status, Haze. And it’s not all your fault. I should have stood up for myself. I should have stood up to all of you when you told me that I had to go out and find a guy. I should have told you all to go screw yourselves.” Javi snorts.

Hazel sniffs and I use my thumbs to brush her tears away.

“I’m sorry,” she says again.

“I know.” I hug her again and I hear more sniffling. They’re all crying now. Javi starts handing out the tissues as, one by one, my friends come and hug me and apologize. This was what I wanted all along. For them to treat me like a human being. Their friend. Not someone who needs TERRIBLE advice. Or interventions on her behalf. I explain all this, and they seem to listen. Really listen.

“You have to stop treating me like a child. I’m not. I’m your friend and I’m an adult. I love you, but I need to live my own life.”

They all agree, and there’s more hugging. Javi gives me a round of applause and they all join in and I do a little curtsey. Jett is watching in the back, and I can tell that he’s proud of me, but we still have unfinished business.

This is one step in the right direction.

“Now that that’s over, who wants nachos?” Javi asks, and we all raise our hands. I look over my shoulder at Jett and he gives me a little smile and a wink. I wink back at him.

We need to talk. But first, nachos.

“I’m going to tell them,” I say to Jett as my friends devour the nachos and Javi tells dirty jokes and passes out drinks. “We might as well come out of the proverbial closet.”

He just shrugs.

“That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“I don’t care if you tell them.” Sometimes I want to strangle him. But I like him too much.

“Then you’re coming with me.” I grab his hand and drag him out to the living room and stand in front of Javi’s giant television.

“We have an announcement to make.” I look at Jett and he looks like he’d rather fall through the floor than stand next to me right now. Too bad.

“Jett and I are not dating. We never were. We made a deal that we would pretend to date so that our FRIENDS would stop pestering us to go out and find someone. So. There you have it. Thank you for your attention.” I do another curtsey and start to drag Jett back to the kitchen, but Hazel blocks my way.

“You faked it? The whole thing? Why?” My other friends are too shocked to speak.

“Because you wouldn’t stop pestering me to go to the bar and I didn’t have the balls to tell you to leave me the fuck alone. So rather than confront you, I roped this poor guy into an elaborate scheme with Rules and insanity. I have no idea why he went along with it.” Other than I really, really like Fake Dating Jett.

I turn to Jett, and for the first time ever, his face is beet red. Crap. I shouldn’t have made him come with me. He didn’t ask for this. I’d just gotten mad at my friends for treating me like crap, and now I am turning around and doing it to Jett. I turn to apologize, but he mumbles something under his breath. I move closer to him as my friends start whispering to each other.

“What did you say?” He makes a growling sound.

“Because I liked you! And I wanted to be around you! And now I think I love you!” he yells and the room goes so silent you could hear a mouse sneeze.

“You think you love me?” I say, touching his shoulder.

He faces me and he nods. “Yeah, I do.”

Oh. Wow. I can’t believe it. I know I care for him, but I never imagined he cared about me that much. I look up at the boy with the dragon tattoos and the mohawk and the paper cranes. I care about him so much that I don’t know how I can stand it. He fills my head and my heart and I know that this, right here, is real.

“Well, I think I love you, too.” I’ve been realizing it slowly, day by day, moment by moment. With every paper crane he’d made me, I’d fallen a little more. With every night, I’d gotten a little bit closer.

And now here I am. In Real Love with my Fake Boyfriend.

“What the fuck are you waiting for? Kiss the girl!” Javi yells and I stare into Jett’s shifting eyes and he leans down. And he kisses me.

It’s tender and sweet. He puts his feelings behind it and it’s even better than before. I rise up on my tiptoes and put my arms around him and his arms go around me and it’s everything a kiss should be. Fireworks and confetti and cheering. The latter comes from my friends and Javi.

We finally pull apart.

“So does this mean that you will be my Real Boyfriend now?”

“Yeah, I think it does, Real Girlfriend.”

And we kiss again to seal the deal.

“So there’s something I have to tell you, in the interest of full disclosure,” Jett says that night when we’re getting ready for bed. Javi has vacated the place to give us the night alone, and I’m freaking out.

This is the first time we’ll be spending the night together without the barrier of the Rules. I’d thrown them away after my friends had left. They’d made me read them out loud as I’d told them about all the silly things Jett and I had done to Fake our relationship. Now it’s just the two of us with nothing between us. Except for the fact that I’m a virgin. But we JUST told each other that we care about each other, and our Real relationship is only a few hours old. I don’t think we really need to get into that right away. Right?