The Smirking Jerk (Blake's POV)

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Anita was the only one home when I got back from school.

It was a good thing because that meant I only had to tell her that I would have a visitor today, and she didn't make a big deal out of it.

I wasn't sure how to tell my parents that a girl would come over—I had no idea how they would react. I'd never brought a girl back home.

I had to remind myself though, that having Lexi over didn't mean anything. The fact the she would be in my room, in my space wasn't going to magically turn her into my girlfriend for some reason, or turn her into someone my parents should be slightly worried I'd be alone in a room with, because, like, grandkids.

I hit myself repeatedly with a book in my face.

I really needed to work on my issues.

I looked around at my room. It was kind of a mess. I had clothes lying around everywhere. I started to tidy up quickly, throwing my dirty clothes in the hamper. It was full now and for some reason I didn't want to keep the dirty clothes in my room so I decided to do a trip to the laundry room to drop everything off. Lexi should be there soon.

As I was walking back to my room, Anita caught me in the hall on my way to my room and told me that Lexi was there.

Slight panic attack.

I hurried up the stairs and found her in the library section of my room.

She was reaching for one of Jayden's old Jules Verne book. I couldn't resist. "Oh my god! Don't touch that," I called behind her, acting like I was mad.

The look of pure horror on her face, like she'd been caught doing a heinous crime, was too funny for me to not laugh automatically.

She glared at me. "What's so funny?"

"You should have seen your face," I explained, still laughing.

My Pumpkin was not happy. "You know you're a hateful shrew of a person."

I smirked. "Sure!"

"What's with the French books?" she asked, Voyage au centre de la terre in her hand.

What should I say? Should I play dumb? Should I invent a rhetoric that would make sense for her?

No. The truth. The whole truth. That was the only way she would ever trust me or care for me.

"I speak French you know Pumpkin," I answered, walking up to her on the platform where my library was.

The look of utter disbelief on her face was quite amusing. "Yeah right."

"And German and Spanish and a little Italian," I continued, a smile plastered on my face. "But I'm better in French, well actually I'm perfect." I didn't want to toot my own horn, but I'd spend a fait amount of time in France and I read as many books in French as I did in English. I wasn't tying to show off, not particularly, I was just trying to show Lexi who I really was.

I wasn't as much of an idiot as she was making me out to be.
"Yeah right," Lexi repeated, still clearly not believing me.

It made sense. Lexi knew... well nothing about me really. The things she thought she knew about me were mostly rumors or her own misjudgement of me.

I grabbed a book to keep my hands busy. The first tome of À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust, the king of the run-on sentence. I'd never finished it. The narrator aka Marcel was the definition of first world problem, but Josh kept telling me that anyone who had a one-sided crush should read Proust's seven volumes and that if after reading that they still thought their love was real and worth it, they were allowed to go on.