The Deal

Chapter 7

Well wasn't it just the most fantastic thing ever that she'd spent her sixth-to-last day trying to make sure Jake got his money back. So now she had five days. And it was Saturday.

The weekend was a thing. Right.

So she wouldn't be seeing Jake until Monday, meaningshe would only have three days left to get him to kiss her. How was that supposed to happen? Yeah, she was making progress, but nowhere near fast enough to get a guy like Jake to at least develop a shallow crush on her in three days.

Maybe she could just kiss him, take a selfie, say "Thanks!" and walk away.

But... the deal hadn't been that she had to kiss Jake.

It had been that Jake had to kiss her.

So did it have to be his decision then, or did he just have to respond? Or... gosh this was so confusing!

Right now she had five days, sure. But she wouldn't actually see him till Monday... unless...

She whipped out her phone. Normally she'd be worried about sounding like she had a crush on him or was just clingy and trying to get him to like her, but, well... that was kind of the point... and she doubted Jake read that far into this stuff anyway.

Hey Jake - you have plans this weekend? She hit send and waited for him to respond.

He must not have been on his phone at that exact moment - which, well, Sammi couldn't blame him (going by Sammi for the whole weekend, courtesy of Leah. Well. At least she'd helped with the money), but after about seven minutes, he replied, No, just doing homework.

Sammi didn't know a ton about Jake, but from what she had gathered, he was the type to take his homework seriously and get it all done. (Ever since she'd started paying attention to him, well... he struck her as a good student.)

So, she texted, Do you have a lot of it?

After about three minutes - probably focusing on his homework - she got a reply: No, I just finished.

Well that was good timing! So, do you think we could maybe hang out today or tomorrow?

This time, she got a quicker response (probably because his homework was done): That would be fun.

Which was literally the first time she'd heard him acknowledge that he might actually enjoy doing something.

And for some reason, a part of her got really excited at the fact that he actually thought it would be fun to spend time with her. Probably because it moved her closer to the kiss that she needed to get in five days.

Do you want to like meet up somewhere? And of course, Samantha - or Sammi, as she was going by today, and okay that felt a little more familiar - would need her mother to agree too, and drive her...

Sure.

No suggestions from him, obviously.

Abbott's?

I don't eat ice cream.

Sammi smacked her head. Of course. He'd already told her that. Sorry, forgot! She typed, then paused, and deleted the whole thing. Instead she typed, with a smirk on her face: Abbott's is technically frozen custard.

Oh, well then sure, that's fine.

Sarcastic?

Yes, Samantha, I am a very sarcastic person.

That also felt sarcastic.

It was. But only the second thing. I'm cool to eat frozen custard. I'll explain later.

Huh. That was weird. But the fact that he had actually said something sarcastic showed a sign of personality.

That was cool. That would make it easier to like him.

She blinked twice. Did she actually need to like him? No, she didn't. Why had she had that thought? She didn't need to like him, she needed him to like her. She actually had no reason to be happy that he showed his personally.

Hm. Weird.

12:00?

Samantha it's 12:03.

Oh. What was wrong with her brain right now?! 12:30?

Sure if I can get my dad to drive me.

Yeah I will ask my mom

~~~

Both parents said yes, and when they did, her heart leapt a little, the way it always did when they said she and Leah could have a sleepover. And then her mom asked if Jake was her boyfriend, and then she took a step back.

"Um... no."

"Crush?"

"No!"

"Friend?"

"...Yeah."

Her mom gave her this knowing look that frustrated Sammi because she did not have a crush on Jake! Well sure, she thought he was an interesting person, and she was doing her best to get him to kiss her - but that was just because of the Queens!

And then it kind of hit her.

She hadn't been thinking of the Queens, like, at all the last few times she'd spoken to Jake. Just the part where she needed him to kiss her soon - and none of the possibilities of popularity that came with it.

But there was no reason to read into that, right? She couldn't actually have a crush on a boy she barely knew.

You know him better than most, Sammi's brain whispered.

No. She could not, would not fall for him. That would ruin the whole kiss thing. All of it. Because he was probably going to hate her when he found out she used him. So she couldn't let herself get attatched to him!

She was using him.

That... felt wrong.

Leah had warned her that being friends with the Queens would mean being a person she didn't want to be. But... she wasn't even a Queen yet, and she already felt like a person who she didn't want to be.

Samantha.

Not Sammi.

Samantha, a girl who chased after and led boys on in order to get a quick kiss and climb the social ladder, forgetting all about him.

Not Sammi, the girl from Oakland who was friends with everyone. And the girl who - gosh darn it - was falling in love with Jake Samuels.

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