Faking Love (Complete)

Chapter 6 - Secret Closet Conversation

The next day, I wore an old Dodger's baseball cap to school that had belonged to one of my Mom's many ex-boyfriends. I couldn't even remember his name. I pulled it down low to hide my face, trying my best to fly under the radar as I walked into school. I was so scared I'd run into Ben Miller and he'd want to talk face-to-face after my friends forced me to message him on Snapchat for hours last night. Just thinking about the flirty things they made me say to him made my cheeks flush and my stomach feel queasy. The whole thing was humiliating.

After I shoved my books into my locker, I closed it and turned around, jumping with a gasp when I saw Colton Crawford standing there with his hands shoved into his pockets, looking down at the ground.

"Hey, you scared me. What's up?" I asked, looking up at him, with his broad shoulders and tall frame towering over me.

He slowly lifted his head and looked down at me, his dark hair grazing his eyebrows and his brown eyes looking straight into mine.

"You ummm, you got a minute Syd?" he asked quietly, with a worried look on his face. "I need to talk to you about something."

It had been years since him and I had talked alone, just the two of us, so I knew it had to be important.

I looked around and didn't see any of my friends (or Ben Miller luckily) in the long, crowded hallway.

"Ummm ..... sure," I said hesitantly, before looking back at him.

If I was talking to Colton, maybe Ben would be too intimidated by him to try to talk to me and that was a good thing. I wasn't ready to face him anytime soon ....... or ever.

I started walking beside him down the hallway that was lined on both sides with lockers, noticing the intense stares Colton was getting from all the girls as we passed by. They were looking him up and down like a piece of meat with flirty smirks on their faces, whispering to each other. Some were even recording and taking pictures of him with their phone. I let out an exhale and rolled my eyes, shaking my head at their audacity. They all knew he had a girlfriend, but obviously that didn't matter to them.

I looked over at Colton to see what they were all gawking at anyway. His shaggy, dark brown hair was covering his forehead and his smooth tanned skin, strong eyebrows, square jawline and straight, white teeth were so perfect he looked like a Ken doll that had come to life. That's why people had given him and Caitlyn the nicknames Ken and Barbie. They were both too good looking to be real.

He was wearing his letter jacket that was completely covered with patches from his football, basketball and track wins over the years, and there were a lot of them. That was one of the main reasons Caitlyn had wanted to date him back in middle school, because he was so athletic. Now here he was, the quarterback of the football team and the undisputed King of our school. Everyone respected and looked up to him, treating him like some sort of God in this place. To me, he was still just Colton.

Back when we had been best friends, he was just a normal kid that liked to ride bikes, collect rocks, build tree house forts, and go fishing with his Dad and brothers. He used to love telling bad jokes and playing pranks on everybody around him, and he was always coming up with some kind of crazy adventure that could've gotten us in a lot of trouble if we had gotten caught. Luckily we never did.

He was a lot different back then. Sometimes I really missed the old Colton I had grown up with. Getting older, hanging out with his popular new friends and dating Caitlyn had changed him a lot. I felt like I barely knew him anymore. He was a completely different person now than he was when we were friends, which was a shame, because he had been pretty amazing back then.

"So ummm, what's up with the hat?" Colton asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. He was looking at the baseball hat I was wearing with a raised eyebrow. "Are you a baseball fan now?"