Faking Love (Complete)

Chapter 7 - A Misunderstanding

Colton and I went our separate ways, going in opposite directions down the hallway toward our first period classes. On the way there I suddenly realized that Ben Miller was in that class and my stomach dropped. I decided to wait until the last second, right before the bell rang to go in so he wouldn't have time to talk to me.

I kept my head down as I walked in and then flopped down into my seat in the back row, letting out a big exhale and resting my chin on my hand. As the teacher started talking, curiosity got the best of me and I glanced over in his direction and my face instantly dropped when I saw Ben Miller looking directly at me. He had a mischievous smirk on his face, and he gave me a wink before licking his lips.

That made my skin crawl and I shuddered, feeling my cheeks burn the brightest shade of red as I slouched down and hid from him with my hat pulled down low. I could've died from embarrassment. In that moment I wanted to crawl under the desk and stay there for the rest of my life.

Why did I let my crazy friends talk me into sending him those flirty messages on Snapchat? What the hell was I thinking? I didn't even like the guy, not even a little bit.

As soon as the bell dinged at the end of the period, I jumped up out of my seat and rushed out of the classroom before Ben had a chance to make it over to my side of the room.

Later on that day, when I got to my Biology class, I took my seat next to Takashi. The teacher told us to start working on our next project that was written on the board.

As I was writing the assignment down I looked over and noticed Takashi looking over at me with a knowing smirk forming on his face, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed across his chest.

"What?" I asked, feeling confused.

"So you and the quarterback huh?" he asked with a smile, shaking his head. "You know, I didn't take you for the type to be a football groupie."

I scoffed. "Me and Colton are just friends."

"Friends? Right," he said sarcastically, nodding his head with a laugh.

"What? We ARE friends," I said firmly, scrunching my eyebrows.

He looked over at me, looking skeptical. 

"Then why haven't I seen you hanging out with him before today?"

"We hang out," I said defensively. Then I slowly softened and hung my head, letting out an exhale. "Well, I mean, we USED to," I said softly. "He was my best friend for years, but when we got to high school we just kind of drifted apart. He got busy with football and he has a girlfriend, so she takes up a lot of his time. Plus he has new friends now."

It came out sounding a lot sadder than I had meant it to. I didn't want Takashi to think I was hung up on Colton or something, because I wasn't. I was fine.

"That sounds like a lot of bullshit excuses to me. If someone really wants to be your friend, they make time for you."

I shrugged, not sure what to say to that. He had a point.

"And why were you alone with him in the hook-up closet if you two are just friends? You've gotta admit that looks hella suspicious."

"It's the janitor's closet, not the hookup closet," I told him, rolling my eyes. "And we were in there talking about his girlfriend. I was giving him some relationship advice."

"Relationship advice? In a closet?" he scoffed, laughing, as if what I just said was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. "You know you don't have to bullshit me right? If you wanna bang the quarterback behind his girlfriend's back, that's your own business. Who am I to judge?"