The Replacement Boyfriend

Chapter 28

Tace

Before we knew it, we were already on the way back to Chicago. Jax and Cassidy's parents thought it was best that we return back to college since Erin was awake. We had seen Amelia and Erin reunite with tears and runny noses and we had spent as much time as we could, talking to Erin. I quite liked Erin, too. She was like a mini version of her brother. Even though Cassidy wanted to stay and I was sure Jax did, too, even though he wouldn't admit it, we decided it would be best to go back to Stony Island Hall so we wouldn't miss our classes the next day. After lunch, we packed our bags quickly and Jax drove us back to Chicago.

Cassidy passed out in the backseat an hour into the drive but since I had gotten too much of sleep thanks to my anxiety pill, I sat in the passengers' side, humming along to the pop music radio channel that Jax had on a low volume.

"Don't tell Cass about our dating arrangement, okay?" he told me softly and I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Why?" I asked him. "What if she gets the wrong idea?"

"Why would she get the wrong idea?" he asked me.

"Because of the way Zayne always treats me," I pointed out.

"Yeah, always," he stressed. "He's treated you like that since forever so she has nothing to get the wrong idea about."

"I'm just saying," I frowned. "Maybe we should tell her. I mean, why shouldn't we?"

"Because she'll think it's stupid," he answered matter-of-factly. "And I don't want her trying to convince one of us out of it. I want you to be able to figure out your feelings without her at our throats. I mean, we're adults. We can handle this ourselves and she likes to butt into everything."

"Okay," I mumbled, not pleased because I didn't want to hide anything else from her.

If it had been anyone else, I probably wouldn't have agreed to keep it from her but because he was her brother, I couldn't say no. He was being really nice about figuring out whether I had feelings for Zayne so I couldn't argue about the one thing that he wanted.

We reached Chicago in time for a late dinner. We decided to leave our bags in our rooms and freshen up first so Jax headed to his apartment and Cassidy and I headed to ours. When we neared the front door, we could hear the muffled sound of music come through the door.

"Must be Asher and all," Cassidy sighed. "They must be practicing in our apartment since we weren't here."

"Cass," I grabbed her arm before she could open the door. "Don't tell any of them about Jax and me. We don't want anyone to know yet. Well, we'll tell them ourselves when the time is right for us."

"Uh, okay?" she said awkwardly. "My lips are sealed. It's not my story to tell anyway."

We opened the door and started toward the living room and I froze in my tracks when I noticed Zayne. He was already back?

"Hey!" he cooed when he saw me, engulfing me in a hug. "I left early because Asher called and I kind of missed you."

"I missed you, too," I told him, giving him a squeeze before letting go. "How're Amara and all?"

"Everyone's good," he told me. "Amara misses you but she's not angry. But you do owe her mashed potatoes and gravy on thanksgiving."

I let out a short laughed awkwardly, hugged everyone else in the room and stood there, waiting for Cassidy to finish talking to Yu Na and Ahana about Erin. When she was done, we dropped our bags off in our room.