My Enemy's In Love With Me

5: Excuses & Lies

"I'm sorry, what?!"

This was Maria's reaction after I told her what went down just a couple minutes ago.

"Yeah. He said all that."

"You're telling me that Percy Clark--Percy Clark likes you?!" I nod.

"I know. It's insane."

"It's incredibly insane. What if he's just messing with you?" Maria asks.

I frown. "Why would he mess with me in this way?" I asked, but before we can delve into that, the boys sit down.

I don't have a problem with telling Jakob, it's Aaron that I'm worried about.

"Why the weird faces?" Jakob asks. We smile to cover it up.

"What? These faces?" I ask, still smiling.

"Yeah..." he frowns.

Ok, I needed to tell him. I could tell Maria wanted me to. "Jakob, can I see you out in the hall?" I asked.

"But I just sat down."

"It's urgent."

"If it's so urgent, just tell me." Jakob says, about to take a bite out of his turkey sandwich.

Maria grabs it out of his hands. Before Jakob can say anything, Maria grabs his arm and pulls him off his chair.

"Jesus, Maria!" Jakob says. "What's with you two?!"

"Just c'mon." I said, and blew Aaron a kiss. He was getting suspicious.

"What the hell was that?" Jakob asks out in the hall.

"Percy said he loves me." I said like I was ripping off a Band-Aid. Jakob stares at me, dumbfounded. "Yeah." I nod at his reaction.

"Wh-" was all he could manage.

Maria chuckles a little.

"Percy said that?!" Jakob whisper shouts. I nodded. "The love letter." Jakob remembers. I nod again. "Bree?"

"Yep, all because of me! I'm... freaking out! He also kinda asked me to homecoming. It's insane though, right? I'm just dreaming it all..."

Jakob sighs and Maria puts her hands on her hips. "What are you gonna do about it?" She asks.

I shrugged. "There's not a whole lot I can do. I think I did it all already. I said no. Turned him down. That's all I really can do."

"Hey, what is going on out here?" Aaron appears.

We all just stare at him for a minute. His eyes land on mine. He knows that those eyes of his can bring anything out of me.

"The theme for homecoming." Jakob says. That pulls Aaron's away from mine. Thank god for Jakob!

"The theme? Why are you talking out here?" Aaron asks.

"It's loud in there." Maria says.

"Why wasn't I invited along?" He looks back at me.

"Because..." My mind ran through any excuse I could use that isn't 100% ridiculous or offensive. Why couldn't I think of anything?!

"Ok, fine. You caught us." Jakob says. "The truth is..."

He's gonna rat me out!

"Lexi was planning a surprise for you that has to do with the theme." Jakob said.

There he goes again. Jakob has been saving my ass a lot recently.
"A surprise?" Aaron smiled at me.

Oh great. Now I need a surprise, though. Maybe I don't. Not having a surprise when they think you're going to is a surprise. But what kind of a surprise has to do with the homecoming theme?!

"That's right. I was planning a dinner... the theme this year is city lights, so I was planning to take you to...Alberto's..." I comepletely make up.

"Why Alberto's?" Aaron asks.

"Because," Maria smiles. "It's right in the middle of the town. You can see the city lights perfectly from in there."

Aaron looks from her to me. "That sounds great, but isn't Alberto's kinda expensive?" 

I nod. "Yes, yes it is. But who would want to go to a place like Luigi's Pizzeria where you can literally go bowling while you eat when you could go to Alberto's? A place where even the soup is $50?" I said with fake enthusiasm that I knew Aaron could see right through.

"Ok. Yeah, it sounds great. What time?"

"Um...tomorrow? At 6?" I offered.

"Perfect. You know I'm paying, right?" He says.

"Oh you so are not." I respond. I couldn't let him pay for my lie. Literally. Why can't I just tell him the truth? Um, because if I do, Percy would be murdered. I don't like Percy, and any other day I'd let Aaron kill him. But he shouldn't be killed because of a crush.

That's all this is, right? A crush? I hope that's all it was...

Something told me it wasn't.