Fakemates

Chapter Eight

Dean

'I'm sorry I upset you today. I really did forget. Please don't use my slip-up as a reason to tell Nick. Please.'

'Just got home. Have a good rest of the night. Be safe. Goodnight, Sir.'

I read her messages almost a hundred times. I couldn't stop reading them. I wasn't upset with her anymore, not after she apologized so fucking sweetly. Yet, she still messaged me to tell me she was sorry again.

I know it was because she was afraid I'd tell Nick and not because she was genuinely upset that she upset me. It's not because we were a couple that had a tiff, and now we were apologizing to each other.  It wasn't because of that.

She didn't want Nick to know what was between us or what led to the situation that bound us together. A legal fucking contract.

What the fuck was I doing forcing her to sign a contract? Who the fuck did I think I was to pull this shit on Evelyn?

Deep down, there was a part of me, a sliver, that wanted to destroy the document and send little Evelyn on her way.

It was too small, the sound too low, and the more significant part of me wanted to push Evelyn and see how far she could go before she exploded.

I downed my drink and signaled Ben to pour another drink. My mind was scattered with Evelyn, her little springy curls, and those big blue eyes when I felt a hand on my back.

Nick Carmichael. Evelyn's big brother. The girl I was just dolefully daydreaming about. I've known Nick my whole life.

I bounced around from family to family a lot growing up and never really had a set place in my life until I got adopted.

The orphanage I was in wasn't funded well, and I would attend the school a few blocks from it. I didn't have much, but I wanted an education. I met Nick on the third day of middle school.

He was fighting with some other kid during recess, and instead of helping him out, I tried to stop the fight. It didn't work. Nick and the rest of the boys both began beating me up.

After a nosebleed, a busted lip, and a trip to the principal's office, we became friends right away. We were twelve, and our friendship has gone through it all.

We went through fights together, hit puberty simultaneously, and shook hands as we made a pact about never dating Angelica Harrison.

He'd bring me hot chocolate and a bagel in the morning, and we'd eat it without speaking. I never told him that I was an orphan or had no money to trade out the old and ripped backpack I had brought to school.

He didn't care. Nick never made me feel less than, and I never felt like we competed for anything in life or school.

Nick made me feel like I could be whatever I wanted to be, and he was the only one that had my back throughout it all.

Nick's family was always there for me, inviting me for home-cooked meals, feeding me slices of warm apple pie, handing me some old hand-me-downs of Nick, or that's what they claimed, but I knew they were all new.

His mother would tell me that she saw me as her son, and it would break and mend my heart simultaneously.

I swallowed as I stood up to hug him. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever." He chuckled. I pointed to Nick and then to my cup, and Ben nodded his head. "Where you been? How's work?"

I nodded my head. "Good. Work is keeping me pretty busy."

Nick thanked Ben for his drink and then took a sip. "I think Evelyn's seeing a guy." He said with a sigh.