A Surreptitious Relationship

:A Surreptitious Relationship: Chapter Twenty-Six

I ignored him, focusing on the tiled floor. It really didn’t make sense that he knew Shawn but didn’t know it was Chris and I dating. Was Shawn playing some kind of game with him? Why would Shawn tell him it was Jeremy and I dating? Why wouldn’t Shawn just say it was Chris I was dating? My mind hurt just thinking about it. I couldn’t be sure of anything with Shawn. He could have some great mastermind plan that both Aaron and I were unaware of.

“Holly, I need you to do me a favor tomorrow,” Aaron spoke up again.

“That’s too bad,” I responded.

His eyes lit up in amusement. “Let me rephrase that. You have to do me a favor tomorrow.”

“I don’t have to do anything, Aaron.”

“You don’t want the faculty finding out about you and Jeremy, right?”

I laughed through my nose. “I don’t need to worry about that.”

“Oh yeah?”

“They wouldn’t believe you, Aaron. You have no proof.”

He tightened his arm around my shoulder. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Holly.”

My heart skipped a beat. What did he mean by that? There was no way he could have any evidence against Jeremy and I because we weren’t a couple. I easily calmed myself down. “You’re lying,” I said, calling my bluff.

“You can think whatever you want,” he responded smoothly. “Just know I can destroy you two at any moment. You don’t want him to get fired, do you? Or you getting expelled when I say you were getting good grades out of it?”

I took a few deep breaths through my nose to keep myself steady. Aaron was all talk. “There’s no way you have proof of us together.”

“I could show you if you like.”

I paused, making both of us come to a halt. He cocked an eyebrow, the corners of his lips twitching up. Was he lying? Or telling the truth? What evidence could he have? My mind raced, but nothing came up. Jeremy and I had only kissed once, and I was positive he didn’t take a picture— he had been frozen. Jeremy and I didn’t write notes to each other. We hardly talked in school aside from gym class. Even at the dance we weren’t together besides when we arrived together. Aaron couldn’t have anything. “Show me,” I demanded confidently.

“Sure,” he responded, sticking his free hand into his back pocket and producing his cell phone. “You sound pretty dubious. I’m sure this’ll change your mind.”

An uncomfortable feeling spread through my stomach. A cell phone? That meant it had to be some type of picture. But there were no pictures of Jeremy and I in any kind of revealing position. Were there…?

“Take a look,” Aaron offered, holding out the phone.

Holding my breath, I took a close look at the picture he was showing me. My heart nearly stopped beating. It was a picture from the wedding. Immediately I began to panic. Who had taken this picture? Jeremy proposing to me had been a joke! No one would believe this picture, right? I stared at it again, my heart sinking. It did look pretty convincing. Jeremy was kneeling on one knee on the ground, one of my hands in his. To top things off he was in a suit and I was in a dress. But still… “N-no one is going to believe this picture,” I stated as coolheaded as I could.

“Well maybe not with that picture alone…”

Now my heart did stop. Aaron used his finger to slide to the next picture on his phone. One of Jeremy and I slow dancing. Inwardly, I groaned. That wasn’t good. “How did you get those pictures?”