My Fake Boyfriend PREQUEL TO SUCK MY LOLLIPOP

Chapter 28

After school that day, Chase and I took a walk to the park right after school let out. It was abnormally warm for the month of March and I needed an excuse to hang out with him. “So I hear you took Poppy out on a date,” is the first thing I say when we meet up in the front lobby.

“Well hello to you too,” he greets me. “That’s not a very good way to start up a conversation.”

“I know but I’ve been hearing about it all day,” I complain. “Honestly, I love the girl to death but she can get pretty annoying.”

“Nothing really happened,” he said. “We held hands and stuff but that’s really it. I didn’t wanna push it, cus of Nate and all.”

“Speaking of Nate, is he coming?” I ask. I had asked him if he wanted to come during Lit class and he said maybe, but I wasn’t sure if he would meet us there or not.

“I dunno, I think he might show up later,” Chase said.

“Okay,” I said. We fell into silence as we walked, but it wasn’t awkward. I was just kind of trapped in my head. I wanted to ask if he actually almost kissed her, but if he didn’t I wasn’t about to embarrass Poppy for thinking he would.

“Hey guys! Wait up!” Nate called from behind us. We stopped and turned around, waiting for him to catch up. “Sorry, I had to turn in a late homework assignment.”

“It’s okay,” I told him. “We were bored without you anyways,” I added to make him feel better. He didn’t smile or anything, he just kind of shrugged.

“Are you okay man?” Chase asked.

“Yeah I guess,” he replied. “I dunno, someone just told me that Poppy was on a date Friday night.” Chase and I raised our eyebrows at the same time and telepathically agreed not to say anything.

“Oh…” Chase said awkwardly.

“Do you know who it was?” I asked.

“Nobody will tell me,” he shrugged. “Do you know?”

“Nope, sorry,” I told him.

“Oh, I thought, you know, cus you and Poppy are friends and all,” he said, trailing off.

“Sorry Nate, she hasn’t said anything,” I lied. “I’ll let you know if she does.”

“Really? You’d do that?” he asked hopefully.

“Sure,” I said. Of course I wouldn’t tell him anything, it would only break his heart even more.

“Thanks Chas,” he said. “Call me crazy, but I think I’m gonna try to get her back.”

“What?” I asked. My eyebrows were almost at my hairline because of how shocked I was by this proclamation. “Are you insane?”

“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Chase asked. I couldn’t tell if it was because he was worried that Poppy would actually take Nate back or if it was because he was genuinely worried about his friend. I went with the latter because the former would have been too much for me.

“You’re an idiot if you go back to her,” I scolded him. If I had been half the manipulative bitch that Poppy was, I would have urged him to go for it. After all, if Poppy were with Nate that would have left Chase for myself.

“Why would you even consider that?” Chase asked him.

“I know, I know but she’s Poppy. Regardless of how stupid this makes me, I love her. That’s all there is to it.”

“Nate, as your bro, I have to say that this isn’t just a bad decision, it’s colossally bad,” Chase said to him.

“Nice vocabulary,” I complimented him.