You in Real Life

Chapter 19

Shelby bounded into the backseat. "Blake always drives me to dance classes on Mondays, except during Basketball season. But it's football season right now and our parents won't let him play football because they're afraid he'll get a concussion."

"No, I don't play football because I don't like playing football. Stop bullshitting, Shelby."

"I'm going to tell mom you swore at me."

"I'm going to tell mom you're making shit up again."

"I'm going to tell mom how glad I am that I'm an only child." I buckled my seatbelt and leaned against the car door, as far from Blake as I could get. "Isn't the point of you driving your sister to dance lessons that the car actually moves towards where it's supposed to go, or are the two of you going to sit here fighting while your car pollutes the air?"

Shelby giggled. "I like her. She's way funnier than Fakota."

"I told you not to call her that."

Now it was my turn to laugh, which only encouraged Shelby. "Get it? Dakota, Fake-ota. Because the only thing real about her is her ability to make people miserable."

I had to admit, this meddling kid was growing on me.

Blake put the car into gear and pulled away from the curb. The twenty-minute car ride mainly consisted of Shelby signing along to the top 40 station while Blake glared at the road ahead. I twisted my fingers around each other and bit the inside of my cheek. It had been a mistake to laugh at Shelby's Dakota pun. Expressing any sort of disloyalty towards the Popular Queen was bound to be considered treasonous. As soon as Blake told Dakota about this incident, I would be thrown in a dungeon and starved while Dorn High's royalty decided my fate.

"Why are you doing that?"

It took me a second to realize Blake was speaking to me. He'd said nothing almost the entire car ride to Silverdale. "I'm.. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"For laughing at Fakota. That wasn't really nice."

Blake sighed, steering the car into the parking lot of Little Dancers, Big Dreams Studio. "I meant, why are you wringing your hands together like you're waiting to open a college acceptance letter. Ans no, it's not nice, even though it's also the truth. Dakota isn't comfortable with herself, so she hides behind a façade. It's not about the makeup or hair or tanning bed addiction. None of that matters, really."

"The last one might if she develops melanoma."

"The point I was trying to make..." He pulled into a parking space and shut off the car. Shelby burst out the door and up to the front of the studio before he could finish his sentence. He turned towards me, left arm draped over the steering wheel. "...is that her problem isn't that she's fake, it's why she's fake. You aren't the only one who struggles with herself, Mazie."

I blinked. "How do you know I struggle with myself. I happen to love me very much."

"You do, huh?"

"Yep. Poster girl for self-confidence. That's why I'm absolutely not on the verge of a panic attack right now."

He leaned in closer. I held my breath, not wanting to take in his woodsy aroma. Jack had no scent, but Blake got to smell like cedar trees. It wasn't fair. "Do I make you that nervous?"

"Everyone makes me that nervous, so don't think you're special."

He opened his door. "Shelby's waiting for you. She likes you for some reason, so try to rein in the weird around her."