JOSEPHINE
Snack bag in hand, I drop beside Mandy on the blanket. "Where are the girls?"
"They went to the vending machines to get us drinks really quick. Here." She hands me a sub sandwich. "Felix's mom dropped off a bunch of sandwiches for us."
"Awesome." I set it in my lap, pulling some pretzels from our bag while Mandy chooses Hot Fries.
"Turkey and avocado, hold the cheese, Jo," Felix shouts from where he and the boys are, a picnic table a few feet over.
I laugh, lifting it up in thanks.
Hero's eyes tighten but when I tilt my head, not looking away, his lips twitch and he turns his attention back to his friends.
"You guys are so cute." Mandy smiles.
Kathrine and Cassie walk up right then, lowering to the blanket.
"For you, my dear." Cassie sets a blue Gatorade in front of me.
"Thank you."
Kathrine passes Mandy a soda. "So." She peeks toward the guys quickly. "I told you I'd find out, and I did."
"Find out what?" Cassie asks, filling her sandwich with potato chips.
"I found out why Hero and Jackie broke up." Her eyes cut to mine.
My muscles tense, but I try to hide it. "Tell me."
Kathrine is a bit of a gossip mill, mainly just for us, but if she got the details, she made sure to confirm them first.
Her hesitation has me on edge.
"Out with it, Kathrine ." Mandy rolls her eyes, tugging her mini jean jacket off.
Kathrine nods, leaning closer. "So you know how Hero and Jackie had that fight at Felix's bonfire over the summer?" She doesn't wait for a response but keeps talking. "Apparently H found out Jackie had fucked someone else."
"But they'd broke up for the ten-thousandth time the week before that, right?" Cassie asks.
My eyes slide to hers.
"Yeah, who cares." Mandy shrugs. "He can't get mad after the fact."
He can if he still has feelings for her and that's what all this is really about.
Kathrine shakes her head. "The fight was because he found out the entire reason she broke it off with him when she did, was to try and hide that she fucked someone else earlier that morning."
My mouth drops open. "Wait, so she cheated, then broke up with him right after, all so later she could claim it wasn't cheating?"
"Exactly, she was hoping to play it off like she hoed-out after the split if he ever found out, when really she cheated, then broke up with him hours later." Kathrine takes a quick bite of her sub. "I guess she showed up to the bonfire in the hopes of getting back with H, tried to use her planned excuse, but I guess he told her he knew what she did before she even broke it off with him. He was waiting for her to admit it."
"And then he told her to fuck off," Mandy adds, remembering the tail end of the fight a large group of us happened to walk up on.
"Wow." Cassie chuckles. "Girl needs to have some class and stay away."
"She needs to stay away period," Mandy snaps, then smiles all dreamy-like. "He's Josephine's now."
I give a tight chuckle, quickly covering it by taking a drink.
Kathrine eyes me and I slowly screw the lid back on the bottle.
"What?" I draw out.
"I sort of... sugar-coated part of the story..." Kathrine says slowly, pulling her lips back to show her teeth.
"Just tell me."
"I don't think it matters."
"Kathrine ."
"It was Andrew," she rushes out.
My face falls. "Wait... what?"
Andrew?
Mandy and Cassie both gape at Kathrine then look to me.
"Andrew." I lower my chin. "Jackie slept with Andrew while she was with Hero?"
Kathrine chews on her bottom lip as she nods, then quickly shrugs it off. "It doesn't mean anything, Josephine. I just thought, you know..." She trails off.
"Thought it was a strange coincidence?" Cassie asks suspiciously.
Kathrine nods, her eyes moving between the three of us before once again landing on me.
"Okay, well, who cares." It's Mandy who says this. "Josephine is the one who has, or maybe had, I don't know, a thing for Andrew. So, for any of this to matter, it would have needed to be the other way around. It's not like Andrew was into Josephine and so Hero..."
"Pretended to be into me?" I give them the truth covered in a lie, my chest growing tight for reasons I'm not ready to admit.
Is that what this is? A way to get to Andrew for screwing the only girl Hero cared enough about to keep around?
"Oh, no." Kathrine sits up straight. "There is no way, no how, that's the case. It is so obvious he's hot for you. I wasn't trying to insinuate anything, swear, but I mean, I had to tell you. I can't help but think if he knew you had the hots for Andrew before him, it might make him nervous or angry or something, thinking it could happen again."
"Yeah." I give my best fake chuckle. "Good thing he doesn't know about that."
Awesome, Josephine. Keep offering unnecessary lies.
The rest of lunch I'm useless and lost in thought, but what Kathrine said was true.
My gaze travels to Hero who's talking with Thompson.
What purpose would it serve for Hero to want to fake date me when his ex cheated with the guy he's supposed to help me get?
The simple answer is it wouldn't.
That doesn't stop me from coming up with a million other reasons why, none of them making any sense to me.
After a moment, Hero's eyes slide my way, and as if sensing the tension building in my gut, his expression tightens, and he nods his chin in question.
I give a half smile in answer, and after a moment he nods, looking back to his friends.
It shouldn't comfort me that my fake boyfriend knows how to read me.
Yet, for some reason... it does.
* * *
"Can I ask you something?"
Felix looks up from the blender, nodding his chin as if to say go ahead before focusing back on the margaritas he was asked to help make.
Every time Thompson has a party, he puts Felix behind his parents' bar to mix drinks.
"Did Jackie really sleep with Andrew?"
Felix's glare flies to the kitchen table where Kathrine sits, and he curses, finally looking back to me.
"Does it matter if she did?" he deflects.
"Felix, come on." I cross my arms, leaning them on the countertop.
It's Monday night, so three days since Kathrine filled me in on Andrew and Jackie and I need extra confirmation, so I can stop thinking about it which is pretty much how I spent my weekend.
Felix turns off the machine, quickly pouring a cup and handing it to me. He grips the edge of the marble. "Yeah, she did."
"Did she break Hero's heart?"
Felix scoffs a small laugh. "No, Jo. Not even a little bit."
When I frown, he sighs, cuts a quick glance toward the living room where Hero sits, then leans closer. "H liked Jackie, a lot. They dated for a long time, but it wasn't so much love as it was comfortable, a way to escape. Someone to hang with." He lifts his shoulder, adding. "Sex on hand."
I roll my eyes and he lifts his palms.
"So... he wasn't hurt by it, like at all?"
He studies me, inquisition in his eyes.
"Are you falling for him?" His tone's suspiciously full of surprise.
My muscles grow tight. "We're... dating, Felix."
He's quick to shake it off. "No, yeah. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry."
I eye him and after a bit, Felix licks his lips, looking at Hero a long moment.
He hangs his head, a deep exhale leaving him as his attention slides back to me. "It hurt him, Jo, yeah, but not in the way you're thinking. It's more complicated than you realize, it was a low ass blow from Jackie. Don't ask me anything else, all right? Please."
"Why not?"
"Because it's not my place, and when you look at me like this, all genuine and with honest curiosity and concern, it's real fucking hard to deny you." His eyes widen. "Always has been."
A light laugh leaves me, and I drop my stare to my cup. "You know, I always thought you were a bit of a blabbermouth, like your girlfriend."
He laughs goodheartedly.
"But now I know you're not."
He winks, then walks away, a tray of Styrofoam cups full of margaritas to be handed out in his hands.
My focus shifts toward the living room where Hero sits on the couch across from Cassie, but something keeps me locked in my chair a few moments longer.
HERO
I didn't get to see Josephine at school today because she was gone on a field trip for some leadership bull. I texted her twice but when all I got was one-word answers, I turned my phone off and did my best to forget the fact she was on a two-hour bus ride, where she should have had plenty of time to talk. The same bus dickhead Hollans was on.
Now, though, I'm annoyed as fuck, doesn't help she stayed locked in her room all weekend. I know because her light stayed on around the clock.
We're chillin' at Thompson's and Josephine's been nothing but quiet all fucking night. At least, where I'm concerned.
She seems to be in there chatting with everyone else just fuckin' fine.
"What are you pissy about?"
Cassie calls me out, and my eyes snap to hers.
"What are you talkin' about?"
"The I might murder you in your sleep look on your face." She folds her feet in the chair.
With a frown, I unscrew the cap to my Mountain Dew. "Nah, I'm just chillin'."
"Liar."
The bottle pauses at my lips, my eyes moving to hers. Slowly, I take a drink and then shift toward her. "What makes you say that?"
"You're making faces at her like you're angry, but your jerky movements are a clear sign of frustration. Something about her both stresses you out and intrigues you." Cassie narrows her eyes. "I like you and I think you're good for her, but I can tell you're hiding something."
"Oh, yeah?" I give her a bored look. "What am I hiding, Cassie?"
"I don't know, but I do know Josephine. Not everything around her is as black and white as it may seem..." She trails off.
"What are you tryin' to say?"
"The gist of it? Don't make her life outside of home suck, too."
What the fuck does that mean?
Cassie stares a moment, only looking away when Josephine walks up, dropping beside me.
Without a word and leaving several inches between us.
What the fuck?
She was playful, confident - sexy as fuck - a few days ago, we didn't get to hang this weekend, sure, but suddenly today, after a couple hours with that prick, she's taken a page from my playbook and gone silent?
Fuck this.
I set my drink on the glass coffee table with a hard thud and shoot to my feet.
"I'm out," I announce, my eyes falling to hers. "You ready or you gonna get a ride from someone else?"
She frowns.
Yes, we've only been here for a little over an hour.
No, I don't give a shit.
"I planned to ride with you."
So get up. Leave with me.
She stares a moment and right when I'm positive she's saying bye to me, she turns to Cassie.
Cassie smiles at her. "Text me when you leave for school in the morning if you want me to grab you a coffee."
Josephine nods as she stands.
She could easily walk past me and out the front door. She doesn't.
She grabs my hand, gingerly lacing her fingers into mine, but there's something in the way they hold on that has my skin tingling. Her tired eyes meet mine.
Fuck me, my chest muscles pull, and I discreetly clench my teeth.
Movement behind us lets me know Cassie has walked out, and I can't stop my feet from shifting closer.
I lift my right hand, using my pinky to brush her hair from her face, allowing it to fall through my fingers at the curve of her breast.
Her chest expands, the edge of her shirt feathering across my knuckle.
"What's on your mind?" she whispers.
I don't know how or when I moved, but suddenly she's sitting on the edge of the couch looking up at me with low, heady eyes.
My hands drop, sliding up her sides and her chin lifts to keep our eyes connected.
"You mad at me, J?"
She shakes her head.
"You sit by Andrew on the bus today?" I ask, unable to cover the aggravation in my voice.
She shakes her head again.
"Did you want to?"
She licks her lips. "That why you've been giving me angry eyes all night?"
"Yes."
My instant response has her chuckling but just as quickly, a question crosses her face.
I'll bet she's asking herself what it means, why I'd be angry, or say I was, for her getting closer to who she's supposed to be getting closer to with this little deal of ours.
"What if..." she whispers.
"What, Pixie?" I lean in, my grip tightening, and she sucks in a deep breath. "What if... what?"
Her lips part the slightest bit, so I take them.
I drop my mouth to hers, my dick twitches in my jeans when hers opens even more and my tongue is awarded with the full taste of hers, but it's quickly deflated when laughter and mocking noises echo around us.
She tugs back, a small frown on her face as she looks at me before it's wiped away and a forced chuckle escapes her.
Some of my teammates walk by, clapping me on the back like dicks, but it's Andrew who my eyes zone in on and the stupid fuckin' smirk on his face.
I look back to Josephine who focuses on her fingernails until a few of the guys say hi to her as they pass.
Josephine gives them tight waves, then slowly slips past me and out the door.
I wait for them to disappear around the corner, then drop my head back. A sigh leaves me and I walk outside to meet her.
I never got my answer.
What if what?