LIB

Chapter 13

            “We have plans already, sorry. But we could do something this weekend maybe?”

            “Sure! Why don’t you guys come over to my place? You haven’t been there yet.”

            I chewed on my lip as I thought about it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull off the fake boyfriend routine when we weren’t out in public, but I figured I’d think of something. “I’ll talk to Jared and see what he thinks, but that should work.”

            “Great! We can have a movie night or something.”

            I smiled. “Sounds like fun.”

            After school, I went straight home and Jared was waiting for me in the garage. I jumped into his truck and we drove to the hospital. When we got to Jake’s room, Amanda was already waiting there. Jared and I settled into the two remaining chairs after I had kissed Jake’s cheek.

            “So how have you two been?” Amanda asked.

            Jared smiled at her. “I’ve been good. I have a date with Cindy tonight and things are going really well with her.”

            “Yeah, I know they’re going well. After all, she was in your bed on Saturday morning,” I said with a smirk.

            The tips of his ears turned a little red, but he grinned goofily. “Yeah, Friday was a really good night.”

            I fake gagged. “Ew, that is too much information.”

            Amanda laughed. “You guys are too funny sometimes. How are things going with Blake, Hailey?”

            I looked down at the ground. “I told him about the accident,” I muttered.

            “What? You didn’t tell me that,” Jared said.

            I sighed and looked up at him. “I know. I didn’t plan on telling him, but when I went to his place on Saturday morning, he was ranting about his parents. I ended up blurting out that my parents were dead and then the whole story came out.”

            Jared wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “How did it go?”

            I smiled. “Surprisingly, it went really well. I actually saw what kind of person he is under that sarcastic exterior. He has a really kind heart underneath it all.” I dropped my eyes again. “I even told him about Marcus.”

            Jared’s whole body went rigid. “You talked about that bastard?”

            I chuckled humorlessly. “Yeah, Blake’s reaction was pretty much the same.”

            “How did you feel after you’d told him everything?” Amanda asked.

            “Lighter. As if a burden had been lifted off of my shoulders. And then he told me about his accident and we talked for a while longer. Eventually we fell asleep together.”

            Jared’s eyebrows rose. “What do you mean ‘together’?”

            I rolled my eyes. “I mean, he put his arm around me, I laid my head on his chest, and we fell asleep.”

            His eyes narrowed. “Did he make any moves on you?”

            My eyebrows shot up. “How the hell is that any of your business?”