Chapter 9

 

 

Bella pokes her head into the guest room that’s temporarily my room at Grandma’s house. She watches me while I stare into the mirror, attempting to fix my hair that’s always messy. It’s like I’ve got permanent helmet hair from pulling the thing on and off my head so many years of my life.

Besides my jacked up hair, I think I look good. The red cast isn’t exactly a trendy fashion accessory, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I slip on my shoes and take one last look at myself in the mirror.

“So where exactly are you taking my car?” Bella asks. “You look way too excited to be going somewhere boring.”

Last night, when I asked to borrow her car today, she agreed without so much as a second thought. Now she’s watching me with narrowed eyes like she thinks I’m trying to pull one over on her.

Well, I guess I kind of am. I decide not to lie to my little sister.

“I’m taking Jenn somewhere fun for the day.”

Her jaw drops. “Jenn? Aiden, she has a boyfriend!”

I shake my head. “Not anymore. The bastard cheated on her.”

“What!” My sister’s eyes widen. “How do you know this and I don’t?”

I shrug and get my wallet off the nightstand. “I ran into her at the gym and she told me. And now we have a plan to get revenge on the asshole.”

Bella walks inside my room, hands on her hips. She looks slightly intimidating even though she’s so much shorter than I am. “What does that mean? You can’t just steal her when she just broke up! You’ll only hurt her again.”

“No, it’s not like that, Bells. I promise. She wanted to get even with him for cheating on her, so we’re pretending that we’re dating. It’s just to piss him off.”

Bella seems to consider it for a moment, but she doesn’t take her hands off her hips. “If you’re pretending to date, why are you going out together today?”

I tap my phone on top of her head before I put it in my pocket. “To keep up appearances,” I say.

She sighs and follows me out into the hallway. “She’s my friend, Aiden. Don’t hurt her.”

I turn to my sister, giving her a sincere look. I wish I could tell her that I’m the only one in danger of getting hurt here, but I’m not about to reveal that embarrassing detail. I put my hands on her shoulders and smile. “You don’t have to worry. We’re friends. We’re just messing with her ex. The plan is that she’ll dump me in a few weeks before I go back to racing and she’ll look like the badass who dumped Aiden Strauss.”

Bella rolls her eyes. “That’s a stupid plan.”

I grin and take her car keys off the hook near the door. I can’t say I disagree with my sister—it is a stupid plan—but people do stupid things when it means they get to spend time with a beautiful girl.

 

 

I follow the GPS on my phone as it leads me a few miles across town to the address Jenn gave me. The house looks like a two story garage, with a garage on bottom and a house up top. There’s a matching brick home on the other side of the yard that’s much bigger than this one. I’m guessing her parents live there. I’m glad this small garage house has its own driveway, because if Mr. Doherty saw me drive up at his house, he’d probably rush out here and beg me to hang out with him all day.

I’m weirdly nervous as I get out of the car and walk up the outside steps to the second floor. I’m trying to think about the last time I had a date. Have I ever had a date?

I remember this time in eighth grade when Mikey drove me and Amber Sosa to the mall where we walked around holding hands for two hours until we had to be back home. I guess that was a date. Then there was a couple of motocross girls who followed me around the race track and kissed me in the bed of Mikey’s truck. I never really took those girls on dates. They just showed up every weekend at the races and acted like my girlfriend. I lost my virginity in the back seat of my first truck when I was eighteen—not because I was in a loving relationship but because Leah Brant and I had been flirting all weekend and got drunk off a bottle of Jack Daniels that I found in Mikey’s ice chest.

Damn. I’m seriously out of practice.

And I have not had an amazing dating life.

I swallow my nerves and knock on the door. Jenn opens it, smiling at me in this way that washes away my nerves. Her hair is tied into a bun at the top of her head, with little wispy strands hanging in front of her face. It’s cute as hell.

“How do I look?” she says, taking a step back and motioning to her clothing. “Is this casual enough for the day’s activities?”

She’s wearing black shorts that show off her tanned legs and a white V-neck shirt with a black beaded necklace.

I say the first word that comes to mind. “Beautiful.”

She laughs like I’m being silly and slings her purse over her shoulder. I’m still standing outside at the top of the stairs, but the scent of sugary sweetness, like cupcakes, flows out of her living room. It smells just like the car does, and it’s a good smell.

“Ready to go?” she asks.

I nod and step out of the way so she can come outside and lock her door. The whole walk back to my car I’m wrestling with wondering if I should open her door for her or not. If this were a real date, then yeah, I would. But it’s technically just a fake date and no one is around right now to see us so—

Fuck it, I open the door.

She slides into the passenger seat of her old car, looks up at me and grins. “Thanks.”

Looks like I made the right decision.

I don’t use the GPS because I want our destination to be a secret, so instead, I ask Jenn to give me directions to the main road. I’ve memorized how to get there once we get off the back roads.

“So what’s been up?” I ask, not wanting to look over at her because I’m afraid I’ll get caught up in staring into her gorgeous eyes and won’t be able to drive safely.

“School,” she says, blowing a raspberry with her lips. “So much school work.”

“Oh? Like what kind of work?”

Normally I’m a regular guy. I can talk and hang out and make small chit chat with anyone. Half of my job requires talking to fans and interviewers and my teammates. Yet as we drive, our bodies so close together in this car that smells like her, and I listen to her sweet voice talking, I feel like a little kid with a crush so big it’s suffocating me.

Since I don’t trust myself to talk, I just ask questions and let her talk about her college work. Soon, I see the exit sign and I pull off the road.

“Hmm,” Jenn says, watching the road. “I still have no idea where we’re going.”

I grin. “You’ll see in about two minutes.”

She looks over at me, her eyes wide and eager. “This is exciting. Jay never took me on surprise dates.”

I don’t know why but my heart really warms up at that.

There’s no hiding where we’re going once I turn into the parking lot. The building takes up the entire space, like it was made out of an old Wal-Mart or something.

“Whaaat!” Jenn says, her mouth opening wide as she peers up at the JACK’S TRAMPOLINE PARK sign. “No way!”

I park and look over at her. “Have you been here before?”

She shakes her head. “No, but it looks awesome.”

“Let’s go see for ourselves,” I say.

I’d spent no less than three hours Googling all over Louisiana last night, trying to think of a great place to take Jenn on a first fake date. The movies are lame, and getting dinner is lame. Plus, she’s newly heartbroken and stressed with school and work, so I thought we should do something fun. Who cares if we’re in our twenties and not exactly kids anymore? Even the website said adults were allowed.

We step into the trampoline park and I’m sure my eyes are as wide and excited as Jenn’s. The building is huge. The walls are painted in bright colors, and just beyond the registration desk, the entire flooring turns to trampolines. There are trampoline dodgeball courts, and freestyle courts with angled trampolines on the walls, a ball pit and a foam pit with really high ledges you can jump off.

To the left is the party room and an unlimited pizza buffet. To the right is an arcade room. This place has everything.

Jenn grabs my hand and squeezes it. “This looks awesome!”

The smile on her face tells me I picked the perfect place. I pay for both of us to have an unlimited all day pass, shooing Jenn away when she tries to pay for herself.

“This is a date,” I tell her. “My treat.”

She rolls her eyes but thanks me anyway.

We leave our shoes and the contents of our pockets in a locker and put on these big fluffy socks they give you that’s supposed to make the trampolines more fun.

“I’m surprised they let you in here with that broken arm,” Jenn says as she stands up, admiring the way the socks swallow up her feet.

“Did you see all those liability waivers we signed?” I say with a laugh. “I don’t think they care.”

“Where to first?” Jenn says, peering out at the trampoline park. The dodgeball area has a serious game going with two dozen kids, and I know we’re not about to join them. They’d slaughter us.

“Let’s jump our way to the ball pit,” I say, throwing her a cocky grin. “First one there wins.”

We take off running, up the stairs to the trampoline floors, and then we both slow down. Turns out it’s hard to run on lots of trampolines.

Jenn laughs and starts jumping on one, and our competition is forgotten. We bounce around and race each other from one end to the other. When I get to the end of the line, I turn and bounce my back off the trampoline against the vertical wall. After two tries, I start to get cocky and I bounce into it and do a backflip.

When I emerge, hands in the air and victorious, Jenn is standing on a nearby trampoline watching me with this look that makes my insides melt.

“That was … cool,” she says. Her cheeks are flushed, and I want to think she’s blushing over me, but it’s probably just because we’re running around acting like maniacs.

We play around for another hour, and I can see Jenn’s stress melting away with each jump. I think my stresses are disappearing too, and I hadn’t realized I had so many things that were bothering me. Missing motocross sucks. It’s the only thing in my life, and my main stress. But there’s something else too, some hidden pain lurking just under the surface and jumping around with Jenn is making me realize what it is.

Loneliness. I’ve spent so many months being alone. Working out, riding, racing, traveling. Sure, the guys are with me a lot, but it’s not like you talk about serious things with the guys. I hadn’t known my sister moved out. I don’t even know what hairstyle my mom has right now—not that I care to know—but I never see my family anymore. I didn’t want anyone or anything in my life until recently.

I don’t want this day to ever end.

Once we’re exhausted and starving, Jenn and I head to the food court and get pizza. My legs feel like jelly, but in a good way. I didn’t realize how much of a workout it would be to jump on trampolines for hours. I could probably skip the gym tonight. Maybe if Jenn wants to hang out after this, I’ll have an even better excuse to skip the gym.

We play some arcade games after lunch because the signs all over the walls suggest that you wait half an hour after eating to get back to jumping.

Jenn plays a particularly epic game of air hockey, beating me 7 to 3, and then she sets the puck down and smiles at me. “There’s something I want to do before we leave,” she says.

“What’s that?”

She turns to the trampoline park and points toward the far corner.

“The ball pit?” I say.

Her eyes turn mischievous. “I want to jump off the ledge.”

I grin. “Let’s do it.”

The ledge is a foam staircase that takes you about twenty feet in the air and you can jump off it into a massive ball it. It’s unlike any ball pit I’ve ever seen. The balls are made of foam instead of plastic, and it’s about six feet deep. I grab Jenn’s hand and walk us across the trampoline floor and over to the foam steps of the ledge.

We climb up it, which is also a work out because foam steps are squishy and difficult, but finally we make it to the top. There’s no one in the ball pit right now, so it feels like we have this little corner of the world to ourselves.

“Wanna go first?” I ask as we walk up to the ledge.

Jenn stares down it, biting her lip. “Okay, now I’m scared.”

“It’s not far,” I say. “You’ll be in the balls before you know it.”

She gives me a look. “That’s what she said?”

I laugh. “Yeah, bad wording on my part.”

Jenn takes my hand and we stand right at the edge, our toes hanging over. She takes a deep breath, then closes her eyes. “I can’t look. Just tell me when to jump and we’ll do it together.”

“You sure?”

She nods eagerly, her eyes still squeezed shut.

“Okay… three… two…”

I leap forward and pull her with me, using my good hand to wrap around her waist as we fall. She squeals in delight as we tumble down, and I land on my back on the foam balls, Jenn squeezed on top of me.

“Oh my god!” she says, opening her eyes. “That was so much fun!”

I’m out of breath, and in a little pain. I’d held my cast out and away from us, but the impact still jarred it a little. Jenn is still lying on top of me, and my good arm is still around her back. Her boobs are pressed against my chest and her sugary smell is making me all kinds of turned on.

Right after impact, the balls start to sag. “Are we sinking?” she says, looking around.

“Looks like it,” I breathe, but I’m not looking at the balls. I’m looking at her.

We sink a little further, and now we’re half covered in foam. Jenn is making no move to climb off me, and I’m making no move to let her go.

She gazes into my eyes, and in that moment, I just know. She wants it as badly as I do. I slide my good hand up her back and run my fingers through her hair.

Then I close my eyes and kiss her.

To my great relief, she kisses me back. Her lips are salty and sweet and soft as hell. I can feel our bodies rocking slightly to the heaving pounding of our hearts. I’m not sure if it’s from the adrenaline of falling or from being this close together. We sink deeper into the ball pit and I deepen the kiss, parting her lips with mine. I realize I am inexperienced in kissing—unpracticed—but we find our way together. She grabs my face with her hands and kisses me back like she means it. Like she’s been waiting all day to do just this.

And it occurs to me now, fake relationship or not, that we might have a lot more in common than we think.