Be my girlfriend.
Those words echoed around my head for the next week. All I could think about was Gage saying those three words to me and me agreeing to go along with it. My own response had surprised me as well as Gage. I never even thought I’d do such a thing but after I found myself saying yes, I didn’t feel that bad about it. It was Gage’s idea, so I couldn’t feel too ashamed.
It was now Friday of the next week and I was coming out of the art building. All week I had put all of my effort into my photography portfolio and my homework so I wouldn’t think too much about the deal. I wouldn’t really call it a deal, but it kind of felt like one. We were fake dating to get Ethan back, but I wasn’t sure what Gage was getting out of this. We hadn’t talked much since last Sunday, so I wasn’t sure how this was all going to work.
I hadn’t told anyone about our little agreement, not even Macey. That night I went home and told her everything about Ethan and Amy but nothing about Gage. I kept that little piece of information to myself for now.
I hadn’t meant to tell Macey about Ethan and Amy because I knew they were going to be around next day, but the moment I saw my best friend I broke down. I cried once again over my crush and friend being together. She was just as shocked as I was. After her shock went away, she got pissed, like really pissed. She paced around our apartment as she bad-mouthed both Ethan and Amy. I was with her on some of the things she said, but I couldn’t bring myself to hate Amy that much. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to be with Ethan.
I knew Macey would be kind of mad when she heard about this thing with Gage, but I didn’t know how to tell her. Hey, Mace, I am going to fake date Gage, the same guy that used to hate my guts. Yup, not happening. I would have to tell her eventually, but not right now—not until I knew more about what we were going to do.
I headed across campus to 95 Degrees to get a coffee I definitely needed to get me through the rest of the day. The week had been hectic with schoolwork, and I was beyond glad it was the weekend. Tomorrow was Luke and Ethan’s football game, which was a home game, meaning Macey and I were going. My parents were coming home next weekend, so we all knew that was where we were spending the weekend.
The one thing I needed to do was talk to Gage, but a small part of me almost didn’t want to. What if he took back his deal? And why did that even matter anyways? I was still having an inner debate about this whole thing and why it even mattered to me in the first place.
It wasn’t like I felt something toward Gage at all. I mean, I was slowly starting to like him…as a friend, or at least that was what I was telling myself. I wasn’t planning on falling for anyone anytime soon.
I had no idea where Macey was, and I was pretty sure my brother was off at football practice. With no one to hang out with, I guess now was the best time to find Gage and talk to him. Better to get it all figured out now and make sure we still wanted to do this.
While I was ordering, I suddenly decided to grab Gage something as well. Might as well come bearing gifts even though I had no clue what he liked. Going simple, I just got him an iced coffee along with my usual Frappuccino. What if he doesn’t like coffee, idiot? the small voice in my head asked. Then why did he get coffee ice cream! I shot back at it. Realizing that I was crazy for talking back to myself, I pushed all negative thoughts aside as I got the drinks and headed for his apartment.
Carter, just act cool. Don’t go in stupid and embarrass yourself in front of him. Let’s be honest here: it was too late for that. Awkward was my middle name.
It didn’t take me long to reach his place and before I knocked on his door, I took a deep breath. It wasn’t like we were really dating. This was just a friend deal. No big deal. Knocking, I waited impatiently for someone to answer. I didn’t have to wait long because not even a minute later Gage opened the door. He didn’t look surprised to see me.
My eyes took him in almost greedily. I swear he looked good in whatever he wore. He was in a pair of black fitted sweats, almost like the kind that soccer players wear. A thin white t-shirt encased his upper body. I swear I could make out his abs through it, which made my knees weak. His brown hair was messy like he’d gotten up not too long ago. It was so simple, but it was enough to make me drool at the sight of him. Snapping myself out of my staring, I thrust the extra coffee toward him.
“I brought coffee,” I said weakly. My voice sounded weird, but I prayed he didn’t notice. “I, uh, didn’t know what you liked, so I just got a regular iced coffee. But if you don’t like it you don’t have to drink it. Or you can have mine instead if that is what you like.” I rambled on. “What kind of coffee do you like? Is it—”
“Princess.” Gage cut me off, a smile on his face. I blushed, embarrassed at my rambling. “I like iced coffee. Thank you.” He grabbed the cup from my hand and moved out of the way so I could enter.
Every time I came to his place I was always surprised at how clean it was. You would think it would be a complete mess like other guys’ places. Even Luke and Ethan’s place was messier than this.
“So what are you doing here, Princess?” Gage asked as he went to go sit on the couch. I sat down on the edge of the couch and made sure not to touch Gage; if I did, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate. Now that I was here, I couldn’t think about what I wanted to say to him.
“Are you broken?” Gage waved a hand in front of my face.
“I’m perfectly fine.” I slapped it away from me.
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” He grinned at me while taking a sip of his drink. Of course, my eyes had to catch his every move.
“You are just jealous of me. It is okay to admit it,” I said, my eyes looking at everything but him.
“You wish.” I smiled back at him, feeling comfortable. Being around Gage wasn’t as awkward or uncomfortable as it used to be. I felt almost like I was home when I was with him.
“So…” Gage sat there silently, waiting for me to talk.
“I…um…I was wondering how this thing was going to work,” I stuttered out. He just raised an eyebrow at me, confused. “Us ‘dating.’ Like how is it going to work? Do we hang out all the time? Do we do normal couple things?”
“Carter, you are overthinking this.” As usual. “We are doing this to get Ethan back, to get him to see what he could have had.”
“What do you get out of it? This isn’t one-sided,” I said, looking at him. No deal was just one-sided. Plus, Gage wasn’t the type to just do this for me.
“I get to annoy the shit out of you whenever I want.” He smirked at me. I wanted to make some kind of smart-ass comment, but nothing came to me other than a smile.
“Idiot.” I nudged his shoulder.
“But seriously, Princess, we will just go with it, okay?” Gage sent me a soft smile which I couldn’t help but nod at. He was right; we would just go with it, roll with the punches.
“Okay.” I almost wanted to ask why he was really doing this for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. If I asked, I might get the answer I didn’t want.
We sat silently on the couch sipping our coffee while the TV showed some random show. There were so many things I wanted to say, but I held myself back. I liked that we were at that stage now where we weren’t at each other’s throats and we didn’t hate one another. At first Gage just got on my nerves to no end, but after he “saved” me from that party a few weeks ago, things changed between us. There’d been a mutual agreement that we wouldn’t be asses to one another.
“So no classes today?” I asked, turning my head, which was lying against the couch, toward him.
“Had one this morning at eight but that was it.” As I stared at him, I realized I knew nothing about Gage other than the basics.
“You have nothing else to do today, do you?” I suddenly asked.
“No, why?” He looked surprised at my change of subject.
“How about we spend the rest of the day getting to know one another? It would be a good way to actually show that we are ‘dating.’” The look on Gage’s face looked like he would rather die. “We won’t talk about deep stuff, more like, what is your favorite holiday type questions.” As much as I would like to know more about Gage, I would settle for the just the little things right now.
He just stared at me like I had grown three heads. Pulling out the big guns, I put my hands together and sent him my best puppy-dog eyes. I knew they would work because they always worked on my dad and Luke.
“Fine,” he muttered not even a minute later. I grinned, as I won that round. No one could resist puppy-dog eyes. “But no way in hell am I getting in touch with my ‘feelings.’” He put air quotes on the word “feelings.” I just rolled my eyes at him.
“Okay, let’s start.” I clapped my hands together as I turned my body to face him, crossing my legs in front of me. “What is your favorite candy bar?” I asked.
“Seriously?” He sent me a dry look.
“It is a simple question, now answer it.”
“Fine. I like Snickers the best.”
“Your turn.” I gestured at him. I watched him roll his eyes, but he did as I said.
“Favorite drink?”
“Water or coffee. I don’t like soda that much.”
This is what went on for a good thirty minutes. We went back and forth asking the stupidest questions. While they were just simple, stupid questions, I did learn quite a bit about Gage. For example, his favorite holiday was Christmas, he didn’t like orange juice, and he had a small obsession with Sons of Anarchy. While most would think this was pointless, I was able to see a different side of Gage.
At first, he was closed off and it was clear he didn’t want to do this, but after a little bit he got into it. He of course asked a few inappropriate questions which I refused to answer, which in turn he made fun of me for. But other than those awkward questions, it was fun.
Getting to know Gage just a tad bit more made this deal slightly better. I was even starting to be okay with it. It could honestly be worse; I could be in a fake relationship with someone else who was a freak or an ass. It wasn’t like Gage wasn’t an ass, but he was tolerable. Something about him made me want to be around him, and that just made this whole thing easier. It made me actually want to continue with this.
***
“You are coming with us.” I glared at him.
“I am not!”
“Yes, you are. You said yesterday that we should maybe do things together and well that is happening today.” I put my hands on my hips staring straight at Gage.
“I didn’t mean this, Carter.” Gage hissed at me, standing firm.
We were currently facing off in the middle of Macey’s and my apartment. Yesterday, when Gage and I were getting to know one another, he said soon we should go do things together, like a date. Side note: I might have stopped breathing when he said that. But anyways, he did say that yesterday and today was going to be that day. It was Saturday, which meant it was Luke and Ethan’s home football game.
I was trying to get Gage to come along with us, but he wouldn’t budge. This was practically his whole idea and now he wasn’t even complying. I was getting a little mad at him but was trying to hold it in.
“Carter, I don’t think he is going to budge,” Macey said from the couch as she watched us. Dylan was sitting next to her as well, looking right at home. When Gage had come over Dylan was right behind him, so it was only logical that I invited him to come along. They could take the other two seats my parents usually sat in.
“Yes, he is. Gage, come on.” He just shook his head at me like a five-year-old.
You are probably wondering why Macey wasn’t freaking out right now, and that is because last night I told her about me and Gage. I told her about the deal between us and what we were going to do in the coming weeks. She of course freaked at first and basically went all Mom on my ass, but after a while, she settled down. She was on board with this idea, which was surprising, but I didn’t question it. That was why she was sitting there picking her nails while Gage and I argued.
“Why are you so difficult?” I practically yelled. We had to leave in fifteen minutes so we could get there in time, and with Gage being difficult we might be late. The game started exactly at five.
“Because I do not want to go. Don’t you fucking understand?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Do not swear at me. Gage Harper, you are coming with me right now or so help me god.” I pointed at him and glared as threateningly as I could.
“Shit, dude, I’d just go along with it. Women are crazy,” Dylan said from his chair while twirling his finger around his head. Both Mace and I snapped our heads in his direction. He shrunk back into the chair and held his hands up in surrender. Wise man. I turned back to look at Gage, but I knew Dylan was motioning behind me.
“Princess, I am not going. I am the head in this relationship,” Gage said smugly, crossing his arms across his muscular chest. Oh, he thinks that, does he? I thought. I walked up to him until I was only inches away.
I could feel the heat radiating off of him. God, he is hot, I thought suddenly. Brushing the thought away, I got back to what I was doing. Being this close to him, I felt my chest brush against his and I heard his intake of breath.
“Sweetie,” I said in a sickly-sweet tone. I placed both of my hands on his hard chest as I leaned into him. Under my hand I could feel the erratic beating of his heart. “Men may be the head of the house, but women are always the neck. We make the head turn the way we want to,” I whispered to him.
With that I stepped away from him and turned on my heel, walking toward my bedroom. Behind me Gage stood still, trying to recover from what I did. I grinned in triumph as I headed to get my cell phone that was charging. Take that, Mister I-am-the-head-of-this-relationship.
Making sure I had everything I needed with me, I left my room. I held two ticket bracelets in my hand as I came back to the living room. Just in case my parents forgot theirs, I kept extra. In this case it worked out well; Gage and Dylan could use them. Gage wanted to do this, so he was coming whether he liked it or not.
“Okay, ready to go, everyone?” I asked as I entered the living room. I glanced around the room frowning slightly at seeing what both boys were wearing. While Macey and I were wearing school colors, me in my brother’s jersey and, surprising me, Macey had on one of my brother’s as well. It was clearly a new one because the one I had from last year was a slight lighter blue than hers. I raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t comment. Macey ignored me altogether as she stood up. Letting her go, I turned to the boys. Even though they were wearing no school colors, I wasn’t going to say anything. I was afraid that if I did, Gage would use that as an excuse not to go.
“Boys, these are for you. Wear them through the whole game. When it is over you can give them back because they are my parents’, so we can’t lose them.” I handed each of them their bracelets. “Let’s get going before we are late. The crowds are going to be crazy today.” I knew they were going to be. The last two football games had been away games, and with the team still undefeated, everyone was coming to watch.
Not even waiting for an answer, I followed behind Macey, the boys trailing behind us. The entire time we walked to the stadium, Gage had to grumble about coming along. Dylan on the other hand was beyond excited. He was like a kid getting candy on Halloween. I wasn’t sure if he had been to a football game before or not, but he was acting like he never had been to one. At least someone was excited. I knew Gage didn’t want to come with us, and I knew this wasn’t his “scene,” but I thought it would be good for him. Get out and do something else than fight. And I hoped he would enjoy himself after being here for a little bit.
“Why are you wearing a jersey?” Gage suddenly asked next to me as we walked along the pathway.
“To support the team.” I shrugged. I always wore my jersey.
“Whose number is that?” he asked, and I sensed a different tone in his voice. Is he jealous? I silently wondered. Smirking, I looked over at him.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” With that, I grabbed Macey’s hand and walked ahead of him.
Thankfully, it didn’t take us long to get through security and into the stadium. Macey and I knew our way around better than anyone, so as soon as we were through the gates we were steering the guys in the direction of our seats. We had to weave our way through people, and I even had to jump to the side, into Gage, to avoid getting splashed with beer. As predicted, the place was packed.
In no time we were filing our way into our seats. The moment we got to our seats, I noticed both boys were looking around in what looked like awe. We were right up front and did have the best tickets, if I do say so myself. Definitely a perk to my parents being who they were.
The guys were not going to come out for another five minutes, so we had time to just relax for a little bit. Our seating arrangements went Macey, Me, Gage, then Dylan. Us girls figured the two boys would rather sit by one another than separately, especially this being their first time and all.
While Macey leaned around me to talk to the guys, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen in a few minutes. Like every game both Ethan and Luke would come up and we’d do our rituals, but what now with Ethan? I mean, he was dating Amy, so would that make it awkward now, or did it even matter? He didn’t know of my feelings, so the only way for it to be awkward it was for me to make it so. I did not want to break our ritual at all; it was something we had done for years and without it, I didn’t know what would happen. It wasn’t like the world was going to end if me and Ethan didn’t do our handshake, but it almost felt like it would. I did not want to be the cause of them losing the game over something stupid. Call me superstitious, but it had rubbed off on me from the whole team. Sighing, I shoved all of my negative thoughts into a little box in the corner of my mind. I would not think of those things right now. I was going to do what we normally did and act like nothing was wrong. I had had years of practice around Ethan, so it shouldn’t even matter. Plus, it was a big day today for them; no one could cause that to go wrong.
Five minutes later the announcer yelled out our school name, making the entire stadium stand up screaming at the top of their lungs. Macey and I also stood up, clamping our hands around our mouths and screaming. From the corner of my eye I saw Gage and Dylan glance at one another in surprise at us, both still seated. I rolled my eyes at them, then focused on the field.
As normal here came numbers sixteen and seventeen heading our way. I couldn’t help but admire the way Ethan looked in his uniform. I knew I shouldn’t have but it was a habit, and who didn’t like the look of a guy in a football uniform? A huge grin was plastered on my face as they came to a stop below us.
Leaning down, I extended my arm out toward Luke. I could feel a presence behind me but ignored it. Luke and our hands moved in our secret handshake. To anyone else they would be confused, but we knew what it meant.
“Good luck.” I grinned at my brother. He smiled back and moved onto Macey. Moving into his place was Ethan. My heart skipped a beat for a second before it settled down. That’s new, I thought. Normally, my pulse would race for hours after glancing at him.
The grin on my face didn’t disappear though as we reached out for one another. Our hands interlocked along with our pinkies and index fingers. Ethan smiled up at me through his helmet, his white teeth flashing.
“Kick their asses!” I yelled over the loud cheering. Giving me a nod, he let go of my hand and stepped back. Luke and Ethan clapped each other on the shoulder and gave Mace and I one last smile before running off. I looked over at Macey, who was suddenly bright red in the face. What is up with her? I wondered. I watched her eyes follow my brother. Were they? No, they can’t be! I mentally shouted to myself. I stared at Macey with wide eyes, but she didn’t say anything. I am just imaging it. Nothing is going on. Just relax.
Still suspicious, I sat down trying to get my head not to explode. The moment I sat down, I of course heard some girls behind me talking to each other asking how we knew two of the most popular players. I even heard one girl ask why I had a jersey numbered seventeen. I almost laughed out loud at their insinuation; that was just plain gross.
“It is your brother’s jersey,” Gage commented when we sat back down. My lips tilted up as I glanced over at him.
“Nothing gets by you, does it?” I retorted. Gage glared at me but didn’t say anything else.
“What was that?” Dylan asked, leaning around Gage to look at Mace and me.
“It is a thing we do,” Macey answered shrugging. For a split second I had forgotten they were here.
“A thing?” Dylan asked with a raised eyebrow.
“We do it every game,” I simply said, feeling Gage’s heated stare on the side of my face. Ignoring him, I focused on the game as the opponent kicked off.
Twenty minutes into the game I noticed how into it both Dylan and Gage were. Their eyes were glued to the field, making me laugh under my breath. To think Gage didn’t want to come along.
While he was watching intently, I studied him. I could only see half of his face, but man was it a nice one. I had a feeling this whole deal with him was going to turn out differently than I thought. I mean, it wasn’t like I was starting to get feelings for him—not at all. I was still hung up on Ethan, and we were doing this because of him. While all of that was true, a small part of me was telling me otherwise.
Sure, I could see myself falling for him if I wanted to, but I wasn’t. It was too soon anyways. I had only known him for a month and we barely, just barely, started this whole thing. I couldn’t deny the warm feeling I felt around him, however, or the fact that I felt at home when I was with him.
This was all just starting, but deep down I knew that after this moment things were going to change. I knew that being around Gage was going to change me in ways I didn’t even know, and it scared me but intrigued me at the same time. Everything about Gage did that to me, and I could not stop it or rather, I did not want to stop it. For once I wanted to do things different, things that I normally would not do. Those thoughts alone scared me, but when Gage glanced over at me and sent me a smile, I knew right then I would not mind one bit if things changed.