The Girlfriend Request Page 8

  “No problem.” She poked my leg. “So, I had this quiz in Chemistry, bombed again.”

  “That sucks.”

  “I know, right?”

  When she adjusted her seatbelt, it drew my attention to the open buttons on the neckline of her shirt. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. It was as if I was looking at Emma through a brand new lens, and I couldn’t get enough of her. I wanted to drink in every detail. The curve of her cheek, the way her collar fell against her neck, the…

  “Are you listening?” She stared at me, eyebrows drawn together. I realized I’d missed whatever she’d been saying the past minute or so.

  I raised my eyes, mortified. “What? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I thought I saw something on your shirt. I didn’t know if there was a bug on you.” A bug?

  “Ew! Where? Get it off!” She slapped and swiped at the non-existent bug.

  “I think you got it, you’re good. Um, sorry, what were you saying?”

  “Never mind, I was just babbling about the quiz. Not important. So…you wanted to talk?” She bit her lip and glanced at me from half lowered lashes.

  I swallowed, not sure how to bring up what I really wanted to talk about. The whole Facebook thing. I wanted us to just stop dancing around and playing games. I liked her. I hoped she liked me. I wanted us to try to take it to the next level, to see what could happen.

  I sucked in a deep breath for courage.

  “Right. So.” I met her gaze for a second before looking back at the road. “I felt kind of weird at first bringing this up, but then again, we aren’t kids anymore, and we both know the score, and by now you know how I feel, so…” I glanced over again.

  She didn’t say anything, just picked at a piece of lint on her skirt. Was I supposed to spell it out? This was so awkward. I rubbed the back of my neck.

  “I’ll just ask you.” Maybe she wasn’t interested. If that was the case, I was saying all of this and looking like an ass. Maybe she did the whole profile thing as a goof to mess around. But I had to know, either way.

  Now or never. I drew in another long breath before blurting out. “So what do you think?”

  She just stared at me. Not saying a word.

  Well, shit.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Emma

  Eli’s head bent toward me in a half-nod, and he looked way more nervous than I’d ever seen him before.

  That was it?

  What did I think?

  How was I supposed to respond to that? Was I supposed to know what he was talking about? A sinking feeling of dread came over me. Did he know?

  I stared at him, trying to read his expression. He didn’t look mad, so he probably didn’t know about the profile, but I’d seem stupid asking for clarification since he seemed to think we were on the same page. I wasn’t even sure we were reading the same book.

  Talk about frustrating. Things didn’t used to be this difficult between us. Before, we both knew what the other was thinking without saying a word. But ever since the whole Facebook debacle, I was constantly on guard, second-guessing his every word or action.

  I tried to play it cool, not lost in the least, and gave him a hesitant smile and nodded. “Um…yeah, okay.” Agreeing with him was the safest course of action. Although I could be raving about mad scientists creating killer babies for all I knew.

  But considering the way he’d been behaving lately, a part of me wondered if there could actually be a chance he was into me too. Was he talking about us? Like, as in a couple us? It seemed too much to hope for. I wished he’d spill whatever he was trying to say, so I didn’t have to try to fill in the blanks, but I was too afraid to ask him what the hell he was jabbering about. The lion in Oz had more courage than me.

  He broke into a grin. “Really? Great! I was so freaked at first, thinking I was reading you wrong or something.” He watched me expectantly.

  A smile burst across my face. This was it—it had to be. I wanted to reach out, grab him and scream, finally!

  Eli’s matching smile grew even wider. “That’s a relief. I mean, I wasn’t sure if you thought it was a good idea, too. I mean, or if you thought it was just a joke or what. But then, I kind of had a feeling, or hoped anyway. And when I brought it up the other day…”

  He broke off when a car backed out in front of us, and he reached his hand out in front of me reflexively. “Sorry about that.”

  I shook my head. “Um…no problem.” Lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t even noticed our near miss. I was completely confused now. He hadn’t brought up anything about us before.

  He slowed down and pulled into his driveway, stopped the car, and turned to face me directly. He reached down and rested his hand lightly on my leg.

  I’d just decided to go for broke and ask him what exactly he was talking about when he continued on, stopping my questions.

  His voice turned more serious, “The other day when we were talking about Kelli, and I told you I wanted to ask her out, I—”

  “Oh!” I clapped my hand over my mouth. Mortified, I realized I had gotten it wrong, misinterpreted his signals. I’d been seeing what I wanted to see, not what was really there.

  Waves of jealousy over a fictional girl that I’d created consumed me. Welcome to a new low, ladies and gentleman. But I put on a brave face.

  “Of course. I totally think you should ask her out. After all, why not, right? You aren’t seeing anybody else, or…”

  “Em, wait.” His eyes scrunched up as he watched my lips move.

  “What? No, I completely agree. I should have never said anything against it before. She sounds great.” I nodded my head like a bobble-toy. “And she’s obviously the type of girl you’re looking for. Beautiful and all.”

  My teeth bared in what I hoped passed for an encouraging smile, and not a nauseous grimace. I prayed I wouldn’t puke in his car. “Hey I have an idea! This’ll be fun, maybe we can double.”

  What the hell was I saying?

  Eli pulled back, and shook his head slowly. “I thought, I guess I thought…” His voice staggered off.

  “I know, at first I probably seemed kind of against the idea. After all, I was worried about how well you really knew this girl, but, hey, you like her, right? That’s all that matters. And I’m sure she’s really into you.”

  Inane word vomit spewed out of my mouth, but I was helpless to stop it. I smiled brightly, trying to cover the rush of pain inside. I refused to let it show. How could I have thought for even one minute that he’d been talking about me? That he actually felt that way about me. And why did it bother me so much when this was my plan all along?

  He ran his fingers through his wind-blown hair, still shaking his head. He looked down at his hands where they now rested on the steering wheel. After a heartbeat that lasted forever, he lifted his head and met my eyes once more. “So, let me get this straight. You’re saying you want me to ask Kelli out, and you want to go on a double date with us?”

  I nodded, trying not to show how sick I felt inside.

  What the hell am I saying? How am I going to get out of this now? Word vomit. I blamed it all on the word vomit I was so famous for when nervous.

  “Well, sure. Or do think that would be weird?”

  “Uh, actually, yeah.”

  “Why?” I looked at him sharply.

  He only stared back.

  Suddenly offended, it hit that apparently I hadn’t hidden my feelings as well as I thought. He did know I liked him, and just assumed I’d act like a five year old and stomp and pitch a fit if I was around him and another girl. Clearly that was what he’d meant with his whole “We’re not kids and we both know the score” speech.

  So what was with all of his flirty little comments at the lunch table earlier, or the other night? Practicing out his moves so he could have them all down pat to use on the girl he really liked?

  I wanted to jump out of the car before he could see how humiliated I felt. Hurt built into anger. He must have loved watching me blush and fawn over him. C
arissa was right. I needed to get out of the car, get to my room, and bawl my eyes out in private.

  Pride crushed, it was best to go on the offensive, convince him he had it all wrong. It was clear his interest lay in a certain blond cheerleader, and not with me.

  And even though a part of me screamed, “Well that was The Plan,” another part of me broke inside, because I’d allowed myself to believe that maybe he’d finally seen me, really seen me, and wanted to be with me, the real me, not the one hiding behind a fake photo.

  I’d made the mistake of allowing myself to hope, and now his words crushed that hope to dust. I still wasn’t good enough.

  I shot him a withering look, and turned my voice saccharine sweet. “I think I can handle it. After all, I’ll be busy with my own date, remember?” The cotton candy smile was all for show, my eyes shot sparks.

  Eli gasped like he’d been sucker-punched. Then his eyes darkened. “Fine,” he bit out. “I was obviously wrong. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  “Fine,” I echoed.

  “Fine!”

  Clueless as to what he had to be angry about, I just wanted out. Seething, I pushed open the passenger side door with more force than necessary and watched in horror as it slammed directly into the tall pole attached to a basketball hoop set up at the edge of Eli’s driveway. Metal crashing against metal reverberated through the early afternoon air.

  He jumped out, staring. “Oh, well that’s just great. Way to go.”

  My eyes widened in disbelief as I pointed at the pole. “And this is my fault, how?”

  “I’m not the one that smashed the door into it.”

  “I’m not the one who parked the car too close.”

  “Well, you could have looked at what you were doing.”

  “Well, you could have looked at where you were parking!”

  He stared at me in stony silence.

  I crossed my arms and yelled, “I opened my damn door, Eli! That’s all. So unless you wanted me to levitate out of the car, this wasn’t my fault!”

  He stood near the passenger side bumper. Tension seeped out of every pore. “Fine, whatever. After all, what do I know?” He seemed hurt and bitter and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. “Maybe your new boyfriend can give you a ride home from school from now on.”

  “Fine! And maybe you can cart Kelli’s skinny little ass anywhere she needs to go,” I shot back.

  “Maybe I will! And I bet she knows how to open a damn door!” With that, he spun away and stalked up the front steps to his house. He didn’t look back once.

  After slamming the passenger door closed, I crossed the yard to my own home. Sick to the stomach, I couldn’t figure out how the day had gone from Eli whispering how he liked my hair, to him yelling at me about something that wasn’t even my fault and stomping away.

  And the craziest part was that thanks to my latest brilliant suggestion, I only had a few days to find myself a fake boyfriend, and even worse, find a girl to play Eli’s new online girlfriend so we could all go on some ridiculous double date.

  Covering my face with my hands, I whispered, “Things cannot get any worse.”

  Until they did.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Emma

  “And he hasn’t talked to me once this entire week since then,” I muttered as I reached out to grab a book from the bottom shelf without bothering to glance at the title.

  I’d invaded Buy the Book about forty minutes earlier, two hours before Sarah’s shift in the small bookstore was scheduled to end, but I couldn’t wait that long to talk to her. Instead, I trailed behind as Sarah checked inventory in the Women’s Fiction and Young Adult sections, plopping down in the middle of whatever aisle she was currently cataloguing. Buy the Book hadn’t yet progressed to the computer age.

  She reached down and snatched a paperback out of my hands. “Emma, all you’re doing is messing up the shelves and making more work for me. Please stop.”

  After placing the book back in the correct spot on the low shelf, she straightened up and lifted her hands to adjust the colorful scarf she wore as a headband. The deep jewel tones of the band complemented her smooth mocha skin and vivid green eyes.

  Shaking her head, Sarah dropped down so she was eye-level with me, where I sat on the floor. She reached out an arm, silver bangles tinkling, and grasped my hand as she continued on softer, “Emma, this whole thing was a bad idea. I know you don’t want to hear it, and I’m not saying it to be a jerk. But, you had to know it wasn’t going to end well.”

  I lowered my head and fought back tears. “I thought it would work. I thought it would make him realize that deep down he loved me.”

  “Oh, Em.” Sighing, she reached out both arms.

  I fell into her comforting embrace, unable to prevent the sobs that burst out. “I hate this, it just hurts so much.” I hiccupped through the tears. “I miss him so damn much, and I don’t even know what to say to him as Kelli anymore either.”

  My hands came away smeared with mascara after I wiped my tears. “He emailed her twice this week. I messaged back saying she was sick and wouldn’t be online much just so I didn’t have to figure out what to say if he really does ask her out.”

  We leaned back against the wooden bookshelves together, neither of us saying a word for a few minutes, Sarah’s arm wrapped tight around my shoulder, offering silent support. Thankfully, only one other person was in the store, some college student with a nose ring who ran the register up front. And she was too busy cracking her gum and texting to pay any real attention to us.

  I looked up and quietly asked, “What do I do now?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  We resumed staring at our feet, Sarah’s tall leather boots, and my sensible flats.

  Curling a leg beneath her, she finally raised her head, a determined gleam in her eyes. “Okay, let’s look at this logically. You want to work things out with Eli.” She tilted her head, giving me an expectant look.

  “Well, obviously.”

  “Okay, so, how do we make that happen?”

  “I don’t know! That’s the problem!” I wailed.

  She held up a hand, halting me. “And every problem has a solution. You just need to solve it, right?”

  The urge to roll my eyes was overwhelming, but I knew she was only trying to help. That fact alone made me mutter a half-hearted, “I guess.”

  “Right now, the way things stand, I think he’s upset about the fact that you were rubbing it in his face about going out with this other guy.”

  I barked out a laugh. “Yeah, right. I’m pretty sure he couldn’t care less if I am dating some other guy.”

  Sarah shook her head again. “Emma, I swear, you can be so obtuse sometimes. Look, Eli’s had you right there for him every day from the time we were in what, second grade?”

  “First,” I correctly softly.

  “Fine, first grade. The point is, he’s used to you always being there. And he’s also used to knowing there was no other guy in competition for his place in your life.” She bit her lower lip, concentrating. “But now all of a sudden, you’re bringing some strange guy into the mix. That’s bound to be threatening for him.”

  “Oh please,” I scoffed. “You’re making this sound all big and dramatic.”

  Sarah raised an eyebrow. “I’m not the one making it anything. That’s all on you two. The last time I saw this much drama, Stephan and Damian were competing for one Elena Gilbert.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “But seriously. If you really want him, and neither of you are willing to come right out and admit that to each other, then it’s time to pull out all the stops.”

  “I did.”

  Ignoring me, Sarah nodded.

  “What are you talking about? What stops?”

  “Your new boyfriend will make Eli stop sitting on his ass and taking you for granted. It will force him to admit how he really feels.”

  Eyes widening,
I burst out, “Are you nuts? There’s some major flaws in that plan. Let’s see”—I ticked them off on my fingers—“One, he isn’t even interested in me like that. He made that abundantly clear.” Pointing to the next finger I said, “Two, he wants Kelli. Kelli,” I repeated, “Not me. And the biggest problem with your brilliant idea”—I waved all ten fingers wildly—“I don’t have a new boyfriend! Or anything even remotely close to one.” Rant over, I buried my face in my hands.

  Sarah allowed the pity-party for all of three seconds before smacking me none too gently on the leg. “Just a minor detail. Because”—she stretched out the word—“I know just where we can find the perfect guy to play your Mr. Right. Or at least your Mr. Pretend to be Right.”

  My insane friend beamed. “Trust me.”

  Famous last words.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Eli

  She wanted me to go out on a date with Kelli. She wanted me to go out on a date with Kelli? It made absolutely no sense. I’d been so sure Kelli was Emma. Or Emma was Kelli. Or…whatever. I slammed the lid down on my laptop and stood up, pacing my room.

  On top of that, I’d sent, whoever it was, two more messages. They’d gone unanswered. Or basically unanswered since I’d gotten the blow-off. Just freaking perfect. Both Emma and Kelli now wanted nothing to do with me. I was batting a thousand. I kicked my desk chair, sending it flying across the room.

  “Eli, is everything okay?” My mom walked in the room. Great. Caught acting like a two year old throwing a tantrum.

  “Yup, everything’s fine.”

  She glanced over at the chair.

  “Sorry about that. I was, uh, checking my fantasy football scores and they went down.” The lie made zero sense, but it just popped out. The fantasy draft hadn’t even started…wouldn’t for months. But thankfully Mom was clueless when it came to anything related to a ball. I sighed. Spectacular. Now in addition to a loser, I’d become a liar.

  “Well, don’t take those things so seriously. They’re meant to be fun.” She smiled. “Are you going to be here for dinner or do you have plans?”