Betting on You

29

t w e n t y n i n e

"And where the hell have you been?"

I pressed my lips together in a tight-lipped smile at Stephanie, pulling out the chair at the library table and taking a seat, "My.. mum called me, so.. I was on the phone with her."

"Everything alright?" Jaime asked, concerned, "She like never calls you."

"Yeah, yeah," I reassured, quickly, a lightbulb going off in my head about how to proceed next, "She just called me about the big game tonight."

At the mention of the widely anticipated sports event, Steph clapped her hands lightly in glee, squealing in excitement despite the hushes from the librarian, "I am so excited! And just to double check, it's being held-"

"At the dome down the street," Jai huffed, "You've said this like eight times. We know that it's there."

"I just want to make sure we have an audience," Steph rolled her eyes, "Don't bite my head off just because I want to make sure." she snipped back.

I rose my brow at the remarks being shared between the two of them. Usually they held their tongues a lot better than this, but since I've been so occupied with either tutoring Jared or sneaking around with Luke, their dynamic without me as a buffer seemed to have drastically shifted.

"Uh," I cut in then, trying to break their staring competition, "So, my mother was telling me about the game."

"Didn't you already say that?" Stephanie directed her annoyed attitude and stare from Jaime to me, and she rose a brow, "Who cares?"

Take a deep breath, I bit my bottom lip nervously, "Well, she was telling me that Liz told her about the scouts that are going to be at tonights' game."

"Whose Liz?" the blonde across from me rose a brow, twirling a strand of her curled hair.

"Luke's mom," Jaime cut in for me, "Haven't you been to his house like, thousands of times? Aren't you his strobe light girlfriend?"

"Jaime." I hushed her lightly, not in the mood for either of them to get into an argument right now. Especially in the library, when the librarian was just starting to like me again for keeping quiet.

So my best friend turned her head to her right, looking at me and plastering on a fake smile, "What?"

Taking a breath, I turned from her to Steph, seeing her narrowed glare directed at Jai. Did something more happen between the two of them that I didn't know about?

There was no time for me to dwell on that right now though. I had to get this off my chest to Steph before the period ended and we were off to separate classes. I cleared my throat, "Well as everyone knows, my mom and his mom are best friends and think that Luke and I are best friends... so his parents found out about the scouts and are planning to go to the game to support him."

"They're going to the game?" Suddenly the head cheerleaders' eyes were wide, suddenly much more invested in this conversation, "Why didn't Luke tell me he was bringing his parents to meet me?"

"Because you're not dating." Jaime rolled her eyes, continuing to write her biology notes as she chimed in here and there.

Disregarding her remark, I continued, "Well, his mom told my mom about the scouts, and then she asked my mom if I was going to the game to support Luke, and then she asked my mum if I would sit with them at the game, and then-"

"There's a lot of 'and then's'," Steph cut me off with a dismissive wave, "What's the point here?"

I took another breath, glancing to the suspicious looking librarian that looked to be just waiting on the edge of her seat for Steph to make noise, "To keep up the act that our parents think we're friends, our moms are making me go to the game tonight."