15. Trust Me?

RYLIE

"You did what now?!" I yelled, whirling around to face him.

"Okay Rylie. Just calm down."

"Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down when you just told me that you entered into the talent show without fucking telling me?!"

"I know but I was doing it for your own good," Blake assured me.

"I don't believe that! I can't believe you would do this, Blake. Is this another one of your plans to embarrass me because if it is, not cool Blake. Not cool!"

"Oh come on, Rylie. I thought we were past this already."

"Yeah I thought we were too until you decided to push me to an early death by signing me up for the frigging talent show!"

"Oh Rylie, quit being so dramatic."

"Oh really? I'm being dramatic! I'm being dramatic?!" I exclaimed angrily.

"Yeah kinda. At least considering the fact that everyone's eyes are on us."

I looked around me and observed that he was right. Giggling nervously, I grabbed Blake by the arm and pulled him to a corner where we couldn't be seen.

"Now back to our discussion..."

Blake instantly cut me off saying, "Rylie, don't worry. Yesterday I told you I'd help you, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," I grumbled in agreement.

"And I will. Trust me."

"Yeah. That's kind of the thing."

"What? You don't trust me?" Blake cried out.

"I don't want to say yes but... yeah, I don't trust you."

"How come? I thought we were friends. We shared all those secrets!"

"We were friends, frenemies at the very least until you decided to sign me up for an early death!" I poked his chest as I spoke placing emphasis on each word.

"Okay, owww! And like I said, don't worry. Frenemies stick together afterall... So we doing this or not?" he stretched his hand forward for a handshake.

I stared at the hand and then at him.

"Okay, fine. Let's do this," I accepted the handshake. "So, what do we do first?"

"Well, first things first," he slung an arm around my shoulder, "let's go back out there and let everyone know we've made up."

We walked back into the hallway and with everyone's eyes fixed on us, Blake turned to me and announced to everyone's hearing, "I love you so so much, bae."

Then he kissed me on the cheek, dangerously close to my lips but just enough to make it look like we actually kissed.

When he pulled away, my cheeks felt redder than usual and hot for whatever reason.

As he escorted me to class, he leaned in and said, "Great job on the acting, Ry. You looked so flustered it's hard to believe we didn't kiss."

Then he pulled away and winked.

···

"Rylie, are you even listening?" Olivia's words penetrated through the haze I was in, jerking me back to reality.

"Oh yeah! What were you saying again?" I asked, pretending that I was listening to her.

She narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously and said, "I was just saying that I thought it was pretty cool that Blake got you to sign up for the talent show."

"Yeah! Totally cool," I mumbled, not listening to a word she was saying.

"Yes. It's about time you started singing in public again."

"Mm-hmm."

"Rylie! Rylie!… Rylie, I'm in love with Blake!"

"Oh yeah. Wait what?!" I spit out my drink as I turned to look at her.

She had a smirk on her face as she stared back at me, arms akimbo.

"Now you hear me. You know, I never thought I'd see you this worked up over a guy after Asher and yet here you are about to lose your shit because I said I love your boyfriend."

"Well do you?" I asked.

"Well of course not," she chortled. "The look on your face however is priceless!"

She chortled again while I rolled my eyes at her good-naturedly.

"So whatever were you thinking about that got you so distracted?"

"Oh, it was nothing really," I answered hesitantly.

"Are you sure? You seemed pretty far gone."

"It was nothing. I guess I'm still hung up on Blake forcing me to sign up for the talent show."

"Don't worry about that. You'll be fine. You have Blake and you have me," she assured me.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks Liv."

I went back to drinking my shake as my thoughts roamed again.

I'd actually been lying to Olivia when I said I'd been thinking about the talent show. The truth was I was still hung up on the kiss that Blake gave me, you know, the one that had almost touched my lips but didn't... Yeah, that one!

I'd been trying to stop thinking about it but it kept coming back and with it came memories that I thought had been buried but now had resurfaced.

I'm talking about the accidental kiss that started everything in the first place. Ever since we started dating or fake dating and people stopped recirculating the video of us kissing, I had all but forgotten about that little accident.

Not exactly forgotten but at least, it'd stopped popping up in my head at obscene moments.

Now, it kept coming back over and over, followed by the kiss on the cheek from this morning.

Ugh! I know I don't have something for Blake but why is he always in my head? What is he doing to me?

Blake's POV

I shut my locker with a loud bang, mumbling angrily under my breath.

"Geez! What'd that locker ever do to you?"

I yelped as I jumped back in fright.

"Rylie, what the fuck? What are you doing here?" I asked, recovering quickly.

"I'm here to see you, duh!"

"Uh why?"

"Because you told me to. You know, for the lessons to build up my confidence so I can participate in the talent show that you signed me up for!" she exclaimed almost hysterical.

"Oh yeah! That! Okay, let's get going th… Shoot, my bag is in my locker."

I tapped in the passcode to open the locker. As soon as the locker opened, the door disconnected from the hinges and most of the contents in the locker fell out, my bag included.

"Great! Now I have to deal with this as well. Just great!" I yelled sarcastically.

"Well it's not surprising, considering how hard you banged the poor locker," Rylie noted with her eyebrows arched.

I didn't respond and instead bent to pick up the contents of my locker which were sprawled out on the floor.

"Okay fine. I'll help you," she muttered, bending to join me.

As soon as she grabbed a stack of papers, I immediately grabbed her hands to try and stop her but I was already too late.

"You got a F in Algebra?" she asked, staring at my test script.

"Yeah. And so?" I countered angrily, grabbing the script from her.

"Nothing. It's just..." she began giggling.

I rolled my eyes. "Nice to see my failure is so funny to you."

"Oh come on, Blake. You know I didn't mean it like that."

"Whatever Rylie. You know what? It doesn't matter."

I packed up the rest of my things and stuffed them into my locker. I picked up the door of the locker and placed it on the floor before marching angrily to the exit, ignoring Rylie.

"Come on Blake. I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean it like that. Blake!" she called out but I still didn't pay any attention to her.

She ran past me and blocked my path.

"What is it Rylie? Here to mock me again?"

"I already said I was sorry!"

I huffed in response.

"Okay. How about this? Let me tutor in Math."

"Yeah. How about no?"

"Oh come on! Just consider it as my payment to you for helping me with the talent show stuff."

"I don't know about that…"

"Please!!! Let me help you! I promise I'll be an excellent teacher. What do you say?"

I put my hand on my chin in thought before breathing out an "Okay."

"Yes!"

"But," I added, "only if you let me kiss you."

"Excuse me, what?!" Rylie exclaimed.