Fake Dating The Rival Team's Captain

Chapter 3

[Kathy]

I was trending.

I hadn't even had time to cry or process losing my best friend and my boyfriend. Now I have to deal with this too.

I wish I wouldn't go out today. But it was Monday, and I have classes I can't imagine myself skipping—I've never skipped class before.

I hadn't even made it to my first class, when I began to hear the not-so-quiet whispers.

"That's her," one girl whispered. "The one from the video."

I ignored them.

Aren't I bothered?

Of course I was. A thousand emotions and unanswered questions were still going through my head.

But I'm not going to let what happened ruin me or my grades. And I certainly won't be an object of pity. People can say and think whatever they want.

I kept my chin up and my eyes forward.

I finally made it to class without being buried by the eyes that bore into me.

My professor didn't even pretend not to know. He gave me this look—somewhere between pity and amusement, before starting the lecture like nothing had happened.

After my lectures, I ditched the dining hall and ate a granola bar alone on a bench instead. Not only because I was avoiding the endless stares, but also because I was trying to avoid Bree and Blair.

I haven't seen them though, maybe because I've been avoiding them all morning—Avoiding all the places they might be.

But how long am I supposed to keep this up?

Eventually, I'd have to encounter them and I shouldn't let them see that it bothers me.

It suddenly felt so quiet without Bree and Blair. We'd always hang out after lectures. They really were all I had. But not anymore, I guess.

Still, I'd rather be alone than crawl back to either of them. I was done with them. Completely done. I've even blocked them everywhere.

I sighed.

My gaze swept across the quad.

That was when I noticed him.

Across the quad, leaning against a lamppost like he had nowhere better to be, Wayne Xander stood in a gray hoodie with his hood down, not even pretending to hide the fact that he was watching me.

I blinked. He was gone by the time I looked again.

I told myself I imagined it.

I didn't imagine it two hours later, when I walked into the campus café and found him already at the counter, ordering like he hadn't just materialized out of nowhere.

He glanced briefly at me, and I turned away immediately. My hands adjusted some strands of my blonde hair to the back of my ear.

Is he following me?

Nah...

Maybe it's just a coincidence.

I ordered, then spun around and stormed out.

I didn't see him again that day, but the next morning he was outside my lecture hall, tossing a hacky sack like he had all the time in the world.

Now the first time could be a coincidence, and a second was cool, but a third?

I just ignored him.

That evening, I drove my mom's old Honda to one of the school's libraries. I spent quite some time in there, and when I finally came out, he was there.

Wayne Xander. Leaned against my car in the parking lot like it was the most natural thing to do.

I walked up to him.

His arms crossed, grinning like he'd been waiting there for hours and didn't mind one bit.

"This' your car?"

"Obviously."

"Oh," he paused to look at it briefly before turning back to me. "Okay."

"You're the girl from the other night, right? The one who kissed me?" His grin widened.

I almost rolled my eyes.

I crossed my arms, "Are you following me?"

He scoffed, "This is a big campus, sweetheart. But yeah, I should be asking you that instead—Weird how you keep ending up wherever I am."

I huffed, "This is called stalking, Xander."

He tilted his head at the sound of his own name in my mouth, something flickering across his face like he liked hearing it more than he expected to.

He closed the distance between us, slow enough that I had every opportunity to step back but I didn't. "I prefer calling it strategic proximity."

"That's not a real thing."

My eyes held his—None of us ready to back off.

"It is when it works."

I should've ignored him and just driven away. Instead I stood there in the parking lot, arms crossed, waiting for whatever game he thought he was playing to show itself.

"What do you want, Wayne? You've got thirty seconds before I start screaming."

"Thirty seconds, huh. Confident I can say what I need to say faster than that."

"Say it, then."

"Your ex hasn't shut up about you since that kiss. Guy's obsessed."

"Meanwhile, everyone thinks we're already together. They're just waiting for confirmation."

"That's not my problem."

"Isn't it, though? Because last I checked, you're the one everyone's calling desperate. Attention-seeking. Pathetic, even, for chasing after the enemy captain just to make an ex jealous."

Heat crawled up my neck. He wasn't wrong, and he knew he wasn't wrong, and something about the way he said it—not cruel, just honest, made it worse.

"What's your point, Xander?"

"So why not make it official?"

I watched him.

Amusement flickered across his face.

“Fake-date me."

"..."

I blinked.

There was no way I'd heard him correctly.

***