Fake Dating The Rival Team's Captain

Chapter 5

[Wayne]

Kathy shut the door behind her to confront Blair, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

My phone rang.

It was my dad.

I picked up reluctantly.

"Wayne Alexander Xander." My dad only used the full name when he wanted something, or when he wanted to nag me.

"Coach Petrov says you missed extra ice time yesterday and today. He's been waiting for you all morning but you keep ignoring his calls and texts."

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I had a few things to sort out."

"Things more important than hockey practice?"

Here it comes.

"Your brothers never missed extra ice time. Not even once. Not even when Cole broke his wrist."

I closed my eyes, counted to three, the same trick I'd used since I was twelve and learned yelling back only made these calls longer.

"Don't worry dad. I've handled my issues, I promise I won't miss practice again."

He hung up without saying goodbye, same as always, like the call had served its purpose the second he'd made his point.

Everyone in my family was an athlete. My two older brothers, my only siblings, are professional hockey players. My mom had been a professional sprinter, and my dad was a former tennis pro. In my family, success wasn't expected. It was assumed.

Coming from that kind of family, the pressure to be just as successful as them just becomes higher. But I try to hide it sometimes, and pretend like I'm having the best time of my life.

I sighed.

Kathy and Blair's voices rose outside.

If Blair comes in, I may as well give him something worth seeing.

I took my grey sweatshirt off and tossed it to a chair nearby.

Kathy walked into the room—with Blair dashing right ahead of her.

It was as if the god of silence flew past, when I locked gazes with Blair.

His laughter filled the room that had suddenly gone quiet.

He turned to Kathy, "What is this, Kathy?"

"Isn't it obvious, Mascot?" I replied, biting back a laugh.

Blair was about to pounce on me, but Kathy grabbed his shirt, barely holding him back.

He yanked her hands off, "So this is what you want to do, huh, Kathy? Cheat on me?"

I scoffed, "That's rich coming from you,"

"You better shut it, Wayne!"

His attention shifted to Kathy, "Is this why you've been avoiding me all over campus? You even blocked me everywhere. Were you already f**king Xander before that night?"

Kathy exhaled sharply. "You're unbelievable!"

"Tell me Kathy, the rumors going around campus, are they true? Are you dating this f**king asshole now?"

Kathy held his gaze fiercely, but I could see through it. She was trying to hide the emotions that were spiralling inside of her.

"They're all true. Wayne Xander is my boyfriend now." she responded. She didn't hesitate.

Blair laughed, "I don't believe you."

"And I don't care, Wayne is my boyfriend now and he's a way better kisser, actually listens to me, and guess what, he f**ks better too!"

"Now get out!"

"Like I'd actually believe all that—Coming from the girl that told me with tears in her eyes that she can never love anyone else but me." Blair continued to use her past words against her.

It was laughable.

"This little stunt you think you want to pull with Xander," he paused to snicker, "You're going to regret it."

He gave me one last death stare before he exited the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

I couldn't help but clap. "What a performance, Kathy Lexing—You should get an Oscar with that."

"And I must say you gave me way too many credits. I mean, Better in bed?"

"Shut up. I was just trying to—"

Her eyes widened as she turned toward me and it occurred to her for the second time that I was shirtless on her bed.

"And W-Why are you shirtless?" She stammered.

I couldn't suppress my grin.

I stood up from her bed, and grabbed my shirt.

Then I walked closer to her. She took a few steps backwards.

Her cheeks and ears flushed red, but she wasn't looking away.

I bent over a little to meet her height level. I met her gaze. "If this is going to work Kathy, we have to sell it."

"There's a party tomorrow night. Almost every U will be there. So I'm pretty sure Blair will be there too."

"So we're attending?"

"I'll pick you up at 6." I replied.

I put my shirt back on and left.

...

The next day...

I grabbed my keys, and was already at Kathy's at 5:50pm.

She came down eight minutes later, and I forgot, for a second, exactly why I was standing there.

The dress was green, short and fitted. Her makeup and hair all done, unlike her usual messy bun and minimal makeup.

"Don't stare at me like that."

Her voice jolted me out of the trance.

I laughed it off, "Don't blame me, you cleaned up dangerously well for an ordinary uni party."

She looked away to hide the little smile that crept up her lips. But I saw it. It was the first time I ever saw her smile since that night.

She fixated her gaze on me again, "What do you mean? I always look this good."

I shook my head. She's stunning, okay and she knows it.

I half sat on the hood of my car.

"Come closer Kathy,"

She raised a brow at me. Then reluctantly, she moved a few steps closer.

"Closer."

"What?"

And just when she was close enough, I wrapped an arm around her waist.

Her hands gripped on my shoulders simultaneously.

"What are you doing—"

I cut her short with a kiss.

She pushed me away immediately, breaking off the kiss.

"Are you insane?!"

My tongue ran across my lower lip, tasting her sticky strawberry-flavoured lipgloss.

"Act cool Kathy. Those girls over there are filming or taking pictures of us."

Her look wandered until they finally spotted the girls.

With the frown that followed, I'm pretty sure she was already wondering why she has to put up with this, and people taking pics and videos of her without her consent.

Her eyes returned to me, "You should have given me a heads-up."

"There was no time. Act like you really liked it, which I'm sure you did—Ouch!" She cut me off with a punch to the abdomen.

I smiled, "Look, I'm pretty sure they're going to post whatever they're taking—Which is good. Let them help us spread the gospel."

She shook her head, "Let's just go."

I opened the shotgun door, and she got in.

"Also, from now on, can we normalize asking for permission before doing anything intimate?" she pointed out immediately I got into the driver's seat.

I grinned, "Fair point. My bad.”

The party sat at the edge of Greek row, some third-string forward's off-campus house shaking with bass before we even parked. I came around to open her door before she could do it herself.

Inside, the house buzzed with the kind of energy only liquor and loud music could generate. Heads turned the second we walked in. Whispers followed us to the kitchen like a current we were swimming against.

I kept my hand at the small of her back, murmured something in her ear about a keg stand happening in the corner just to watch her laugh—a real laugh. It was so contagious I wanted to hear it again.

Across the room, Blair's jaw worked like he was chewing glass.

Good.

"Blair's here."

Her stare drifted in his direction before she looked away.

"He's staring," Kathy said.

"Let him."

"And Kathy you have to stop acting like he still has an effect on you." Of course he still does. Did I expect her to really be over him already?

She didn't respond to that.

I kept my arm around her for the next hour, leaned in close enough during conversations that people stopped mid-sentence to watch us instead of listen to each other. Every glance Blair threw our way, I made sure he got a good look at exactly what he'd lost.

"I'm going to go get some water." Kathy said.

"Let me get it for you, babe." I offered.

"N-No." She stuttered, obviously not used to me calling her that. "I'll get it myself."

I lost track of time for maybe ten minutes, deep in some story with Marcus, about a road trip gone sideways.

Kathy wasn't back yet.

The crowd swallowed her up. I couldn't spot Blair either.

"Be back." I told my friends.

I found her by the kitchen island.

Blair had her wrist.

Not holding it. Gripping it, knuckles white, leaning in close enough that Kathy had gone rigid, her back pressed against the counter with nowhere left to go.

His voice carried even over the music, "You don't know how pathetic this makes you look Kathy—trying to make me jealous with Wayne."

"Let go of me."

"I won't! And if you keep embarrassing me with this little show of yours, I might do worse Kathy. You don't want to see that side of me."

Something in my chest went white-hot.

***