He's With Me by Tamara Summers (the beginning after the end read novel txt) 📗

of torturing me instead.

“Nope, she’s working at the pool—training to be a lifeguard. So hopefully we

won’t have to see her too much.”

Colin flattened out the printed e-mail on the table and videotaped it. “This is

crazy,” he said. “I didn’t know girls ever did this kind of thing.”

“Bree McKennis does anything she wants,” Jake said. “Which is why you guys

have to save me. I can’t date her! First, it’ll be painful and agonizing. She’ll make me

carry her things and bring her sodas and buy her stuff, and then she’ll yell at me when I

do anything wrong, and then she’ll make fun of me to all her friends behind my back, and

then she’ll dump me and tell everyone what a dork I am and I’ll never get a date in this town ever again. I may not be the world’s most popular guy, but this will ruin me for the

rest of high school. Remember what she did to Kevin Barkett? Or Alvaro? No, you don’t,

because once she was through with them, they disappeared from everyone’s minds.

Forever.”

“However,” said Colin, “she is really hot. Like, Angelina Jolie-type hot.”

“Ew, Colin!” Lexie said, smacking his shoulder.

“She is!” Colin said. “Right, Jake?”

Jake shrugged. “I guess she’s okay. Not my type.”

“Not your—seriously?”

“Personally, I would’ve stayed with Jennifer Aniston,” Jake said. “And did you

miss the part about the ‘Rules of Dating Bree’? Does that sound like fun to you? Man, I

knew I shouldn’t have met her eyes when she came up to get lemonade. I shouldn’t have

agreed to work the concessions stand at graduation in the first place. Now it’s going to be

the worst summer ever.” He slid onto the floor, lay down, and crossed his arms over his

face.

“Can’t you just say no?” Colin asked.

“Even I know the answer to that,” Lexie said. “Nobody says no to Bree.” Lexie

understood exactly what Jake was worried about. She’d been avoiding Bree since

elementary school. If you stayed far under her radar, you could slip by unnoticed and

unharmed, but if you popped into her line of sight in any way, she would rip you to

shreds with one flick of her French-tipped nails.

“Doomed,” Jake muttered. “Doooomed.”

“All right,” Colin said. “Tell her you already have a girlfriend.”

Jake thought for a moment. “Like, long-distance? I don’t think she’ll buy that.

Plus it’s only been a week since school ended. Where would I have picked up a girlfriend

in a week?”

“I dunno.” Colin shrugged. “You could tell her you’re dating Lexie.”

Lexie was so, so, so glad that Colin had his eyes glued to the camera controls and

didn’t see her expression. Jake kept his arms over his face, so he didn’t notice, either. She

felt like she might faint. There was a really awkward pause, and Lexie wondered if she

was supposed to make a joke here.

She started to say, “As if—“ at the same time as Jake said, “Well, I—“ and they

both stopped.

“what were you going to say?” he asked. He put his arms down and tilted his head

back to look at her.

“Um, just . . . as if she’ll believe that.”

“Why?” Colin said. Lexie wished Jake would say something, but he just kept

looking at her.

“Well, if you think Bree is out of his league, then I’m in another solar system,

aren’t I?” she tried to joke.

“Actually, it might work,” Jake said. Lexie bit her tongue, she was so surprised.

“Sure it will,” Colin said. “Lexie will be at Summerlodge, too, so Bree can see

you’re together. And it’s only for a little while, until Bree gets over you. And it’s not like

there’s anyone Lexie wants to date, so you’re hardly putting a dent in her love life. Right,

Lexie?”

That’s nice. Thanks, Colin.

“What do you say, Lexie?” Jake asked, rolling over onto his stomach and

propping his elbows on the floor and his chin in his hands adorably. “Want to be my

pretend girlfriend?” His eyes were like store clouds, big and unstoppable and irresistible.

Lexie, this is what you’ve been dreaming about.

Correction: This is a strange parody of what you’ve been dreaming about. Is this

what you really want? Being Jake’s pretend girlfriend?

Yeah, sure, okay. Close enough!

“Okay,” she said, feeling dizzy. “I mean, it’ll be tough pretending to like you, but

I guess I can take one for the team. Right?”

“You’re my knight in shining armor,” Jake said, getting up and kneeling on the

couch next to her. Right next to her. “My hero, my warrior princess,” he said, taking her hand. “My King Kong.” He pressed her hand to his heart. She could actually feel it

beating through the soft fabric of his shirt. It was going really fast. Nearly as fast as hers,

but he was an athlete, so it probably went that fast all the time.

“Okay, here are the Rules of Pretend Dating Lexie,” she said. “You need to stop

comparing me to a giant gorilla.”

“What are the other rules?” he asked. He was still holding her hand against his

chest.

“That’s the only one,” she said. Was her voice shaking? Could he tell? “So far.

I’ll keep you posted as others come up.”

He grinned. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“Okay,” Colin said, standing up. “I think I’ve figured out how to change it to

night recording. Let’s go test it in the shed.” He picked up a flashlight and headed for the

stairs. Lexie couldn’t believe her own twin hadn’t noticed how much she was blushing.

She wanted to stay where she was forever, but she pulled her hand free and scrambled off

the couch.

“Great, okay,” she said. “Sounds like fun.” She looked back from the doorway.

“Coming, Jake?”

“You bet,” he said, standing up and stretching. “Where my girlfriend goes, I go.”

Lexie shivered.

I always thought my first boyfriend would be Jake. But I never thought it would be

pretend . . . .

Copyright © 2007 by Tamara Summers. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic, Inc.