Read Online Winging It by Cate Cameron - Free Book Online Page B

I’m sorry for dragging you into it. Thank you for fake dating me, but we need to stop faking now.”
    “Stop faking?” I stammered. Was it possible that she meant stop fake dating and start real dating?
    She turned to look at me. “You were right—it isn’t fair to expect you to just sit back and watch Scott steal your girlfriend. I mean, who he thinks is your girlfriend. I didn’t really—well, as usual, I didn’t really work it all through. I didn’t realize he’d be so in-your-face about it, so public. My teammates were all giving me dirty looks before the game because they thought I was flirting with him, being disloyal to you!”
    “So what you’re really saying is that it was fine to do all this when it was just going to make me look bad, but now that it’s going to make you look bad, it’s off?” I pushed away from the car, all the warm butterflies that had been flapping around in my stomach dying and making me feel sick. “So what’s your plan now? The whole thing is off? Like, you tell Scott you and I were never dating and see how you can do on your own?” I snorted when I saw her expression. “No. You want to keep pretending and just get rid of me so you can be with Scott. Right?”
    “Well, yeah, I guess. That was the whole idea, right? We could, like…stage a fight, maybe? Hey, are you going to Kelly Broadstreet’s party tomorrow night? That’d be a good spot, right? It wouldn’t be like one of us dumped the other, it would just be a breakup.”
    And there I was, back to wanting to punch somebody. Not Nat, but somebody . “Do you need a ride home?” I demanded. “Is your car here?”
    She frowned, apparently not quite ready for the topic change. “Uh, no, Mom’s got the car. I usually catch a ride with someone on the team.”
    I pushed away from the trunk and headed for the driver’s door. “Dump your bag in the backseat. Let’s go.”
    She did as she was told, for once in her damn life, and then climbed into the passenger seat and stared at me. “So, are you practicing for the fight? Is that why you’re being crabby?”
    I snorted and turned the key. “I don’t think I need to practice. I think it’ll be really easy to act mad at you.”
    She was quiet as we drove out of the parking lot and started down Main Street. When I turned into her neighborhood, she said, “I’ll still tell Scott about us faking it. Not right away, but I’ll keep our deal. Okay? I mean, nothing’s really changed. I’m just letting you off the hook earlier than we planned. That’s a good thing, right?”
    “Yeah,” I said. “It’s great.”
    And that was about all either of us had to say for the rest of the drive home.

Chapter Eleven
    Nat
    Guys don’t usually air out their hockey equipment between wearings. They take it off, stuff it in their bags, and leave it in there to just kind of rot until the next time they need it. It’s disgusting, but I think they actually kind of like how bad it ends up smelling. It’s like they’re proud of it.
    When I get home after a game or practice, I pull my equipment out and hang it up in the garage, usually after giving it a few sprays of fabric deodorizer. I’m not saying my gear smells good after that treatment, but at least I can put it on without gagging. And it gives me a chance to think about whatever happened on the ice and what I could do better the next time.
    That night, though, after Toby dropped me off, I wasn’t thinking about hockey at all. How could I, with so much else going on?
    Mostly, I was feeling guilty. I’d known Toby didn’t get along with Scott, but I’d gone ahead and set up this situation where they’d be sure to antagonize each other. Like my stupid crush was more important than their family. And then I’d tried to give Toby a chance to get out of it and I’d somehow managed to piss him off even worse. That made no sense, but it was probably my fault somehow, too.
    The whole situation was frustrating. My plan was