Pretend (34 page)

             
"Dude you'll never be ready," Murphy said as slapped Taise around the head.

             
"Ouch,
what was that for?" He asked as we all burst out laughing.

             
"Never mind," Murphy said as we all jumped into my car.

             
"So
,
where
are
we meeting these chicks?" I asked as I turned around to face Anthony, in the back.

             
"They said something about some diner," Anthony said as he scratched the back of his neck.

             
"Diner?
Was it Danny's?" I asked as I started up the engine. It was the closest and best one to here.

             
"Yeah,
I think it’s the one that we used to go to with Crystal and April.
"

             
"Yeah, I
know the place,
" I replied.

             
"Cool."

             
"Let's go get some ladies then," Murphy said as him and Anthony began laughing at the back.
 
This was going to be a very eventful night I could tell.

"So, what did you do then?" I asked excitedly.

             
"Nothing, I just ran," Jake said as we both burst out laughing.

We had been at the
diner
for two hours now and I have to admit that I was having a great time. One thing that I had learnt about Jake was how funny he actually was. We had spent th
e past hour just telling jokes and
funny stories, which he had loads of. It didn't take
long to order as I already knew
what I wanted, half a rack of
bbq
ribs, French fries, onion rings,
veg
and an extra side of
bbq
sauce
.
Jake decided to try it too. What took long was to eat it because we laughed for about five minutes after every mouth full.

             
"Ok, so what's your party trick?" He asked.

             
"My party trick?"
I replied as I took a sip of my drink.

             
"Yeah, everyone has one," he said as he let out a slight laugh, that only made him look even hotter than he already did.

             
"They do?"

             
"Yup."

             
"Ok, so tell me yours first
," I said as I let out a slight giggle.

             
"Mine?"

             
"Yes yours," I said.

             
"Ok, if you're sure you want to see it?"

             
"I do, now hurry up," I joked.

             
"Ok," he said before burping the chorus of Justin
Bieber's
song, Boyfriend.

             
Now most girls would have probably found that revolting but I wasn't most girls and instead I was highly amused. We did however get some disgusted looks from around the diner but that didn't make me laugh any quieter.

             
"That's like my favourite song! Not my favourite version though but that was hilarious!" I shrieked as the tears began to run down my eyes.

             
"Yeah, it's one of my greatest talents," he replied as we both continued laughing.

             
I found it so easy to be around Jake and to talk to him, it was strange. I felt like I had known him for years to be honest and he seemed pretty comfortable too. Unfortunately that didn't stop my mind from wondering back to what happened at the Daniels
’
house earlier. I was having a great time but no matter what I did, he was on my mind, I just couldn't stop thinking about-

             
"Aiden?"

             
"What?" I asked in shock as Jake just answered my thoughts.

What the hell!

             
"It's Aiden," he said pointing towards the front door of the diner.

             
"Aiden?"
I asked as I turned around to look in the direction that he was pointing.

             
You have got to be kidding me. This is where they are coming to meet the 'chicks'! This night was just about to get a whole lot more exciting…Not!

             
"Look who it is!" I heard Anthony shout loud enough for even my mom to hear him in England.

             
"Hey," Jake and I both said as I tried to avoid eye contact with Aiden.

             
At first, I thought that he had planned this but from the look on his face, he was more shocked than I was.

             
"What are you guys doing here?" Jake asked as they all took a chair from another table and sat around ours.

             
"Meeting some chicks, I mean girls," Murphy said as he looked at my expression.

             
"Oh, cool," Jake said.

             
"So,
you looking
after my
lil
sis?" Anthony said with a serious expression.

             
"Yes he is and I'm not your
lil
sis," I said as I caught a glimpse of Aiden's eyes on me.

             
"Ok, ok chill out, just looking out for you," Anthony said with a smirk on his face.

             
"Says the world’s biggest player," I replied as all
of
the guys burst out laughing
, except for Aiden
.

             
"Oh, you got jokes," he said as he tickled my side, making me squirm like a fish.
 

             
I should really
try and
remember that Anthony and Aiden will always use tickling as revenge next time that I have the urge to insult one of them. To be honest I was quite glad that Anthony was there, it kind of made the tense atmosphere less tense.

             
"So where are these chicks?" Taise said, looking around the diner.

             
"Kelly just text to say that they're two minutes away, calm down man, you look nervous," Anthony teased.

             
Everyone knew that Taise was no good with girls. It was crazy since he was friends
with Aiden and Murphy at school and
girls literally threw themselves at them so I don’t know what happened to poor Taise. It wasn't that he wasn't good
looking,
he just wasn't
very
good with words.

             
"I
ain't
nervous man, shut up," he said as his cheeks turned red.

             
"Hey
,
leave him alone man," Murphy said as he let out a laugh that everyone except Taise could see.

             
"Anyway, why don't we leave these two, to their
date.
Wouldn't want to intrude," Aiden said as he kept his eyes on me.

His face wasn't its usual playful one, in fact, I couldn't read his expression at all but he didn't look particularly happy.

             
"Jake
don't
mind, do you?" Murphy said as he slapped his back and smiled.

             
"Course not," Jake said giving me the 'I'm so sorry' look.

             
I knew that there wasn't much that he could do, so I just took in a deep breath and grinned.

             
"Back in a minute," Anthony said as he looked at his phone and then headed towards the diner's front doors.

             
There was kind of an awkward silence once Anthony left and although I knew that they were all oblivious to mine and Aiden's situation it felt like all eyes were on me.

             
"Hey, you ok?" Jake whispered as he placed his hand on top of mine.

             
"Yeah, I'm cool," I said as I slipped my hand from his after realising that Aiden's eyes were fixated on our hands.
Maybe it was just me but Jake seemed slightly annoyed by my action but I ignored it.

             
"Sorry about this, they'll go
and
sit somewhere else once those girls come, I'm sure," he continued.

             
"Yeah, sure."

             
"Guys, this is
Trixy
and Kelly," Anthony said as he walked in with his arms thrown over both of their shoulders. The big grin on his face told me that I was in for a long night.

             
"Hey," they both said in unison as they waved their hands at everybody.

             
I instantly noticed that the one that he had called
Trixy
had her eyes fixated on Aiden, which for some reason annoyed me. I really needed to snap out of this, I was here with Jake.

             
As I watched
Trixy
strategically place her chair in between Aiden and Anthony, I almost growled with anger. I did not know how much longer I could watch this for. It also amazed me that Anthony brought two girls when there four of them.

             
Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a rather high pitched and annoying voice that reminded me of Cayce's.

             
"Hi, I'm Kelly," she said as a smile filled her face.

             
"I'm April," I said as I watched her place her chair next to mine.

             
"You're so pretty."

             
"Thanks," I said as I felt my cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment as I sensed both Aiden and Jake's eyes on me.

             
"So
,
you’re brave coming here with all these guys, on your own," she giggled.

             
She wasn’t going to shut up, I could tell.

             
"No, I didn't, I actually just came with Jake. I know the guys but we sort of bumped into each other here," I replied.

             
"Oh, are you two a couple then?" She asked, excitedly.

             
"No, we're just-"

             
"They're on a date sweet cheeks," Anthony inter
r
upted.

             
"Oh, that's so cute. Oh
my gosh
and we're like
,
totally crashing," she said with a worried face.

             
You think!

             
"No,
it's
fine," I lied.
 

             
"Oh, ok," she said as she shrugged her shoulders.

             
She s
eemed quite nice to be honest. I
t was
Trixy
over there that I didn't like.

             
"So
,
Anthony said that you play the guitar, that is so hot,"
Trixy
said as she leaned on Aiden’s shoulder.

             
"Yeah, I do," he said with a look of embarrassment on his face. I had no idea why he didn't like anyone to know that he played it, it was weird. I also don't know how he had expected nobody to ask how he knew Jake without mentioning that they went to music school together.