The Stand-In Boyfriend (Grove Valley High #1)(41)

“You ready for this?” he asks as we walk up the path to Brendon’s house.

I grin and nod back at him, and when he reaches for my hand, this time I accept it without hesitation. He opens the door and leads me inside, a wave of heat and noise immediately engulfing us. I don’t let go of Chase’s hand as he works his way through the crowd, not when he stops to chat with someone, not when people blatantly stare at the two of us, and not even when Abigail steps into our path.

“Oh, I see it’s bring-your-lame-ass-girlfriend-to-a-party day.”

Yeah, I don’t want to be around for this. I step away from Chase but he just grips my hand tighter and pulls me in toward him. “Don’t,” he warns Abigail, his tone harsh.

The two stare at each other for a minute, some sort of communication passing between them before Abigail looks away. “Whatever,” she tells Chase, not even looking at me. “I came with someone anyway.”

“Good for you,” Chase replies, stepping around her and pulling me along behind him into the kitchen without looking back. I make the mistake of turning around to look at Abigail, and she’s not looking pissed like I imagined she would. Instead, she looks like she’s going to burst into tears.

“Chase,” I start.

“Look who decided to stop by,” Brendon bellows, and I see Chase has made his way over to his friends. He greets them all individually and they all say hello. I feel kinda shy in front of them; I’m not used to being around people who aren’t my closest friends, but they’re all friendly enough and I’ve gotten to know them some over the last couple of weeks since Chase is always surrounded by them. Aaron appears beside me and starts grilling me on our evening.

He laughs out loud when I tell him about Luigi’s, glancing behind me at Chase, who is talking to Jackson and Thom. “Show-off,” he mutters, and when I raise an eyebrow questioningly, he just shakes his head.

I shrug and explain it wasn’t really my style so we ditched it for miniature golf and pizza. Aaron grins wide.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing. It’s just funny that you’ve got him whipped already.”

I laugh. “Sure. My fake boyfriend does exactly what I tell him to.”

Aaron scowls and shoves me. “Say it a little louder, why don’t you?” he hisses, leaning into my ear. “They didn’t hear you next door.”

I laugh and look around. No one is listening to us, and it’s so loud in here, I’m surprised even Aaron can hear me. “No one can hear.”

He rolls his eyes. “You need to keep in character the whole time, Chapman. Watching you try not to jump every time he touches you and him acting like a lovesick puppy is way too entertaining for you to mess it up for me.”

I shake my head but can’t help laughing. I’m glad he’s finding my awkwardness in this whole situation amusing. He’s right though—Chase is way better at this than I am.

Two arms snake around my waist, pulling me back into a chest. I immediately go to jerk away, but Chase isn’t having any of it. “Relax,” he whispers, pulling me closer to him.

Aaron’s nearly killing himself laughing at us, but eventually I settle back into Chase’s chest and act like this isn’t totally weird.

“I’m sorry I messed up with the date,” Chase mutters quietly in my ear. I turn to face him in surprise. “I just wanted to take you somewhere nice and make you feel special.”

I’m touched.

“You deserve to feel special.”

I shake my head. “Chase, you don’t have to do anything, but I had a great time with you tonight. Honestly, it was really fun.”

“Yeah?”

I grin. “Yeah, best fake date I’ve ever been on.” And only date, for that matter.

“Dude,” Aaron suddenly says under his breath. We both turn to see Abigail is now in the room and is backed up against a wall with some guy I’ve never seen before. They’re making out—hard.

“Jesus,” Chase mumbles. I step away from him, my eyes not moving from Abigail.

She breaks off from the guy for a minute while he gropes her ass, her eyes straying to us for an instant before she’s hooking back into the guy again.

I wince and look over at Chase. It’s probably no fun seeing your ex hook up with someone else, even if you were the one to end it. He presses his lips together and turns to Aaron in irritation. “How much has she had to drink?”

He shrugs. “She was pretty wasted when I got here, and she’s probably kept on drinking.”

“Fuck’s sake,” he mutters, more to himself than to anyone else. I turn back to Abigail just as the guy reaches for the front of her skirt and tries to put his hand up there. Chase is by her side in a second, pushing the guy away. For a second it looks like this random guy is going to square up to him, but Chase is taller by a couple of inches and Aaron and Brendon appear behind him. The guy shrugs and walks away, not even bothering to say anything to Abigail. Abigail just sort of laughs and steps closer to Chase, trailing her hand up his arm. Chase pushes her away and says something that just makes her laugh harder. Eventually he realizes everyone in the room is staring at them so he grabs her hand and pulls her outside, though not before Abigail sends me a triumphant smirk over her shoulder.

“What a douche.” I turn to see Sophie at my side. She looks unreal, as per usual, and has Mark beside her. They’re standing pretty close, and Mark definitely seems to be succumbing to Sophie’s way of thinking.