Chapter 12: Familiar Face

Blake's POV

A girl walked in, completely interrupting our game.

My thumbs paused on the controller, and my player on the screen immediately got checked into the boards by Marcus, but I barely noticed. I was too busy staring at the door. She looked familiar. There was something about the way she carried herself, something about her face that I recognized, but I just couldn't place her. I quickly tried to remember where I had seen her, maybe passing by on the quad, or at one of the recent team parties, but I came up completely empty.

Then, Adrian spoke up. "You forget something?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

I glanced at Adrian, surprised. First of all, he had actually paused the game, which he never did. But more importantly, I was surprised he knew her. Adrian was notorious for keeping his distance from the campus crowd. He would much rather push things to me or Marcus than deal with a girl directly. If a girl ever showed up at his door, he usually ignored it and told me to get rid of her. The fact that he was addressing her directly meant something had actually happened between them.

Before I could process that, she started yelling.

She didn't stutter, and she didn't shrink back from him. She stood right in the middle of his living room, firing off words confidently without blinking an eye and without a single shred of remorse. She was going toe-to-toe with Adrian like it was absolutely nothing.

I leaned back into the couch, watching her with sudden, intense interest. It was either she didn't know who she was yelling at, or she was just incredibly daring. Either way, I liked her already. Confident girls who didn't let themselves get intimidated were exactly my spec. There was a fiery energy radiating off her that I found instantly attractive.

Then, she mentioned a blog.

Beside me, Marcus immediately dropped his controller and pulled out his phone. I did the same. As soon as the main campus gossip page loaded up, I understood exactly why she was yelling. A picture of her leaving Adrian's house was plastered right at the top.

I was about to close the blog and maybe say something to try and calm her down when I noticed another buzz at the top of my screen. Just as I clicked the notification, Marcus exclaimed out loud. I caught a glimpse of the photo on his phone just as mine loaded the rival blog.

I looked at the grainy picture of her standing near the side of the house, and immediately, the memory clicked. I remembered exactly where I had seen her.

It was right here.

It had been in the afternoon, a few days ago. I was coming back from a visit to my mom’s place. She had called me the day before and demanded I come see her because it was very urgent. I had dropped everything and made the drive. The visit had left me completely bothered, and I was still deep in my own frustrated thoughts, rubbing the back of my neck, when I arrived at Adrian’s house.

As I walked up the driveway, I saw her. She was peeping around the side of the property, looking closely at the windows.

'One of those obsessive fan girls', I had thought to myself.

"Who are you?" I had asked, intruding on her space.

She had startled and quickly stepped away before responding.

"I'm nobody. I just missed my way," she responded quietly, refusing to make eye contact, before she turned and walked away down the street.

It wasn't a new occurrence for us. Being athletes at Ravenwood meant we constantly had random girls sneaking around trying to get our attention or figure out where we lived. Because I was still bothered from the visit with my mom and wasn't in the mood to entertain anyone, I just dismissed her as a harmless fan and went inside to see Adrian.

Now she was here, the sound of Adrian lashing out pulled me from the memory. He said she set the whole thing up, using the photos as evidence and playing the victim.

"We keep the narrative. We both play the role. You don't even need a script, you're already good at this," I heard Adrian say.

I frowned, my eyes darting between the two of them. I wondered exactly where he was heading with that. Fake a relationship?

"Until I graduate and leave Ravenwood in less than a year, you play that role. As my girlfriend," he said eventually.

My stomach completely dropped. I knew Adrian. I knew he just probably wanted to manage the PR disaster and handle the situation so his life could go back to being quiet. But in my head, all I could think was, No way!

I had just decided I really liked her. I liked her confidence, her fire, and the fact that she wasn't afraid to yell at him. I had been sitting here for the last two minutes figuring out how I was going to get her name and number before she left. And now, my best friend was claiming her for a fake arrangement.

She opened her mouth, trying to protest the insane idea, but then she stopped.

I immediately opened my mouth to step in. I was going to at least say something to stop this, to suggest we just pay someone to take the blogs down so she could walk away and I could talk to her normally.

But she beat me to it. She looked Adrian dead in the eye, and she agreed to it.

She gave him her number, said her name was Scarlett, and walked right out the door.

Silence filled the room for a few seconds.

"Are you serious right now, man?" I finally asked, tossing my phone onto the couch. I couldn't hide the annoyance in my voice. "A fake girlfriend?"

"It solves the problem," Adrian said flatly, unpausing the game like nothing had just happened. "Keeps the fans off my back, keeps her from the attack of the angry fans"

"Yeah, well," I muttered, crossing my arms and sinking lower into the cushions. I didn't know where this arrangement was heading, but watching the girl I was actually interested in pretend to date my captain for the next year? I know it's not good.