I was slipping. Like a baby deer on ice, struggling to keep my balance.

The thing I didn't take into consideration before agreeing to the whole fake dating thing was that a person only came with one set of feelings. There wasn't a backup set that could turned on and off when needed.

And the set of feelings I had felt very strongly about Nolan Chambers.

It had been a month since the photo booth incident and I still found myself thinking about it. The black and white photo strip was taped to the inside of my locker for the sake of keeping up appearances. At least that was what I told myself.

Denying my feelings for him was difficult. He was making it difficult, playing into the role of the perfect boyfriend all too well.

Ever since the thing with condoms he'd been more attentive. Walking me to my classes, sitting with me, Bee, and whoever she was seeing that week, during lunch.

It was like he didn't want to let me out of his sight. He kept me protectively by his side at all times, or at least when he could.

We didn't talk about the sudden shift in his attitude or how he was suddenly behaving like a bodyguard. The question burned at the back of my mind, though. Wondering why he felt the need to stand between me and everyone else.

I would admit, though, since he'd been keeping close to me the whispers and dirty looks that were aimed at me had died down almost completely.

People didn't greet me in the halls the way they did Nolan, but they didn't call me a skank either. Progress.

Another thing I didn't expect was that as Nolan's popularity increased, so did the amount of female eyes that lingered on him a little too long for my liking.

I never thought of myself as the jealous type. Being an athlete, Deshaun had girls shamelessly flirt with him all the time and it never bothered me.

But whenever I caught a girl chatting up Nolan in the hall I had the urge to interrupt, step in and let her know that he was spoken for. Then I'd remember that he wasn't. Not really.

I guess that was why I blurted out the question I'd been trying to keep contained only in my mind.

Nolan blinked, pausing his process of smearing ranch on his pizza. "What?"

The back of my neck burned. I tried to remain nonchalant as I took a sip of my apple juice, shrugging. "I mean, prom is months away. That's a long time to be in a fake relationship. What if one of us met someone? Someone we'd want to actually date."

His eyes focused back on to his pizza as he added more ranch. I tried not to gag. I'd been watching him do that almost every day during lunch and I still couldn't get over how gross it looked.

When his gaze came back to me his brows were narrowed with curiosity. "Did you? Meet someone, I mean?"

"No!"

My quick response caused something to flash across his face. He looked away, suddenly interested in his fries, before I could decipher it.

"Is it Nick?" He turned back to me, face void of any emotion. "You remember what I told you about him, right? You can't trust him."

I noticed the sudden death grip he had on his bottle of water. There was something he wasn't telling me. Probably something about Nick and the real reason he didn't want me talking to him.

There was a lot he didn't tell me.

My mind went back to girl with the orange hair. How she begged him to leave with her.

Like they planned.

He claimed to not have any friends. No one that could keep him in Bellcreek. Yet, there was her. A girl he was apparently planning to run away with.

If it was a normal relationship his secrecy would've set off alarms. This wasn't a normal relationship, though. A fact that was becoming a struggle to hold on to.

"It's not Nick," I answered finally. "Or anyone. But, hypothetically, if you did meet someone..."

He picked up his pizza, folding it in half. "You already know where I stand. The only thing on my mind is leaving."

He bit into the pizza. My lip curled in disgust, causing him to laugh. "You sure you don't want to try it?" he said, holding the pizza out to me.

I recoiled. "I'd rather lick to bottom of my shoe."

He chuckled, continuing his lunch. I focused on the chicken sandwich in front of me, trying not think about would happen to us after prom.

Would I become obsolete like everyone else in Bellcreek?

* * *

For the past month I had a routine after school. Nolan would take me to pick up Taylor from Mrs. Coleman's and drop off her off at Tiny Sprouts then he'd take me to the market. After my shift Bee would pick me up, we'd get Taylor and she'd take me home.

The plan was perfect and my mother didn't suspect a thing.

But, because I obviously pissed someone off in a past life, our well planned routine was ruined.

The commercial and print ads that Bee worked on were everywhere. Her face was on tv and stuffed inside mailboxes. She was grounded until further notice. If it wasn't school related then Bee couldn't leave the house.

That left me without a ride after work. It wasn't like Bee could tell her mom about my job, she and my mom were friends. Everything would fall apart.

I was so deep in my panic as the clock ticked down to seven o'clock that I didn't notice when he walked into the store. Not until he was at the counter.

Deshaun seemed just as surprised to see me, his dark eyes widened as he took in my uniform. His gaze lingering on the name patch sewn on the blue apron. "Jessica?"

I looked down at the name tag myself, still not used to being called by another girl's name. Apparently, Mrs. Grice went through so many employees she didn't want to keep making new aprons, so she started recycling. At least I was lucky enough to get a name that started with a "J".

I didn't engage in his attempt at small talk. Instead I focused on ringing up his items. Cheese puffs, a Sprite, diapers and...condoms? My gaze flickered up to him.

"Shit," he cursed under his breath, eye doubling in size.

I quickly dropped the box in to the bag with the other items. It wasn't like I cared what he and Ana were doing in their free time.

"You could've just borrowed some from Tyler," I said, my mouth going against my brain's want to let it go.

"I didn't have anything to do with what he put on your locker," he defended, fishing his wallet from his pocket. "That stuff with the eggs either."

"$12.89."

He swiped his credit card, punching in the pin. When I handed him his receipt he didn't drop it and leave like I wanted him to.

I wished Mrs. Grice was there to give me the death glare like she always did when she felt I was getting too chatty with the customers. Unfortunately, she had a parent-teacher conference at the middle school. Nick was there, but he was somewhere in the back room probably taking a nap.

"Jade, I honestly didn't think people would—"

"That they'd what?" I snapped, my fist clenching at my sides. "Believe your lies? Come after me for wronging Mr. Popular?"

He was unable to meet my eyes, staring down at the counter instead. "I didn't think they'd be on you like that. It wasn't supposed to go that far."

"Then tell them the truth!"

He looked up at me then. "Jade, I-I can't—"

I laughed dryly at his stuttering. "Of course not. Because you're a coward." I pushed his bag and the diapers closer to his side of the counter. With a wide, fake, grin I said, "Have a nice night."

"Jade—"

"Is there a problem?" Nick came walking over, his voice sounded groggy. He was definitely napping.

"Nah." Deshaun grabbed his things and left, the electronic bell beeping as the door opened and closed.

Nick eyed me intently, leaning on the counter where Deshaun just was. "What was that about?"

"Nothing." I shrugged, busying myself with arranging the display of gum next to the register.

He stood, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "I get it. We're not at that stage of our friendship yet."

My brow quirked up, looking up at him. "We're friends?"

"Yeah." An easy grin spread across face. "Unless...there's a reason we can't be?"

I had a feeling he was referring to Nolan.

"Is there a reason my boyfriend doesn't like you?" I questioned. It was strange calling him my boyfriend, I don't think I've called him that before. At least not in front of anyone who didn't know it was all fake.

"If I'm being honest, I didn't think anyone could be liked by Nolan," he admitted. "Not until you, of course."

"So, it's just a general dislike," I clarified. "You didn't do anything to warrant one of his evil looks?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking off to the side. "Well..."

My curiosity had piqued. "What happened?" I asked, leaning in closer.

"I don't know," he said, running a hand through his brown hair, it immediately flopped back over his forehead. "I don't think it's really my place to tell you."

My hopes of getting more information on Nolan plummeted.

"I will tell you this, though," he said, his eyes full of regret as he fidgeted with a his watch. "His dislike isn't unwarranted. I wasn't always the upstanding guy you see before you today."

Naturally, my mind flooded with questions. None that would ever be answered if left up to Nolan. I pushed my curiosity aside. There were more pressing matters at hand than the drama between those two. I still needed to figure out how I was going to get Taylor from daycare for the next...however long.

"Anyways," Nick said, ready for a subject change. "Your shift ended three minutes ago and my mom doesn't pay over time."

After putting away the recycled apron and grabbing my bag and Taylor's car seat I went back to the front. Nick was preparing to close up the store for the night.

"I know my shift is over, but doesn't the store stay open for another two hours?"

Nick looked amused as he came from behind the counter. "I won't tell if you won't."

The two of us stepped out into the cool air. It was that time of year where the weather was perfect during the day then dropped to freezing once the sun was gone. I hugged my arms around myself, cursing under my breath for not bringing a sweater.

"Is your ride late?" Nick asked after he locked up the store.

"Worse. My rides been grounded." He chuckled, giving me a questioning look. "It's a long story," I admitted.

"I can give you a ride," he offered.

Too desperate to decline, I accepted.