The Stand-In Boyfriend (Greyford High Book 5) Read online

  The Stand-In Boyfriend

  Greyford High #5

  Anna B. Doe

  Contents

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Other Books By Anna B. Doe

  About the Author

  Text copyright © 2020 Anna B. Doe

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyediting by Leanne Rabesa

  Proofreading by Once Upon A Typo

  Cover Design by Najla Qamber Designs

  Logo & Graphic Design by Little Miss Tease

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  “Redemption is a funny thing. Even if we don’t ask for it—even if we don’t think we want it—sometimes we seek it out. In our words and our actions. Because something drives us to make right the things that we did. It’s what allows us to keep living with ourselves.”

  ― Obie Williams

  Blurb

  This year was supposed to be the best of her life, but after finding her boyfriend cheating in front of half of the school, the last thing Jessica Bryant wants is to face her classmates.

  Noah Russell still feels ashamed of what he did last year. He isn’t one of the bad guys. So, when he hears people bad-mouthing Jessica, he reacts without thinking.

  It was supposed to be just a kiss, to give people something else to talk about, but now that they’re the ones controlling the rumors, why not continue?

  A few weeks, just until homecoming, and then they’ll break up. Jessica won’t be the girl her boyfriend cheated on and Noah will get his redemption. Should be easy, right? Maybe if her stand-in boyfriend wasn’t also her mortal enemy…

  Prologue

  JESSICA

  SUMMER BEFORE JUNIOR YEAR

  “What has you all giddy like that?” Evie laughs, giving me a side-eye.

  I shake my head playfully, my loose hair moving with the motion, silky strands caressing my cheeks. “Today’s the day.”

  I wasn’t sure it was possible, but my smile grows even wider.

  “The day?” A confused frown appears between my best friend’s eyebrows.

  “It’s Jack’s and my six-month anniversary!” I announce, happiness showing clearly on my face.

  “Right! God, it’s already been that long, huh?”

  You’d think she’d know, since she and Liam started dating around the same time. Then again, if you’ve been best friends with the guy you’re dating for almost all your life, you’d probably look at things differently.

  “Yes, and tonight I have something special planned for us.” I wiggle my eyebrows, hoping she’ll get the meaning.

  “Wha— Ohhhh… You’re going to…?” Evie leaves the rest of the sentence hanging in the air, her blue eyes growing wide as saucers as she looks around the room. It’s like she expects somebody will jump out at us and ask us to explain what we’ve been talking about. She’s such a prude sometimes.

  “Yup. I’m ready.”

  And God, was that the truth. Jack and I have been dating for half a year, and more than half that time, things have been pretty heated. As much as I love how he makes me feel—how his kisses warm me from the inside out, and how everywhere he touches me (and does that boy know how to touch), my skin tingles in anticipation of more—for some reason, I’ve been reluctant to take that last step. I just wanted to enjoy the anticipation for a while, but now I’m ready to cross that final line, and I can’t wait to see Jack’s face once I tell him.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. He’s been driving me insane, and I feel like I’m going to burst if we don’t do it soon. Trust me, I’m ready.”

  Evie smiles softly at me, although her cheeks are still flushed in embarrassment. “So, I guess I should get some ice cream for tomorrow so you can tell me everything. I mean it, Jessy. Every. Single. Thing.”

  Together we giggle like a pair of girls gushing over their favorite boy band. Only it’s not a boy band I’m gushing over. It’s Jack, and he’s all mine, which makes it that much better.

  I wink playfully at her. “You know it.”

  “Have you seen Jack?” I ask Mike as soon as we arrive at Jack’s house. His parents are out of town, so he threw an impromptu party. For a last-minute thing, the house is overflowing with people.

  “I think he’s around here somewhere,” he says, his eyes sweeping the space. Since he has at least a foot on me, he’ll have more luck spotting him than I ever could.

  “See anything?”

  “Uhh.” He looks at me and then away, something I’m not sure I can describe passing over his face. Unease, maybe? I frown. What’s with that?

  “Mike?” I ask, an unsettling feeling rising in the pit of my stomach.

  “Maybe we should…”

  I wave him away. “You know what? I’ll just walk around and find him.”

  Mike tries to call my name, but I ignore him, determined to find Jack.

  The butterflies I was feeling before start bouncing inside my stomach once again, chasing the anxiety away. Nervousness, the good kind, washes over me. I’ve wanted this for a while, and now that I’ve set my mind to it, there’s no stopping me.

  The living room turned dance floor is filled with kids. Some are dancing to the music blasting from the speakers, solo cups clenched in their hands. The terrace door is open and more people are mingling outside. I hear a loud splash over the music as somebody jumps—or by the sound of the shriek that follows, was tossed—into the pool in the backyard.

  I walk around the people, waving to some I know. I notice a few of them are giving me weird looks, but I don’t think much of it. I’m a girl on a mission.

  Until I see them.

  It’s like I’ve been hit by a train driving at full speed. The cup I’ve been carrying in my hand falls down, and I barely register the now warm liquid that splashes all over my bare legs. My heart is pumping loudly, my breathing shallow as I try to figure out what I’m seeing. Well, I know what I’m seeing—Jack, my boyfriend of six months, making out with a girl, a girl who most definitely isn’t me—but my heart can’t wrap around it.

  Because this can’t be happening.

  Not now.

  Not to me.

  I couldn’t be so foolish as to fall in love with a guy who’s cheating on me with somebody else, in front of half our school, no less.

  I tell my feet to move, but it’s like they’re glued to the spot. I can’t move. I can’t do anything except watch, as my world as I’ve known it shatters right in front of my eyes, along with my heart.

  And when I think I couldn’t hurt more than I already do, they break apart and I get a glimpse of the girl.

  “Tammy?”

  I never intended to say the word out loud, but I must have because the next moment the two of them turn their heads in my di
rection in unison, surprise written all over their faces.

  I’m not sure why.

  They both knew I’d be here.

  At my boyfriend’s house party.

  Because he’s just that—my boyfriend.

  At least I thought he was.

  I guess I was wrong.

  “Jessy…” Jack takes a step forward, running his hand through his disheveled hair. Hair her fingers just went through. While she was kissing him.

  My hand flies to cover my mouth, my stomach rolling.

  God, I’m going to be sick.

  He takes another step toward me, guilt and anguish I haven’t seen before staring at me.

  “I-I c-can’t…” My voice trembles as I utter the words. Tears gather in my eyes, clouding my vision. I shake my head, trying to clear my mind, but it’s useless. The only thing I can do is see them. “I can’t do this.”

  Then I run.

  Chapter One

  JESSICA

  FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

  “I can do this,” I repeat out loud, as if saying the words will somehow make them true. Newsflash? It doesn’t.

  My sweaty palms are gripping the steering wheel, fingers unable to let go as I watch my classmates park their cars in the lot around me and hurry to meet their friends, or go inside the school, ready for the first day of the school year to start.

  I should be one of them. I should hurry out, giddy about starting my junior year. Excited to pick up with my cheer practices and lunch breaks spent talking with my best friend Evie. If only I could let go of the steering wheel, that would be an amazing first step in the right direction.

  “You. Can. Do. This. Jessy.”

  Just as the words come out, my phone chimes, signaling a text message has arrived.

  Evie: You planning to sit there all day, or are you actually coming out?

  My head shoots up, eyes roaming the parking lot until they land on two heads—one blonde, the other brown—standing a few cars away, right next to a familiar black Honda.

  Evie catches my gaze and waves, waiting. She suggested she could drive with me to school today, but I refused. I didn’t want to be that friend. The needy one who comes between her and her best-friend-turned-boyfriend.

  Sighing, I will my fingers to unclench, grab my backpack off the passenger seat and force myself to slide out of the car.

  I guess it’s now or never.

  Evie rushes toward me, enveloping me in a tight hug. “I missed you so much!”

  Despite my nerves, I manage to laugh as I wrap my arms around her. “You’ve been gone just a couple of days.”

  “Couple of days too long!”

  Like every year, Evie, Liam, and their families spent the last weekend before school started at Evie’s family’s lake house. The two families are next door neighbors and long-time friends so it’s a family tradition of sorts for them.

  “Did you get to sneak Mr. Hot Stuff into your bedroom?” I joke, wiggling my brows.

  Evie’s amber eyes go wide like saucers behind her glasses. She swats my arm, giggling. “Are you insane?” she whisper-yells. “You know my parents love Liam, but I think both my dad and his were planning to lock him in his room so he couldn’t get to me.”

  “You guys are hilarious!”

  I’m genuinely happy for Evie and Liam. There aren’t two better people who deserve to be happy as much as they do. They’ve been dancing around each other for years, insisting they were only friends until Evie finally took matters into her own hands last year. She decided to go out with Noah, captain and quarterback of Greyford’s football team, which made Liam realize that he wanted more than to just be friends with her while watching her date somebody else. Thank fuck for that, because Noah turned out to be a douchebag of enormous proportions, kissing Evie although she repeatedly asked him to stop.

  Evie rolls her eyes, but the smile is still firmly on her lips.

  “How are you doing?” she asks once the laughter dies down, and so does my smile. “Are you ready for today?”

  “Ehhh,” I sigh, all the nerves I’ve been feeling since the moment I woke up this morning suddenly returning in full force. “Fine.” I look toward the school. There are barely any people left outside. “I guess we had better go inside, before I’m tempted to ditch the first day.”

  Or the entire year.

  Evie looks at me for a moment longer before nodding. “Fine.” She loops her arm through mine and together we start toward Liam and school.

  “Best friend stealer,” I greet Liam.

  He laughs and shakes his head. “Hey to you too, Jessy.”

  “Oh no, you don’t get to be all cute now. I’ve barely seen my best friend this whole summer and it’s all your fault.”

  “Well, she was my best friend first.”

  Technically speaking, he’s right, since they’ve lived next to each other their whole lives, and I moved here in middle school, but ask me if I care.

  “She loves me more,” I counter instantly, sticking my tongue out at him. “Tell him, Evie.”

  Evie looks between the two of us and shakes her head. “You two are nuts. No way am I supporting this craziness.”

  I want to call her out on it, but the school building draws my attention and sucks all the playfulness out of me. Liam grabs the front door just before it closes and holds it open for us. Evie must feel my body tense, because she grips my forearm reassuringly.

  “It’ll be okay.” Her gentle voice should be soothing, but it’s anything but. “I’m sure everybody has forgotten about it already.”

  Not very likely, but I don’t say it out loud.

  “I’m sure you’re right.” The lie tastes sour on my tongue, but I force it out nonetheless. I don’t want Evie worrying about me the whole day. “What do you have first?”

  “Both Liam and I are in English lit. You?”

  “Trigonometry.” The two classrooms are in different wings altogether. “I gotta leave my books in my locker first though. I don’t want to carry the extra weight all day long. See you at lunch?”

  Evie lets go of my arm, but I can see the reluctance in her gaze. “See you at lunch.”

  Hoisting the strap of my bag higher on my shoulder, I turn around and walk toward my locker. My gaze is firmly fixed on the floor, hoping to avoid any possible eye contact with people still mingling in the hallways.

  I’m not positive like Evie, and I don’t believe one bit that people have forgotten. Greyford is a relatively small town, and people here live for drama. What happened at the beginning of the summer is the most drama that’s happened since Brook Taylor went missing only to come back pregnant. And I was in the middle of this particular shitshow, which makes it all the worse.

  Getting to my locker, I put in my combination and pull it open. The space is completely empty since we have to empty the lockers at the end of every year. My nose furrows at the stale smell that comes from inside.

  Great, just what I needed, an ex-jock locker. Or maybe it’s just some guy who conveniently forgot a pair of dirty socks that got lost inside. I look into every corner of the little metal space, but come up empty.

  If this is an indication of how this year is going to go then I’m screwed.

  Pulling the backpack to my chest, I grab the books I won’t need until later and stack them inside the locker.

  I’m so focused on my task and breathing through my mouth, so I don’t smell the stink, that I almost don’t hear it.

  “Have you seen her?” The fine hairs at the nape of my neck rise at a not-so-quiet whisper. “Walking around acting like she’s better than the rest of us.”

  “Oh please, she’s pathetic! We all knew it was just a matter of time before he dumped her.”

  The voices are coming from behind the open door of the locker. And while the first girl is trying to keep it on the down low, the other one isn’t even pretending she isn’t gossiping.

  My stomach rolls with unease, bile rising in my throat.

  They’re
not talking about you, I try to reason. They’re not…

  “How lame do you have to be to still force yourself on your ex’s friends? For God’s sake, get a life!”

  A pain shoots through my hand. I look down only to find my nails digging into my palm, knuckles white.

  So much for it not being about me.

  You knew it was going to happen.

  I also hoped I was wrong. They say I don’t have a life, but what about them? And what’s with that high and mighty crap? I always try my best to be friendly and polite to everybody, even if I don’t like them very much.

  Kill them with kindness has been my mom’s motto for as long as I can remember.

  I debate if it’s worth it to close the locker and face the duo talking about me behind my back when they don’t know shit about me. It’s not like I can keep hiding behind the door much longer, since all the books are inside, and I have to get going if I don’t want to miss first period.

  Whatever, I’m not hiding. I’m not the one in the wrong here.

  Pulling the zipper closed so I don’t lose anything, I let the bag fall down my back and slam the locker with more force than necessary. I’m just about to face them when I see movement from the corner of my eye.

  “Hey, babe.”

  Frowning, I turn around only to come face to face with Noah Russell. And he’s coming right at me.

  I narrow my eyes at him, suspicious. Did he just call me babe? It sure sounded like it, although it makes no sense whatsoever. I open my mouth to call him on it, but I don’t get a chance to react or say anything because the next thing I know, I’m pressed against the locker, and he’s kissing me.