WHEN I’D ENDED things with Jeremy, it had caused quite a stir at school, but it paled in comparison to the backlash I faced now word had spread I was dating an infamous Darling Devil.
“I hear she’s dating Reed Darling,” one girl whispered behind me in math.
“Apparently, that’s why her and Jeremy broke up,” her friend replied. “How could she do that to him?”
“I know, right? Why would anyone choose a Ransom Devil over Jeremy Hoffman?”
“I mean, have you seen Reed Darling? I’d never date him in a million years, but he sure is pretty to look at…”
“And Jeremy’s not?”
I turned and shot the girls a scowl, but they weren’t deterred.
“What are you looking at, Devil worshipper?” one of them said.
That lovely nickname was a new development, and I really hoped it didn’t catch on.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” I replied. “But I only started dating Reed after Jeremy and I broke up. And if you want to know why we broke up, why don’t you ask Jeremy and Heather.” I quickly turned back to my desk so the girls wouldn’t see how my cheeks were heated with anger.
They weren’t the first people I’d caught talking about me, and I doubted they’d be the last. No one at school knew Jeremy had cheated on me. Apart from Mia and Nicole, I hadn’t told anyone the full details of our breakup. I knew it wouldn’t do me any good. Even if people at this school knew the truth, they would still take Jeremy’s side. He could do no wrong in their eyes. I didn’t matter.
As the week wore on, I hoped people would lose interest in the gossip. But when Wednesday came around, it still felt like the whispers followed me everywhere I went, and girls and guys alike were constantly shooting me dirty looks. I couldn’t decide what people thought was worse: the fact I’d broken up with Jeremy or that I was now supposedly dating his biggest rival. It was probably a mixture of both.
I hung back at the end of my last class for the day and waited for the corridors to clear a little before I made my way to my locker. I knew it was silly, and Mia would probably tell me I should stop letting people get to me. But I just didn’t want to deal with any more attention.
The hallways were mostly clear when I eventually left the classroom. No one stuck around for long once school was finished, and it felt like I could finally breathe a little easier after such a difficult day. That was until I arrived at my locker.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I gasped.
Glaring at me from my locker door was a cartoon devil drawn in black permanent marker. The image took up most of the surface, and a bitter taste filled my mouth as I stared at it in shock and dismay. I grabbed a tissue from my bag and attempted to clean off the graffiti. But no matter how vigorously I rubbed, the marker refused to budge.
I couldn’t win. If I had simply kissed Reed on Saturday night and walked away, I would have been called a puck bunny. But since everyone thought I was dating him, I was a traitor. I knew kids at Sunshine Prep loved their hockey, but I was beginning to realize it was more than just a sport to them. There were probably cults with less passionate followers. Not for the first time since the bonfire, I wondered how the hell I’d gotten myself into this mess.
“I don’t even like hockey,” I grumbled as I continued to scrub at the marker. I’d managed to blur the image a little, but it was still clearly there.
“They shouldn’t have done that. Are you okay?”
Jeremy’s voice did nothing to ease the tension in my chest, and I tried not to shudder as he came to stand beside me. “Go away, Jeremy.”
He ignored me as he leaned against the locker beside mine, making himself at home. ‘I miss you, Vivi.”
“Funny, I don’t miss you.”
He let out a sigh. “You know, you’re going to stop being angry with me eventually,” he said. “And when we do finally get back together, you’re going to regret ever getting involved with Reed Darling. He’s not really worth all this trouble, is he?”
He nodded at the devil drawing on my locker. His voice sounded gentle, and his eyes looked kind. I think he actually believed he was trying to help me. But his act didn’t work on me anymore. Whatever way he dressed them up, his words were arrogant, entitled, and a little threatening. Besides, it didn’t matter what he said; his voice now made my skin crawl, and his gaze made me squirm.
“He’s a hell of a lot less trouble than you, Jeremy.”
He let out a soft laugh as though my insult barely affected him.
“Come on, Violet,” he said. “I know we’ve had our ups and downs, but let’s just put the past behind us and pick up where we left off. You belong with me, not some Devil like Darling.”
“Forget it, Jeremy.” I ripped open my locker and shoved my books into my bag. “I don’t know how much clearer I can be. I’m with Reed now, and we are never, ever, getting back together.”
I slammed the locker door and marched away, but he called after me. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Violet.”
I continued to ignore him, and I could feel his eyes on me until I disappeared around the corner.
It should have felt good to know that my agreement with Reed was clearly getting to Jeremy, but instead, I just felt frustrated and angry. Our fake relationship only seemed to be spurring Jeremy’s desire to win me back. Even quoting Taylor Swift didn’t get the message across.
“You okay?” Mia asked when I finally caught up to her and Nicole outside the front entrance. Nicole was giving us a ride home from school because my car was still at Danny’s Garage.
“Do I look that bad?” I certainly felt it after my run-in with Jeremy. The thought made me instinctively glance over my shoulder to make sure he hadn’t followed me out here.
“Not at all,” Nicole said. “But your eyes are a little wild.”
That wasn’t surprising.
“Someone drew a devil on my locker, and Jeremy cornered me.” I scrunched up my nose. The devil thing I could live with but not Jeremy. “He’s still trying to convince me to ditch Reed and take him back.”
“Of course, he is.” Mia rolled her eyes. “Seeing you with his biggest rival is clearly driving him crazy.”
“It won’t be long before he’s outside your house, holding a boom box over his head, and serenading you with love songs,” Nicole added.
“Please don’t say that,” I groaned as we started across the parking lot toward Nicole’s car.
“You’re not enjoying his suffering, even just a little bit?” Mia asked.
“It’s hard to enjoy it when he’s trying so hard to get us back together,” I replied. “I was really hoping he would have got the picture by now and let me go.”
“That’s probably going to take more than one date,” Mia said. “He’s a competitive guy, and seeing you with Reed was always going to make him react this way. At least to start with.”
I drew in a deep breath and slowly blew it out. Mia was only reminding me how stupid I’d been to think this was a good idea in the first place.
“You’ve just got to stick it out with Reed,” Nicole said. “Soon enough, Jeremy will realize you’ve moved on and that he’s got no chance.
“And focus on the suffering,” Mia said. “All the suffering.”
I gave her a small smile. “He did look slightly tormented.”
“That’s the spirit.”
With my car still out of commission, transportation options for me and Mia and were limited to either Nicole or Luke. Neither option was particularly appealing. Nicole always insisted on listening to heavy metal as loud as her stereo would go while Luke preferred monotonous sports podcasts. I could barely escape hockey at school, so I didn’t need to be bombarded by an in-depth analysis of it on the way home too.
As Nicole drove us home, I longed for the usual poppy tunes that Mia and I would sing along to. My ears were ringing by the time we stepped out of the car.
“Her music is the worst,” Mia groaned as we waved goodbye to Nicole.
“Terrible,” I agreed.
“When are you getting your car back?”
“Should be any day now.”
“You’ve been saying that for over a week. I…” Mia’s voice trailed off, and she nodded behind me. I turned, and a huge smile lit up my face as I saw Betty parked on the side of the road with Reed leaning casually against her.
“She’s ready?” I squealed with excitement.
“Thank God.” Mia laughed, but her expression sobered as she glanced over at Reed. She still didn’t seem sure about him. “I’ll catch you inside,” she said before hurrying toward the house.
I didn’t hesitate any longer as I ran to meet Reed. His smile was as broad as mine, as he pushed off the car and tucked his hands into his pockets “Yep, she’s all done,” he said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We got her finished this morning, and I wanted to surprise you.”
“You didn’t have to drive her here, Reed. I haven’t even paid your dad yet.”
He waved a hand at me. “Don’t worry about it. Dad’s comped you the whole job anyway.”
“What?” I frowned. “Why would he do that?”
“Just a perk of being my girlfriend, I guess.”
“Reed, I don’t expect him to fix my car for free.” I paused as my eyes fell to Betty’s tires. They looked brand-new. Danny had suggested I change the tires, but I’d put that job on the long list of things I was planning to do at a later date, when I had more money saved up. “Reed, I was going to wait to change the tires…”
“Yeah, about that…” Reed started. “There was no way we could let Betty leave the garage without snow tires. Actually, we weren’t comfortable with you saving any of the other problems for later.”
“What do you mean?”
“Betty has a clean bill of health,” he said. “Everything’s fixed.”
“It’s all done?” I tried to swallow my shock and surprise, but the words still came out as squeaked disbelief. “Your dad did all the repairs? For free?”
“Ah, yeah.” Reed rubbed the side of his neck as though my reaction was making him uncomfortable. Maybe his dad wasn’t as happy to fix Betty for free as Reed was making out.
“Please, I insist, just let me pay for the repairs.”
He shook his head though. “You can insist all you want, but like I said, you got the ‘Reed Darling girlfriend’ special. Dad won’t hear of you paying for it.”
“But I’m not even your real girlfriend.” I instinctively lowered my voice as I said it.
“It’s fine, Sunshine. Seriously.”
I folded my arms over my chest. I really wasn’t comfortable with this, but I didn’t want to sound ungrateful. “Well, will you thank him for me?”
“You can do it yourself on Saturday at my game, if you’re free?”
“You’ve got a game on Saturday?”
“In the afternoon. I’m well aware of your opinions on hockey, but it would probably help with this whole fake relationship thing if you were there.”
“Oh,” I murmured. “I guess so, but I don’t think I can come. I’m scheduled to work this Saturday afternoon.”
“Okay, no problem.” His relaxed response was such a stark contrast to the way Jeremy would have replied if I’d told him I couldn’t make a game. I had no doubt he would have suggested I change my shift and then made me feel guilty when I couldn’t.
“How about Sunday night then? Would you like to come over for family dinner?”
“Family dinner?” I struggled to hide my surprise.
“Uh, yeah.” He glanced away from me, and while he’d sounded confident at first, he now seemed uncertain. Was he already regretting the invitation?
“We should probably do something together this weekend if we’re going to keep up this relationship ruse,” he said. “Plus, my mom found out we were dating. She got all excited and wants to meet you. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her we’re not for real. I know it’s a lot to ask though, so we can figure out something else if you want.”
“Your family doesn’t know about our…arrangement?”
“Only Grayson does,” he replied. “I didn’t want to tell my parents, and my other siblings can’t be trusted.”
“You’re talking about Parker, right?”
“And my younger sister, Cammie.”
“There’s another one of you?”
Reed laughed. “Yeah, and she’s the scariest one of us all.”
I drew in a breath as I considered his request. I was definitely anxious about the idea of going to Reed’s house for a family dinner. We were only pretending to date, and meeting the family was most definitely something you did with a real boyfriend.
In my experience, getting introduced to your boyfriend’s family, fake or not, was also a very stressful experience. At least, it had been with Jeremy’s parents. They’d taken us out to a restaurant, and they grilled me with questions for the first half of it, and then we pretty much sat in silence for the second half. The whole thing had been completely awkward, and I wasn’t sure I was prepared to subject myself to something like that again.
“I’m taking your silence for a hell no,” Reed said.
“Sorry, it’s not that.” I hadn’t realized I’d been quiet for quite so long. “I was just thinking about the last family dinner I went to for a guy. It didn’t go very well.”
“Well, I’m going to assume you’re talking about Hoffman, in which case I can guarantee that says more about him and his family than you.”
I slowly nodded. “It was like interviewing for a job I wasn’t qualified for.”
“Well, you can be sure dinner at my house won’t feel like that.”
Still, I hesitated. What if Reed’s family hated me as much as Jeremy’s? It shouldn’t matter since our relationship wasn’t real and would be over soon, but a part of me still wanted them to like me.
“Remind me, how exactly does this help our fake relationship?” I asked.
“Well, you’d be helping me out by getting my mom off my back about meeting you,” he said. “But I was thinking we could take some pictures of us together for social media. I barely post about anything other than hockey, so if I put something up showing us together, with my family, that would definitely prove we’re serious.” He was rambling a bit, which was totally unlike him.
“I guess we can’t really show off our relationship at your school,” I added. “This could be good way to get the message across to all those girls chasing you. Are they still giving you a hard time about the winter formal?” I did my best to sound unaffected, but my stomach twisted uncomfortably as I spoke.
“Uh, sure.”
I felt conflicted by the thought of other girls throwing themselves at Reed, and I wished I hadn’t brought it up. It was a strange position to be in. I shouldn’t be bothered about it because he wasn’t really my boyfriend, but those girls didn’t know that our relationship was fake. And all I could think was that they needed to back off.
“I guess I better come over for family dinner then,” I said before I could reconsider.
“Great.” Reed grinned. “I’ll swing by and pick you up on Sunday.”
Reed’s truck came rumbling down the street, and as it pulled up behind Betty, I could see Parker behind the wheel. His eyes lit up when he saw the two of us, and I had a bad feeling he was cooking up some kind of mischief.
“That’s my ride.” Reed didn’t hesitate as he made his way toward the truck. He was probably worried about what Parker had planned too.
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you on Sunday,” I said.
“See you then.” He grinned before he climbed into the truck.
I released a sigh as I watched him drive away. I hadn’t expected to see Reed today, and I found I was disappointed our meeting had been so brief.
I was delighted to get Betty back though, and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at her. It had been incredibly generous of Reed’s dad to fix my car free of charge and sweet of Reed to drop it off to me.
“So, Betty has returned,” Mia said when I entered the house. She was waiting in the front living room, standing suspiciously close to the window. She’d clearly been peering through the curtain.
“She has.” I smirked. “Enjoy the show?”
“I was only looking out for you.” She collapsed onto the couch. ‘Had to make sure you didn’t get abducted by a Darling Devil.”
“He wasn’t going to abduct me. He brought me my car.”
She shrugged as if that did little to convince her. “Reed doesn’t seem nearly so scary when he’s smiling,” she commented. “And he smiles a lot when you’re around…”
My eyes narrowed on her. “He’s just playing the part of my fake boyfriend.”
“And those pining looks were just him playing the part too?”
“There were no pining looks!”
“There were so pining looks. Reed is totally hot for you.”
“He’s not even lukewarm for me.”
“He’s a boiling kettle about to start whistling.”
Now she was just being ridiculous.
“Hey, Violet,” Uncle Luke called from the hallway. “Is that your car out on the street?”
“Yep,” I called back. “She’s all fixed.”
Luke appeared in the doorway, a familiar look of suspicion etched on his face. ‘I was supposed to come with you to pay the invoice.”
“I told you I had it covered,” I replied. He’d insisted on helping out, but I’d constantly refused. Apparently, the decision about who was paying for the repairs had been made for us. But there was no way I could tell Luke that without him worrying why my repairs were free.
“How did it get here?” he questioned, folding his arms across his chest.
I glanced at Mia, unsure how to answer. She simply grimaced and averted her eyes, like she didn’t want to get involved.
“Uh…” I paused, giving myself one more chance to come up with a believable story. But there was no point in lying to Luke. He’d find out eventually. “Reed dropped it off.”
“Reed Darling was here?”
“Well, he was outside. He just dropped off the car and left. All part of the service, I guess.”
“All part of the service, huh?” Luke repeated my answer, almost too himself. “You sure there’s nothing else I need to know?”
“Nope.” I smiled sweetly.
He didn’t look convinced, but he eventually nodded. “Okay, well, I’m glad you got your car back.” He studied me and Mia for a few seconds longer before he gave up and left the room.
As soon as he was gone, I released a loud breath, and Mia fell into fits of hushed laughter.
“Oh my god,” she gasped. “I don’t even want to know how much my dad would freak out if he knew you were dating Reed Darling.”
“We’re not really dating,” I hissed at her. “And keep your voice down.”
“You know what I mean.”
I relaxed back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. “With the way gossip spreads at our school, he’s probably already heard something.”
“He can’t have heard,” Mia said. “If he had, you’d be locked in your room right now, and he’d be escorting you to and from school. That’s what he’d do if he found out I was dating one of the Darling Devils.”
“I guess it’s different with me.” I shrugged. “I’m just his niece.”
“You’re not just his niece,” Mia argued. “You’re like his adopted second daughter. He’d go to bat for you just as viciously as he would for me if he needed to.”
My cheeks flushed, and I slowly nodded. Mia didn’t know how much it meant to me to hear her say that. To know I had at least one parental figure in my corner. Especially when I’d barely heard from my mom other than a few texts in weeks. She had some big show she was preparing for, and apparently that took precedence over checking in on her daughter. It was hardly something new, but at least when we’d lived together, I’d see her briefly in the mornings and when she came home at night.
“I guess he hasn’t heard then,” I agreed. “Might be hard to stop him finding out when Reed comes to pick me up on Sunday.”
“What?” Mia gasped. “Where’s he taking you?”
“Uh, family dinner at his house.”
Mia’s eyes widened with surprise. “You’re having dinner with his family?”
I’d been a little unsure about my decision to accept Reed’s invite but also somewhat intrigued to meet his family and see what he was like in his natural habitat. But Mia’s reaction only increased my doubt.
“Apparently,” I replied. “Why? Do you think I should be worried?”
“You’re having dinner with the whole Darling family.” Mia snorted. “Venturing into the heart of the Devils’ lair. Oh no, I’m sure you’ve got nothing to worry about at all.”
I wished she could have been just slightly more convincing.
