Page 54 of Under the Waves
She offered me a small nod. Salty tears of the ocean trickled down her chest, her hair tightly wound in knots from the harsh waves. I stayed quiet for a while, looking at her. Contemplating what to say in my head. Her eyes narrowed, assessing me. She opened her mouth to say something, but I spoke before she hada chance too.
I was going to regret this, but I had to show her that she wasn’t broken—that she was worth more than she thought she was. She didn’t need fixing, she just needed to be shown that there were pockets of light in the darkness. To see that she wasn’t and never would be alone. Not anymore. She might fear it could change everything, but I had no plans to put an end to our thing. If it worked, I’d be able to get my head out of my ass and start getting my scores back up, and she’d be able to get through her final two years without being harassed and hopefully see herself like she was worth more than what she gave herself credit for.
“I propose a bet.”
19
Poppy Wells
Ithink I was in shock. Or something like that. Here I was sitting on the beach with Jasper Ridge after casuallyadmitting to him that I was borderline suicidal and utterly broken.
Wow, Poppy. Wow.
I had no idea what was wrong with me. I was getting myself into a deep fucking hole here but for some reason, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to dig myself out of it. Jasper…he cared about me, if that was even possible. But he cared, regardless. The thought made me nauseous. I didn’t know what to do with that fact, so I pushed him away.Well, I tried to at least. I wanted him to shout at me so I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. Get mad at me like I deserved. Everyone’s response was normally anger. Icould handle anger.
Fuck, I wasmadeof anger.
I propose a bet.
His words echoed in my ears as I gaped at him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he waved me off, fighting a smile.
Hell, he just pulled my ass out of the ocean and did whatever the hell he did to me as I laid like a fucking fish flapping out of water. I cringed at the thought. I wasn’t supposed to be breathing right now.I didn’t deserve to.
A shiver overcame me as he stood up, gazing out towards the ocean. After a moment, he turned to face me.
“Date me.”
I froze. My throat dried up. I expected a million thoughts to race through my head, but none did; it was completely empty apart from the echo of his words.
Date me.
“Whatever fucking drugs you’re on, Ridge, I want some,” I jested because there was no fuckingwaythose words left his lips.No way.
Except, his face was entirely serious.
“Date me,” he repeated, as if the words hadn’t sunk in yet. “Well, not really date me but like pretend to so people think we are, you know?”
I gaped at him, at a loss for words. I was imagining this. Maybe I was dead.That was it. I was certifiablyinsane.
“You want me to…fake date you?” I asked cautiously. There had to be a catch somewhere. Guys like Jasper Ridge, of all people, did not date.Period. Yet alonefakedate. In all the years I had known him, he hadneverhad a girlfriend.Ever. But now he wanted me to be his fake one? Yeah,right.
“Why on earth wouldyouof all people want to fake dateme? Girls practically throw themselves at you every day,” I rolled my eyes, and before he could say anything, I continued talking. “And don’t deny it because we both know it’s true.”
“You seem oddly concerned for my love life, Wellsy. One might say you seem a little jealous?” he smirked.
Color heated my cheeks, and I cursed myself for letting his words affect me that much.Think of the waves, the calm ocean waves. They reach the shore and then return to sea. Calm waves. Calm soul. Positive thoughts, Poppy. Positive thoughts.
I shrugged. “I amnotjealous, Ridge. I’m just stating facts.”
A smile crept over his lips. “You’re different, Poppy.”
I froze.You’re different.How could he know? The only version of me he had seen was thefakeme, the girl Iusedto be. So how could he tell the difference? No one knew me well enough to be able to say that. No one.You’re different. Yeah, funnily enough, that happens when your dad walks out on you and your mom hates you because she and everyone else in this town believes you killed your own brother. I was a punching bag for other people’s grief, a scapegoat for their conscience.
But I didn’t tell him any of that. Instead, I settled with a ‘so do you’ response.
Jasper looked at me like he was trying to read the unsaid words in my eyes. No matter how many masks I put on to hide myself from the world, it was like he could see straight through all of them and justsee me.