“Jaxon’s upset,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t totally understand what he was saying over the phone, but I thought I would make him brownies and surprise him with them.”
I shook my head and held back a laugh. Jaxon adored Violet’s baking even more than I did, and I knew he was not above making up some fake emergency to convince her to bake. Excuses he’d used in the past included that he stubbed his toe so hard that he thought he’d broken it, which of course meant he’d permanently ruined his running career (that one was even funnier because it was before they were even dating, which made it ludicrous that he thought it would work). Another excuse was that he was worried his parents were going to sell his house. This meant that he would have to move away from his cousin Sabrina, which would be heartbreaking. That excuse was made even funnier by Violet staring him dead in the eyes and saying she totally understood because, of course, families never see each other if they don’t live next door to one another.
“What do you figure the emergency is this time?” I asked.
“I honestly have no idea,” Violet said. “But now that I think about it, that might have been why he was so indecipherable on the phone. He couldn’t come up with a good emergency, so he just hoped that if I couldn’t understand him, I would just make him food anyway and bring it over because I’m that good of a girlfriend.”
“And he was right.”
“Of course he was.” I could imagine her rolling her eyes over the phone. “He knows me better than I know myself.”
“Can I suggest that instead of going out, I come with you to offer him the brownies?” I suggested. “I want to see what he comes up with.”
The mixer stopped, so it was easy to hear the smugness in Violet’s voice as she said, “What a fantastic plan.”
I could only imagine what Jaxon would pull out when we questioned him. He and Sabrina were probably coming up with some sort of plan right now. Sometimes, I wondered whether they actually put themselves in these positions to test their lying skills with actual time crunches on them. It was one of their favorite pastimes, from what I could tell.
“I’ll split the brownies, so I’m only giving half to Jaxon,” she added. “You and I can share the rest.”
“Oh man, now I’m going to feel so guilty if he’s actually upset about something instead of him just conning you into giving him brownies.”
“You’ll feel guilty for eating some of them but not for tagging along just to see if he is lying?”
“Morality is a tricky topic,” I said sagely. “Oh, hey, didn’t you say Jaxon planned some sort of surprise for yesterday? Tell me all about it!”
I laid down on my bed and listened as Violet chattered away about her date with Jaxon, trying to pretend that I wasn’t wishing that Charlie would love me as much as Jaxon loved her.
twelve
“Place your betson the tragedy of the day,” Violet said as we walked up Jaxon’s walkway the next day. Jaxon had called her yet again to ask for brownies, and we were there to deliver them. Yesterday, he claimed that he was upset that our time at high school had ended, even though he’d never shown the slightest emotion around it previously. I thought quickly while she rang the doorbell.
“I think it’s going to be another moving scare,” I said. “Or like, he thinks that he and Sabrina won’t live in the same residence at university, and that will just be devastating to him.”
Violet laughed and shook her head. “Can you imagine? He was originally planning to move to another country for university, but no, if he has to walk to a different building to see his cousin, he won’t be able to survive.”
“Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if that’s what it is,” I said. “Laugh now, but get ready to pay up.”
“Pay up with what?”
“We’ll decide the price later.”
“Once you’ve seen which one of us has won?”
“Exactly,” I said. “Except you haven’t given an answer yet, so you better do it quickly or risk losing by forfeit.”
I could see someone approaching through the warped glass on his front door, so she didn’t have long to decide on her answer.
“You probably have about ten seconds to come up with something,” I added unhelpfully.
“Okay, okay,” Violet said. “Um… I think he’s going to cry about how he’s having an awful hair day.”
“That’s a good one,” I said with a nod. “Very good one.”
The door was thrown open, but it was Eli on the other side instead of Jaxon. So he had really pulled out all the stops for this fake tragedy then—not just him and Sabrina, but Eli too. Well, that or Eli was here anyway, since that was very possible as well. The three of them practically lived at each other’s houses honestly.
“Thank you for coming,” Eli said soberly. He stepped aside to allow us into the entryway and to take off our shoes. “We appreciate our friends’ support in this time of need.”
This was the first time I’d ever been in Jaxon’s house and all I could say was that it was huge. I’d been in the Owens’ house a few times and it was also large—big enough to comfortably house a family of eight, which was quite a feat—so I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was still somewhat taken aback. It was fair to assume that most of the people who went to Bayshore were wealthy, but Jaxon was next level. I wondered whether that ever made Violet uncomfortable—back in ninth grade, she’d always been embarrassed about being a scholarship kid. I was happy that she’d let go of that notion over time, but I could only imagine that having a boyfriend with a house like this could send her spiraling again.
