Best Friends with the Player ✔️ (The Player #1)

Chapter Thirteen-

To whoever has yet to invent an app that keeps jerks from calling in the wee hours of the morning, what the hell are you waiting for?

Groggily, I feel around for whatever was vibrating and interrupting my sleep. My fingers close around the rectangular outline of my phone.

The brightness of the screen fries my cornea before it adjusts.

Wake up!

A simple message from an unknown number greets me as I open my inbox. Two words. That's it. Not even a name denoting to who had the authority to tell me that.

I shove my phone back under my comfortable pillow and lay back down for some zz's.

Another vibration. I ignore it, knowing it was from the same unknown person who mistakenly thought he could wake me up.

This time the vibration was unending, continuous.

A call.

Whoever this nut-crack is, he had better be ready for the pre-coffee Santana, which no one would want to meet.

I pull out my phone from under the pillow, and press hard on the ANSWER button.

"Who the hell are you and what the fudge do you want?" I snapped into the receiver.

I'm met with laughter, unending, amused laughter. This pissed me off even more.

"Suit yourself," I say before slamming the END button and shoving my phone back under my pillow.

Not even five seconds later my phone vibrates again.

"What?!" I shout, although given that I was still groggy and tired it wasn't as harsh as I'd hoped.

"Well somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" came the reply.

I was still too out of it to recognize the voice. "Who the hell are you and why the hell are you calling me this early?"

"Oh come on, candy cane. You can't have forgotten my dreamy voice, already?"

Well that answered my question. "How the hell did you get my number?"

"I twin-linked it from Jenny."

"You mean, you asked her for it?"

"No."

"Then you stole it from her phone."

He chuckled. "It doesn't sound as mysterious as awesome as twin-linked but you could say that."

"What the hell do you want, Jesse?"

"Now, that's not the way to talk to your boyfriend."

"Fake boyfriend," I corrected.

"Ouch," he tried to sound hurt.

I rolled an eye. "Get to whatever reason you called or you'll be conversing with the dial tone, Archer," I snapped understandably, considering that he had interrupted my sleep time.

"Well somebody's grouchy."

"1, 2-"

"Okay, fine. I called to discuss our game plan."

"What game plan?" I asked, thinking straightaway of the movie starring Dwayne Johnson.

I hear him sigh impatiently. "We need a game plan for this to work, Marie. What were you expecting? We just pretend to date and Daemon will come running to you, promising commitment?"

"Uhmmm... yeah," I answered. What else? "That is what you promised me."

"Yeah. But it doesn't just happen like that. You need to put in some groundwork, mistletoe."

"What sort of groundwork?"

"I'm glad you asked..."

* * *

Jenny called as soon as I finished getting ready, informing me that we were carpooling together today for school. She sounded confused, explaining that Jesse had been the one who'd volunteered the idea, but she brushed it off, happy at the idea.

I wasn't surprised. That was after all, Step 1 in the so-called Game Plan of Operation: Get The Player. I'd named it that, whereas Jesse had opted for Operation: Get Your Cluless Lover Interested.

Simple summary of the plan, become unattached to Daemon Matthews. Start distancing myself from him. Get a ride from someone else, anyone else, just not Daemon. Don't even tell him, until I've reached school that I've found another ride.

I did just that, par to par in accordance with Jesse's specifications.

"I'm sorry Dae," I said into the phone as soon as he asked where I was. "I thought you'd be busy since it's football season and all, so I caught a ride with the Archers."

"What?" I could sense the thinly veiled anger in his voice. "I'm never too busy for you?"

I rolled an eye. Yeah, tell that to the fact that you'd been to busy banging anything that walks to remember me.

I kept the snide comment to myself. "And me for you too, Dae. I hope you weren't waiting for me too long."

"Nah, I wasn't. I just waited for like five minutes. I'm in the parking lot right now. Don't want to cut into some lip-action."

A-Hole! "Listen, I'll catch you later. I've gotta run for something, okay?"

"Okay," he sounded down. "Oh and San..."

"Yeah?"

"You'll always come first, okay?"

I didn't say anything. The words, Do I really? on replay in my mind. The image from yesterday scarred in my mind of him telling that brunette that he loved her. Did I really come first?

"I'm serious, San. You'll always be first."

I smiled, sensing his sincerity. "I know, Dae. See ya later."

* * *

The chink in our plan, or at least the part I was most worried about didn't happen until after sixth period before the lunch hour.

I'd been ignoring the curious stares, and the blatant whispers that followed me since morning, but it became even more apparent as the day wore on that everyone knew.

I headed for my locker, hoping to deposit my textbooks before heading to the cafeteria.

Jesse stood there, leaning against it. I glared at him, sensing the curious stares from onlookers.

"Damn, that didn't take long, now did it?" He said as I did the combination for my locker, intently blocking it from Jerkface's view.

I eyed him confusedly as I shoved my books into the locker.

"Everyone already knows about us at the Cliff yesterday and the day's not even done yet."

I nodded. "Welcome to Port Liston, rich boy. Where you can't get away with running over the neighbor's cat."

"Yeah, I'm starting to get the gist of small town life, but-"

He's cut off as his shoved against the locker by none other than a glaring Daemon.

Instead of cowering in fear or begging for mercy, Jesse chuckles. He actually chuckles, reverberating in the now tense atmosphere. "Well, sweetheart," he turns his head towards me and smiles roughly, "things just got more... entertaining."

I know. I am soooo awesome for uploading even though I was too tired and right after I updated Rushed and #TG yesterday... :)

Who loves Jesse? Team Daemon anyone? :)VOTE COMMENT PROMOTE AND FOLLOW please!!!Next update - Soon...

Ehl_Kayy_Writes