He's With Me by Tamara Summers (microsoft ebook reader txt) 📕

put on the necklace Jake had given her for her

birthday the past November. She always wore it around him, for good luck. It was just a

strand of small red glass beads, but she liked it.

She brushed her hair—dark brown, down to her shoulder blades, and way too

fluffy—and scrunched her nose at the reflection. Well. She looked pretty much the same

as she did every day, so if it hadn’t worked yet, it probably wouldn’t now.

Lexie found Colin and Jake, as usual, in the basement. Colin was playing with the

zoom on the secondhand video camera he’d borrowed from Dad. Jake was still standing

by the door, and when Lexie walked in, he threw open his arms and went, “Lexie!” in this

big dramatic excited voice.

This was their new joke. The week before, Colin had asked them to act out a

scene for his camera, and when Jake started doing everything all over-the-top and

melodramatic, Lexie had followed along. They thought this was the most hilarious thing

ever, and they couldn’t get through three lines without falling over laughing. Colin didn’t

think it was quite so funny.

“Jake!” she cried now with the same dramatic enthusiasm.

“Oh, shut up,” said Colin.

Jake held up his hand and Lexie high-fived him. As he walked back to the couch,

she curled her fingers over her palm, holding in the warm, tingly feeling his hand had left

behind.

“So, what’s the new crisis, Jake?” Colin said, setting the camera on the coffee

table and kneeling to peer through it. He never seemed all that interested in Jake’s girl

problems, but Lexie thought it made Colin feel better to hear that even if you could get a

girlfriend, it wasn’t always easy after that. He still hadn’t dated anyone, and as far as she

knew, he’d never liked anyone, either. At least she’d dated Dave Mitchell for a week in

seventh grade, if you could call holding hands and awkwardly slow-dancing at one party

“dating.”

“It’s the end of the world,” Jake said as Lexie sat down on the other end of the

couch from him. “I’m totally doomed. Hey, Lexie, did you know that Ewan McGregor,

Brad Pitt, and Will Smith were all offered the role of Neo in The Matrix before Keanu

Reeves got it? They turned it down. Isn’t that crazy?”

“It would have been much funnier with Will Smith,” she said. Some days Jake’s

eyes were really blue, but today he was wearing a mossy green T-shirt that made them

look a stormy gray color.

“Colin, you should make a movie like The Matrix,” Jake said. “Lexie could play

Trinity.”

“No problem,” Colin said. “I was wondering what to do with that two hundred

million dollars just lying around in my bank account.”

“Oh, but,” Lexie said, snapping her fingers, “I’m afraid my leather catsuit is in the

laundry. Too bad.”

“That is too bad,” Jake said earnestly. “I had this whole series of you-in-black-

leather movies planned. X-Men, Catwoman, King Kong . . . I’d be Naomi Watts and

you’d be Kong, of course.”

“Shut up,” Lexie said, flinging a throw pillow at him.

“What?” he said with a grin. “It’s the grandest love story ever told.”

Luckily Colin interrupted before Lexie had to respond to that.

“Hello?” said her brother. “Crisis? Aren’t we here for a reason? You don’t sound

all that doomed.”

“I am,” Jake said. “I’m totally doomed.”

“Why?” Lexie asked. As far as she knew, Jake had been single for a couple of

months, ever since Amy Sorrento had broken up with him for not calling her every single

day. So it was probably a “girl-he-wanted-to-date” category of a problem.

“Bree McKennis,” said Jake.

Lexie’s heart sank. Bree was the classic popular girl—blond, beautiful, and

blissfully mean. Once she got her hooks into someone, they stayed hooked, even after she

dumped him. If Jake had fallen for someone like her, Lexie didn’t stand a chance. In fact,

if Jake had fallen for someone like her, maybe Lexie didn’t know him that well after all.

“Bree McKennis?” Colin said. “She . . . isn’t she kind of out of your league?

She’s, like, really popular.”

“Sadly, apparently not,” Jake said. “She wants to go out with me. Maybe she sees

some untapped popularity potential in me. If so, I vote for not tapping it. It can stay right

where it is, thanks.”

“Bree wants to go out with you”? Colin said.

Lexie was relieved, but she did not appreciate Colin’s shocked tone of voice. Why

wouldn’t anyone want to go out with Jake?

“Yup,” Jake said. “She informed me of this in an e-mail.”

“No way,” Lexie said.

“See for yourself.” Jake pulled a piece of paper out of his back jeans pocket,

unfolded it, and slid it over to her.

Jakey,

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to date the hottest girl in school? I

bet you have. I could tell you were thinking about it when I got lemonaid from you at my

sister’s graduation ceremony. You were thinking, “If only Bree would ever date me.”

Well, it’s your lucky summer. I have decided that I need a boyfriend and here are the

reasons we would be the perfect couple:

(1) our heights would match perfectly,

(2) we’ll both be at Summerlodge this summer,

(3) we’re both cute and popular,

(4) and so we’d be like the Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt of Summerlodge, only

without the smelly orphans.

I imagine this feels like winning the lottery, doesn’t it? Not that I’d notice if I did,

since I’m already so rich, but I’m guessing you would, and it would be like just as way

exciting as this. I’ll meet you tomorrow at the front gate of Summerlodge so we can make

our entrance together. Then I’ll also debrief you on the Rules of Dating Bree. How

awesome will this be?

Kisses,

Bree

“Oh, Jakey,” Lexie said, passing it on to Colin. “How can you resist?”

“I know,” Jake said. “It’s better than winning the lottery. It’s like winning the

lottery and falling down a well and being vomited on by a llama all at the same time.”

Lexie laughed. “So she’s going to be at Summerlodge, too? Does she play

tennis?” Lord, please don’t let her be in the Beginners class with me. Please find some

other horrible way