Fake Boyfriend

“Hey I think she’s coming too,” Cally said. I blinked my eyes open to see her and Jesse kneeling over me

“You okay there Pagan?” Jesse asked.

“You owe me one Lacey,” I muttered and stuck up a hand for them to pull me up.

“I think we’re even now,” he said, pointing to his black eye.

“Whatever just help me up,” I said, shaking my hand in the air. I was expecting one of them to help me up, but instead a friendly officer of the law helped me up.

“Miss do you mind if we ask you a few questions?” he asked. I caught my reflection off of his badge and lightly touched the mound that was once my cheek.

“No problem,” I said. He brought me to a booth in the back and handed me an ice pack. I noticed another officer talking to Jesse and another talking to Karina.

“Your boyfriend is pretty protective of you,” he said, drawing out a small pad and a pen.

“Oh he’s not my boyfriend,” I said pressing the ice pack gently to my face.

“Well whoever he was, I almost had to arrest him for impeding in an investigation. He wouldn’t talk to us until you woke up. Now just relax, this is just standard procedure. I just want to know what happened tonight,” he said.

I told him what happened, not leaving out any detail as he nodded along. After we finished he told me to wait in the booth. I looked at Jesse and I could tell he was nervous. The cop talked to the other officers for a few minutes before he returned. He slid his small notepad into his pocket and set his hands down on the table. He let out a sigh and stared at me. The ice pack was starting to melt and a drip of water slid down my arm.

“Officer, am I free to go or am I getting a free ride downtown?” I asked. My head automatically told me that was a bad idea. The officer laughed and touched me on the shoulder.

“Witnesses told us you didn’t throw the first punch, she did. So you are free to go since she was attacking you when we came in. Just be careful next time and maybe take some self defense classes. I heard you pulled her hair but that’ll only last for a little bit. And tell that young man over there he’s lucky to have you as a friend and a pretend girlfriend, whatever that means. It’s my opinion he’s using you,” he said.

“It’s okay, I’m using him too,” I said. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Um, okay,” he said and started to walk away to join the other officers.

“It’s a long story!” I yelled after him. He swirled his finger around his ear to symbolize that I was crazy.

“What was that about?” Jesse asked as he approached the booth.

“Just trying to explain our complicated friendship. Now how about we point and laugh as Karina is arrested?” I said. He held out his hand and helped me out of the booth.

A couple of days later, it was movie night again. We were at my place again and when the girls saw us, they had to laugh.

“You two are a matching pair now. But damn Pagan, that girl did a number on you,” Danica said as she touched the scratch marks. I pushed her hand away.

“Funny. Let’s see you guys get into a cat fight and not manage to get a few scratches,” I said passing her the popcorn.

“Well my mom thinks the whole situation is hilarious. Since that night she made you two dance together, you’ve both managed to get in fights with each others ex’s. Kismet was the word she used and said you guys should just go on a date already,” Morgan said.

“Your mother is crazy. We’ve established that,” I said. I was starting to be thankful that Jesse was in the kitchen, not creating any awkward moments between us.

“She’s right. Why don’t you two just go out on a date? I mean, you’re already pretending to be dating. Why not make it reality?”

“Because we’d kill each other during dinner,” Jesse said as he walked into the living room, handing out drinks.

“Oh that’s nice of you to say I’d wait until dinner. I was thinking I would kill you during the car ride,” I said, taking the cold soda from his hand. I started laughing and the glass slipped from my hand, spilling the contents down my shirt.

“You know I’d say something about karma but I think sitting here, witnessing you in your sticky mess, is funny enough for me,” Jesse said, sitting back in the armchair.

I glared at him as I got up and went into the kitchen to grab a towel before going into my room. You think defending each others honor would bring some peace between us. I tried sopping up the mess on my cute shirt I had just bought when Jesse came into my room.

“One word Lacey and I’ll kill you,” I said as I tried to squeeze the rest of the liquid out of my shirt.

“Come on Pagan, it’s pointless. Just give me the shirt and change into something else,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Have I told you lately that I hate you?” I asked as I started tugging at the hem of my shirt.

“I think when you said you’d kill me, that covered it,” he said. I peeled the shirt off and stood there with my arms crossed, freezing. Jesse was trying to sop up what he could from the shirt with the towel and I started rummaging through my drawers for a shirt.

“You think I would put that stupid mechanics shirt somewhere where I could find it better since I seem to end up in it all the time,” I said, searching through stacks of shirts.

“You got any other clothes you need to wash?” Jesse asked. I looked around and grabbed some clothes, shoving them in his arms. I thought I heard footsteps on the stairs but Jesse was in between me and the doorway so I couldn’t see if anyone was coming. I noticed one last thing to be washed, a plain black bra, and held it out.

“Go on, take it,” I said, teasing him. I didn’t know what his problem was. I was already standing there half naked anyway, only in jeans and a tan sports bra. I bobbled it up on down on my finger, a devilish smile on my lips.

“Oh my god!” Morgan yelled from the doorway. I looked over Jesse’s shoulder to see her there, mouth wide open with Danica behind her. I realized how it must look as my body was blocked by Jesse’s. All they could see was my head and my arm holding out the bra. They must have thought I was naked, stripping down for Jesse. He spun around, arms still holding the laundry.

“Hey guys, we’re just getting some laundry done,” I said casually. I put on a shirt and plopped the bra onto the pile of clothes Jesse was holding. I noticed his cheeks were burning red.

“That has to be the most awkward situation I’ve ever been,” Danica said as we walked down the stairs. Jesse was still up in my room, probably stuttering out some reply.

“What, it’s not like he’s never seen me scantily clad before. In fact, the last time I had less on,” I said. Morgan gasped. Stupid mouth got me in trouble again.

“He’s seen you scantily clad before? And you kept this from us?” Morgan said.

“Relax, it was like for five seconds. I just happened to be in my room, dancing around half naked and he walked in. No big deal,” I said as I parked myself back on the couch. Jesse chose this moment to walk into the room, arms still full of clothes.

“Jesse you’ve seen Pagan scantily clad before and you didn’t think to tell us?” Morgan said. She stood in front of her cousin, hip out and arms crossed. She was going into pissed off mom mode now.

“It was an accident. She woke me up. No big deal,” he said and walked past her, heading towards the muck room.

“You guys just need to sleep with each other and get it over with,” Morgan said and she plopped down on the couch next to me. I gave her a Gibbs’ slap and pressed play on the movie.