Price Check On Monogamy

“Alright,” I said flatly, collapsing into a chair in the dining room wearily. “Tell me what I have to do and leave me the hell alone.”

Caleb raised an eyebrow again and gave me a pointed look. “We can’t very well leave you alone for the next six months, Tiger.”

Deciding not to argue and glaring at everyone seated at the table-- currently Caleb, Jeremy, and Tandem-- I said again, “Just tell me what you want me to do and let me go back to my room. I have homework.”

“You don’t do homework--“

“Shut up and tell me!”

Jeremy pouted, brushing a strand of hair out of his eyes. “Fine. The rules are simple, alright? You can’t tell anyone--“

“What the hell do you mean, I can’t tell anyone?” My jaw dropped. “I have to go through six months of hell by myself?”

“We need to make sure that no one knows this is fake,” Jeremy said calmly.

“I don’t even get that part!” I shouted, frustrated. “This doesn’t make sense! The bet is between you three, right? Why can’t he get a real girlfriend for the bet? You all know it’s set up, doesn’t that mean that the bet’s been fixed?”

Caleb grinned. “Nope. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Tandem gets a lot of attention from the ladies,” he winked at Tandem, who laughed and nudged him. “If they think that he has a girlfriend, they’re all going to try even harder to get him to break the bet. If Tandem breaks up with you, out of sheer force of habit, then it’s all over.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t even make sense. So, what you’re saying is that all three of you are counting on the fact that he’s going to break up with me for someone else?”

They gave me blank, stupid looks, as if I’d asked the most ridiculous question in the world. “Yes.”

“Even if he’d lose the bet, you still think there’s the chance that he’d break up with me for someone else?”

“Yes.”

Well, ouch, that was a bit cruel. I narrowed my eyes; so the bastard couldn’t even be paid to date me? “Stuck up assholes.”

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “What? Anyway, yeah, that’s the general idea. He has to actually stay loyal to you. No dating anyone else… because we all know how Tandem has quite a talent for juggling.”

I rolled my eyes. “Alright, alright. But I’m still not willing to not tell anyone.”

Jeremy sighed and sat back. “Fine. Compromise. Who do you want to tell? No more than two people.”

“Three people. Kip, Lexy, and Tawny.”

“Not Kip,” Tandem groaned, leaning back in his chair. I glared at him furiously.

“What the hell is your problem with her?” I hissed. “She’s never done anything to you, and you treat her like she’s freaking dirt.” Tandem just looked at me like he was sick and about to throw up. “Fine,” I almost shouted. “I’ll tell Lexy and Tawny, but if Kip gets mad at me at the end of this for not telling her, I’m going to punch you in the face, Jeremy.”

Jeremy smiled broadly. “That, Tiger, is a chance I’m willing to take. Alright, next rule. You have to actually act like you’re dating.”

In response to my raised eyebrow, Caleb added, “And by act like you’re dating, we mean make it believable that you’re dating Tandem.”

“… fuck no.” Believable that I’m dating Tandem? Try dry sex in the hallways. No amount of money-- or blackmail, for that matter-- was going to get me to be a total slut for their bet.

“Aww, nothing too bad, Tiger,” Caleb said, smiling. “I wouldn’t ask my sister to, like, sleep with my best friend,” Once again, at my raised eyebrow, he added, “Katy didn’t need my questioning. All we’re asking you to do is… well… touch. And you can’t hate him so much anymore. Or, at least, so obviously.”

“People can hate the person they’re dating,” I pointed out. “For example, how’re you and Heather?”

Caleb laughed. “That’s a low blow, Tiger. We’re fine, or, at least, as fine as we’ll ever be. And besides, she’s good in bed. I mean, if you want him to tell people that’s why he’s dating you, then by all means--“

“Prick,” I snarled, making Caleb laugh. “Fine, we’ll act like we’re dating. Anything else?”

“You have to actually spend time with us,” Jeremy said slowly, quickly adding as I stood up and grabbed a cup to throw at him, “Hey, calm down! It just means that you have to be, you know, around us. Go to parties. Actually be social.”

“I’m getting sick of you three finding ways to insult me while giving me these rules,” I snapped, sitting back down. “I am social. Just not with idiots. Besides, I don’t exactly… fit in with your crowd.” Cliché, but true, nonetheless. Just sitting at the dining table with them, in our huge kitchen, made me feel uncomfortable. Tandem was a surfer, and he was built like one. Almost six feet tall, he had dirty blonde, sun streaked, close cropped hair that was growing out in waves, and golden tanned skin. Tandem was built like the epitome of a male model, long and lean from all his time swimming, dressed in nothing but the finest jeans and vintage t-shirts that mankind had to offer. Jeremy was just as tall, though a little lankier built, and paler from swimming in pools all the time instead of the beach experiences that Tandem had grown up with. He had blue eyes and light brown hair, with freckles lining the bridge of his nose and most of his cheeks. As a basketball fan, Jeremy almost always sported loose basketball shorts and black t-shirts with some sort of white jacket. Even my twin brother made me uncomfortable; sure, we were fraternal twins, but we did look alike in a lot of respects. Same light green eyes, same auburn hair, same pale, freckled skin; why did we look so different? Caleb was darker than me, from times he spent outside with friends, and his close-cropped dark red hair wasn’t as curly or thick as mine. He was way taller, only about an inch shorter than Jeremy and Tandem, and wore jeans shorts and pullovers. He was built leanly from swimming, and his obsession with lifting weights and running. The three looked like the prep school kids they really were.

And then there was me. My brothers light green eyes, auburn hair, and pale, freckly skin looked… weird on me. My eyes were bigger, for one, and I had a fuller mouth; it made me face look… small, I guess. My best friend Lexy called it cute, my other best friend Tawny called it petite, I just called it freaking small. My hair was thick and curled slightly at the ends down to just above my mid-back, and I was, in general, really pale. My freckles, just a shade darker than the rest of my skin, stood out brightly. I wasn’t tall in the least; five foot four, on a good day, and comfortably small as far as weight went. I usually dressed in whatever I pulled out of my closet with combat boots because they lasted longest. In short, I looked nothing like the girls that they hung around; Katy, for instance. I don’t straighten my hair compulsively, and I don’t wear designer anything. I don’t make white look good, and I don’t bleach my hair. I’m lazy, and I don’t wear makeup. I’m not stick thin. I don’t look like a model like my sister or her friends.

“Well, looks like you’re going to have to start looking like us,” Jeremy shrugged. Like it didn’t matter to him in the least, which is probably didn’t.

“It might not matter to you, but it matters to me,” I practically growled. “I’m not going to look like you because I’m not like you. So either deal with me like this, or call of your bet.”

Caleb seemed to think for a moment before shrugged. “You’re not going to change her mind, man. Might as well just leave it.”

Jeremy sighed. “Fine,” he said, pouting. “You can just… stay that way, I guess.”

“Anything else?” I asked, already standing up. What else could there possibly be?

Jeremy thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Nope. That’s about it. It starts tomorrow, as soon as you get to school.” Smiling, he added, “And on Friday, you have your first party to accompany your new boyfriend to.”

“Already? Don’t you idiots ever do anything without a huge crowd?”

Caleb laughed. “What do you call this?”

I sighed. “Fair enough. Anything I should know about the party?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Nah, we’ll fill you in later,” looking at Tandem mischievously, he asked, “So, anything you’d like to tell your new girlfriend before she goes to bed, Tandem?”

Tandem looked at me with the blankest, most irritating look I’d ever seen in my life. “Uhh… I like your hair.”

Scowling at the three of them, I grabbed a coke and walked up to my room. Collapsing on my bed, I opened the coke and chugged half the can, glancing at the clock at the same time. Nine o clock. Not so bad.

Picking up my phone, I called Lexy. “Hey Lex. Wanna come over?”

“Tiggy, it’s nine at night.”

“So?”

An exasperated sigh. Then, “On a Sunday. What do you want to do at nine at night on a Sunday?”

“Just a little make over,” I said innocently. “Besides, I want to tell you and Tawny something. I’m going to call and invite her over once we hang up and I’m sure you’re on your way to my house.”

Lexy sighed again before saying, “I’ll be over in ten minutes. Jesus, how did I get mixed up with you, again?”

“Love you, too,” I laughed. “Bye.”

Dialing Tawny and sighing inwardly, I had to mentally prepare myself for what promised to be a long night ahead.