Fake Girlfriend

Kyle, as promised, showed up in the apartment’s parking lot promptly at 7:30. I didn’t remember ever seeing Kyle’s car before, so the only reason I knew it was him is I could see him through the window. His car was much nicer than ones our friends had—or I had. It was sleek black, looking almost like a miniature limousine. Now, I was a car fanatic, but it was clear this car was probably pretty expensive.

It was quiet when I slipped into the front seat of his car, only “hellos” were exchanged. I was suddenly afraid that we would spend the entire trip downtown in uncomfortable silence, and I was half tempted to turn on the radio while I thought of something to say. We turned onto the road silently, and I still had no topics for conversation. As it turned out, Kyle already had one in mind.

He was staring out at the road ahead of him when he finally spoke. “Do you mind if I ask a rather intrusive question?”

I blinked, taken aback. “No. Go ahead,” I said.

“When you and Cole started dating, it was really out of the blue. No offense, but I didn’t even know who you were, let alone that Cole fancied you. I mean, he told me that you were a childhood friend and you two happened to reconnect, but that’s not the whole truth is it?”

There was a silence, which should have answered Cole’s question clearly enough. I momentarily wondered if Kyle was always so blunt. I knew instantly that I couldn’t fool him. He didn’t seem the kind of person who was easily fooled. I don’t know why, but I refused to even try to lie to him. “No,” I answered finally. “It’s not.”

Kyle smiled to himself. “I knew it,” he murmured.

I frowned, almost fearful that he was going to tell the others. “Was it that obvious?” I asked.

He shrugged. “All of us have suspicions that there is more to the two of you than what you tell us. I mean, Cole’s not really the type of guy who goes out with a girl on a whim, even if you were childhood friends.”

I shook my head, recalling old memories. “You can’t even really call us childhood friends. We were at the same daycare. All I remember is that Cole loved to torment me.” I could hardly remember any examples, or really anything from back then, but I did remember that I hated Cole then too.

Kyle grinned at me. “Well at that age, isn’t that a sign of affection?”

I shrugged at a comment that usually would have made me blush. I hoped to stop dwelling on a topic that had anything to do with the guy I was supposed to be forgetting today. That was what this outing was all about, after all. “I guess I was too busy hating him for dumping glue on my head to notice…” I mumbled.

That made Kyle laugh--- an unfamiliar sound. “Did he really do that?”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling a bit. That was one incident I did remember from then. Probably because my mom ended up having to cut most of my hair off afterwards. I remember crying over my boy-cut, and Uncle Mike, Raul, and Nico had been over, trying not to laugh at me.

“So if it wasn’t ‘love at first sight’, then how’d you two end up going out?” Kyle asked, interrupting my memory.

Again, I felt as if I could make up a story to Kyle. I felt as if I was being seen through. Like he could catch my lies instantly. But along with that, I felt almost as if I could trust him. It was a weird feeling, considering I barely knew him. He seemed the kind of guy one could confide in. He didn’t seem like the kind of person to judge you one way or the other. No wonder Cole was friends with him.

Either way, I ended up telling him the secret I had been so careful to keep that it took a while to get it out. However, once I started speaking, I couldn’t stop. The words came spilling out. And Kyle listened intently the entire time, not talking but listening all the same.

I started with my near-death experience with the car, and how Cole had pulled me from the road. I told him about how he took me to McDonalds. How he showed me the blackmail. And told me that he needed a fake girlfriend for a reason I would later learn was to get Caroline jealous. I told him about all the lies I had told to everyone to keep the secret safe. I even told him about the zoo date and the car crash, even though it wasn’t entirely relevant. I skipped to the Halloween dance, when we were angry at each other for a reason I didn’t remember, and how he ended up going with Caroline (which he probably remembered). I thought I remembered either Cole or Lex telling me that he eventually broke it off with Caroline. Then I told him about when I first found out Delilah was pregnant, and how Cole yelled at me. Again, we were angry with each other.

However, I didn’t even stop there. I kept talking about things I didn’t even realize I was thinking. How I thought it was irritating how impossible Cole was, and how he had said the same thing about me. How I hated that we were always fighting for little reasons. I even told him that Cole and I kissed, but I didn’t go into detail there.

I ignored the tears in my eyes. “When I broke up with him, he didn’t spread around the picture. It’s not even on his phone,” I finished.

“Even if you had broken up with him the first day, he wouldn’t have given those pictures to anyone,” Kyle said. “Cole’s not like that.”

I hastily rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. “So I could have gotten out of this from day one?” I asked.

Kyle chuckled lightly. “Don’t act like you’re not glad you didn’t. Cole cares a lot about you. And correct me if I’m wrong, but you care just as much for him.”

I wanted to tell him he was wrong, but I think I was literally incapable of telling me lies. My voice failed me. He wasn’t wrong, was he?

My lack of a denial was answer enough for Kyle.

He smirked at me. “Don’t worry. You’re secret is safe with me.” And I trusted him.

Not long after, we made it to the downtown area where the club was and parked in a small gated parking lot. Kyle took out his phone as we got out of his car and dialed a number. “Sam?” he said into the phone. “Yeah. We just got here.” There was a pause. “Okay, we’ll meet you there then.” He hung up. He smiled at me. “Alright, let’s go.”

***

We walked the short distance to the club, and I heard it before I saw it. The booming music bounced off the building around it, and I was suddenly feeling anxious. When we turned the corner of the block, I was surprised how bustling it looked, even from the outside. There was a decently long line snaking from a large double door entry way that flashed a dozen different colors. I could just see a mass of dancing bodies inside from over the shoulders of two guards checking IDs.

Kyle called Sam again, this time having to shout over the noise. “Where are you?” he asked, and waited for him to answer, no doubt shouting too. “Ok. Ok. We’ll look.”

The two of us walked by the line, looking for our friends. In the end, they found us. Lola ran over and hugged me before I even saw her, with Lex, a girl that must have been Stella, Duncan and Sam, somewhere in the middle of the line.

Lex smiled at me, gesturing to the girl next to him. “Be, this is Stella,” he said. “Stel, this is Thisbe.”

She shook my hand, smiling. “Hi, Thisbe,” she said.

“Hi,” I said returning the smile.

“Good to finally see Lex with a decent girlfriend, huh?” Duncan joked. We all tensed. It was too early to make jokes about Lex’s secret relationship with Caroline, and Duncan realized it right after he said it. He coughed, and then looked at me. “So how was riding with Kyle?” he asked me, cocking his eyebrow and nudging Kyle. “Was he being all awkward?”

I laughed as Kyle rolled his eyes. “Not at all. It was fine.”

“Good.” Duncan chuckled. Crisis averted--- the tenseness was gone before Stella even realized anything out of the ordinary.

We all launched into a conversation as the line steadily moved forward. It was after a while that I realized something. “Hey,” I said. “Where’s Delilah and John?”

“They couldn’t come,” Lex answered. “I guess Delilah wasn’t feeling good or something? She said she called you, didn’t you get it?”

Immediately, I checked my phone and found a missed call. It said Delilah called around the time I was at the mall with Mike. I guess I hadn’t heard my phone ringing in my purse. I bit my lip feeling guilty. “Whoops,” I murmured.

“Don’t worry,” Lex said. “John said it wasn’t anything to worry about.”

I nodded, but I still felt guilty.

“Hey now!” Lola said, getting in my face and waving a finger at me. “None of that depressed stuff. That’s why we came here, remember?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her. “Okay,” I said, smiling.

Sam laughed. “Don’t yell at her, Sparks.”

“I wasn’t,” Lola said, sticking her tongue out at Sam.

Lex nudged me, like I was supposed to understand something that was going on. I looked back at Sam and Lola, and I noticed the look in Sam’s eye. The way he looked at Lola as he teased her, getting into her face, sticking his tongue back out at her. Then, I understood immediately. Funny how I could tell other people’s love, but I couldn’t figure out mine for the life of me…