I'd Lie

“Anna, hurry yo ass up!” John yelled up the stairs Monday morning.

“Calm yo ass down!” Anna hollered back. She flipped her bangs out of her eyes as she shrugged on her favorite white pea coat before slinging her gray bag over her shoulder. She met her impatient brother at the bottom of the stairs. “Oh, by the way, we’re giving Connie a ride to school,” she said coolly as she brushed past John.

“Yes, we can pick her up, Anna. Thanks for asking,” he muttered sarcastically as he followed his sixteen-year-old sister out of the house. Secretly, he smiled at the coincidence—maybe he’d be able to get Connie alone for a minute before school.

When John pulled his pickup into the school parking lot, he spotted the open space next to Garrett’s outdated, yellow car. Sliding into the parking space, John cut the engine before climbing out to greet his friend.

“Did you ask her?” Garrett whispered as his girlfriend reached his side. John simply shook his head minutely.

“Ask who, what?” Anna questioned cheerfully as Connie came to a stop awkwardly in the semi-circle the four teens had formed.

“Oh, nothing,” Garrett backpedaled, turning the couple around to start the walk toward the ominous-looking building before them.

“Hey, Constance, wait up,” John called quietly, not wanting to gain his sister’s attention. Connie stopped in her tracks, turning to face the older boy, her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “I, uh, wanted to ask you something.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair, dislodging the few snowflakes that had fallen that morning.

“Well,” she prompted, when it seemed like he wouldn’t say anything.

“Will you go out with me?” he blurted in a rush of words that he wasn’t sure she would even understand.

She glared slightly as she turned to walk away. “John, I’m not in the mood.”

“No, wait! That’s not what I meant.” At her responding eye roll, he backtracked. “I actually wanted to ask you a favor.”

“John—”

He held up his hand, asking her to let him finish. “I wanted to ask you to pretend to be my girlfriend. Just for a few weeks.”

“Why?” she asked slowly as a hint of a laugh escaped her lips. She wondered if he was playing some sort of a joke on her. She knew John wasn’t the type to have a steady girlfriend, not for more than a week or two at most. What confused her most, though, was why he’d want to be associated with her. He could truthfully get any girl he wanted, and no doubt, they’d agree to be his girlfriend—real or fake.

“Well,” he started, unsure how to continue. “I wanted to show…someone that I have it all together, you know. And a girlfriend would, uh, help with that.” He shrugged nonchalantly to make it appear as if it weren’t a big deal.

“Who?”

“What do you mean who?” John cocked an eyebrow.

“Who are you trying to impress?” she asked, her left hand perching on her hip as she waited.

“Um. Well—”

“Just spit it out, John.”

“I kind of, sort of, found my mom,” he confessed awkwardly. Then in a rush, he explained his plan, “You can’t tell Anna. But, she has a perfect house, a perfect family. I just feel like I wouldn’t fit, you know. I figured…well, Garrett figured…that I should show her that I’ve got it all, too.”

“John,” Connie started slowly, making John feel as if she were letting him down easy. “You do, uh, have it all,” she complimented him awkwardly, not used to the action, but as he shook his head regretfully, she continued, “I just—why me?”

“Because you do have it all. What parent wouldn’t want their son to date you,” he said motioning in front of him. In response to the silence that followed, he stuttered as he attempted to hold onto his composure as it was slowly slipping from his grasp. “You don’t have to…if you don’t want to. I—I get it. Why would you want to do me any favors? You probably think I hate you.”

“Don’t you?” she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.

“I don’t hate you, Connie,” he murmured, using the nickname that he rarely used with her, though everyone else did. “I just…you’re Anna’s friend. I tease her. I tease you. You’re almost like a sister to me, too.” Connie shook her head as she contemplated John’s request. John stuffed his hands in his pockets as he reserved himself to the fact that his plan wasn’t going to work, steeling himself for her denial.

“I have one condition,” Connie stated, catching John by surprise. She half-smiled as he waited for her stipulation. “You have to promise that this is only temporary; that you will tell Anna about your mom. I can’t keep that a secret for long.” She smiled uneasily.

He chuckled under his breath. “I think I can do that. Thanks, Connie. Really.”

“So how are we going to do this?” she asked as the warning bell for first period rang in the background.

“Well,” John started, slinging an arm over the shorter girl’s shoulder as he began walking up the front steps. “First off, no one can know that this is fake—except Garrett, ‘cause he already knows. I know Anna’s gonna ask a million questions, but we’ll have to come up with a story.” He sent Connie a meaningful look and she nodded numbly. “This needs to be believable.”

“So does that mean no more taunting, teasing, and humiliating on my behalf?” she asked hopefully.

He smirked his usual half-smile as she looked up into his sea-foam-green eyes. “We’ll see. I mean, some banter is healthy in a relationship, right?”

“And you’d know how?”

“And you would?” he shot right back.

“Touché.”

***

“Why were you almost late to first period?” Anna questioned as she and Connie walked out the front doors at the day’s end.

“Oh, um. John wanted to ask me something,” she answered vaguely. She figured that in order to keep Anna in the dark about her and John’s arrangement, she would need to speak as truthfully as possible. Otherwise, being Connie’s best—and only—friend, Anna would pick apart her lies.

“What’d he want?” She was skeptical already, watching Connie carefully.

“He, uh, wanted to see if I had any plans tonight.”

“Why?” She drew out the word as she searched the parking lot ahead of them for her brother.

“Okay, promise you won’t freak out or anything.”

“Just spit it out, Connie.”

“John asked me to go see a movie with him tonight,” she mumbled, hoping in vain that Anna wouldn’t hear.

Anna was silent for a moment, looking between her best friend and her brother’s truck in the distance where him, Garrett, and their friend Jared were sitting on the tailgate. Finally, she asked, “Seriously?” Connie nodded sheepishly, afraid that Anna would see that she was hiding something. Coming up to John’s truck, Anna glared at her brother, interrupting his conversation as she smacked the back of his head. “You’re taking my best friend out on a date?” she asked him forcefully, her arms folding across her chest.

“Uh, yeah. Do you have a problem with that?” he asked as he rubbed his skull. He glanced briefly at Connie over his sister’s shoulder, sending her a small smile and a wink that caused a light blush to spread across her cheeks.

“She’s my best friend, John!”

“You’re dating my best friend. Did I throw a fit over that?” he asked rhetorically, knowing Anna didn’t have a valid argument anymore.

“That’s different,” she muttered.

“Whatever you say.”

“Come on, Connie, Garrett will give us a ride to your house, right Gare?” she offered, sending her boyfriend a pleading smile. She grasped Connie’s elbow, dragging her backwards to Garrett’s car. Connie bit her lip as she glanced back at John, her blush deepening, before ducking in the back seat.

As the door was closing, John called out, “I’ll pick you up at seven!”