Page 13 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend
“Are you and Alexander...” She looked around like she was worried somebody might overhear and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, “Like a thing?”
I glanced around as well. Even if they were pretending to be doing other things, I could see everyone leaning their heads toward us, trying to get in on the new gossip. I smiled.
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess we are.”
Samantha smirked and sat up straight again, then tapped a perfectly manicured nail against her chin. The polish was a deep rose red, almost the blood colour. I wondered whether she picked it on purpose; it certainly added to the intimidation factor.
“We should, like, totally hang out more,” she said with a rare smile.
I couldn't remember the last time someone other than Nikki asked me to hang out. It didn't even occur to me that somebody might want to.
“For sure,” I said. She nodded primly.
“Penn,” someone whispered from the other side of me. Gosh, what was happening today? I looked over to the girl sitting there, Liv. She ran a hand through her wavy strawberry-blonde hair, then raised an eyebrow at me. “Is it okay if I call you that? Penn? I call all of my friends by one-syllable nicknames.”
Were we friends? We'd had occasional conversations, sure, but never about anything other than school.
“Of course,” I said, utterly confused. Liv grinned at me, making the light freckles on her face scrunch up. She held a pack of gum out to me.
“Want a piece?”
Liv was always snapping gum in class, and she never shared it with anyone. I didn't really care because I wasn't a gum person, but I wasn't about to throw that in her face.
“Sure,” I said, holding out a hand. She popped a piece out of the pack for me. I checked to make sure Mr. Foster wasn't looking before putting it in my mouth.
“So, who do you sit with at lunch?” Liv asked. She twisted the end of her hair around her finger.
“Oh, um...” I said. I didn't know how to tell her I usually sat alone. For a second, it surprised me that she didn't already know that, but then I realized it was stupid of me to think that she would. Just because I was intimately aware of every single thing going on in my life didn't mean everyone else was. They knew I was a loser, and that was enough for them.
“Don't be stupid, Liv,” Samantha said. I glanced over my shoulder. She was leaning to the side so Liv could see her around me. “She's obviously going to be sitting with Alexander.”
Liv looked at me with inquisitive eyes. I assumed she wanted me to confirm it, so I nodded.
“Right,” I said. My mind flashed back to the other night when Alexander and I had written out our rules. We’d agreed that we would eat together every day like all the other couples in school. “Obviously.”
Liv looked me up and down, then grinned. “Well, great! I always sit at the same table as him. I'll see you then.”
“See you then,” I echoed hollowly. What just happened?
“Okay, class, settle in,” Mr. Foster called. Everyone turned their attention to the front of the class, but my mind was on anything but schoolwork. This plan was already working out better for me than I'd expected. All I wanted to do was convince Joseph I could move on from him, and not only had I managed that, but it seemed like I was also making new friends. Granted, they only liked me because I was dating Alexander, but I had to start somewhere, right?
Almost unconsciously, I sat up straight and pushed all my hair out of my face. I didn't need to hide anymore like I'd been doing ever since Nikki and Joseph betrayed me. I was no longer the victim or the girl everyone had to pity. I was Alexander's girl.
My school barely turned the heat on during the winter to save costs, so between classes, I went to the bathroom to run my hands under the hot water of the taps to warm myself up. It was empty when I walked in, but a minute after I got there, the door swung open again and Nikki walked in.
“Hey, Penny,” Nikki said. She crossed her arms with a smug expression on her face. “How are you?”
I didn’t respond and just kept washing my hands. The scent of the soap filled my nose, growing more intense with each scrubbing. I inhaled deeply, almost involuntarily, until I felt a tickle behind my nose, like a cold breeze touching the inside of my nostrils. Then I pushed the air from my mouth through my nose in larger and larger bursts until it filled my head. I felt like I might die from it.
“What’s your problem?” She asked. Her smug smile turned to an angry expression. She waved a hand in front of my face, and I smacked it away. “I’m talking to you, Penny.”
“What do you want?” I muttered. She took a step closer to me until we were practically touching. “And could you back off a little?”
She crossed her arms together. “A little birdie told me you have a date for the formal, and I wanted to know who the lucky guy is.”
Of course. She stole my boyfriend, and now she wanted to rub it in my face by asking about my date. Since when was she so petty?
Nikki huffed and crossed her arms. “You know, Penny, there was a time we told each other everything.”
