Page 24 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend
“Yeah! My place this weekend,” he said. “I bet my mom would even let you sleep over.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You think your mom would let your girlfriend sleepover?”
I had slept over at his house many times when my parents went away overnight since we didn’t have any other close friends or family nearby, but I hadn’t done that since I was a kid. I was sure his parents still would have been happy for me to sleep over before, but now that we were “dating,” it was a little more up in the air.
“Fair point. I’ll broach it carefully,” Alexander said. “But either way, we will watch as many Christmas movies as possible this weekend. And any that we don’t get done then, we’ll watch once the break starts. I’d like to see you still not be in the Christmas spirit by the end of that.”
“Wanna bet?”
“You know, I want to say yes,” Alexander said, “but even when the odds are stacked in my favour, I always seem to lose bets to you.”
“It’s my superpower,” I said.
“That it is,” he laughed. He paused the movie. “I’ll be right back. I’m just going to the bathroom.”
“Use the one downstairs,” I said.
With expertise that came from spending every New Year’s Eve of his life in our basement, he headed straight for the hidden doorway and went downstairs. I put the bucket of popcorn on the coffee table and opened Candy Crush on my phone to pass the time. I barely got through two moves, though, before Charliecame running into the room, jumped over the back of the couch, and landed on the cushion next to me.
“So, you and Alexander are dating now, huh?”
“Yes,” I said carefully. I hated lying to Charlie. Not to mention, I was utterly terrible at it. My palms started sweating, and I ran my hands along my pants anxiously.
“Since when do you two hang out?”
“We’ve always been friends.”
“I’ve never seen you interact outside of holidays.”
I shrugged. “We just ran into each other one day, and he ended up asking me out. And you know that I’ve had a crush on him forever.”
“I didn’t, actually,” Charlie said. Huh. I guess I hadn’t shared as much with him as I thought.
“Oh, well, I have,” I blurted. I bit my lip and looked at him. Unlike everyone else, he didn’t seem over the moon about Alexander and me. Why not? “It's great, isn't it?”
“I guess,” Charlie said, not sounding convinced.
“Everything okay?”
He looked at me intently. “Are you sure you're ready to start dating again?”
I recoiled. “What?”
“I'm just worried you're not as over Joseph as you think you are.”
“You don't even live at home, Charlie,” I snapped. “How would you know if I'm over him or not?”
“Hey, I didn't mean to insult you! It's just that... Mom told me you threw out all his stuff after you caught him with Nikki,” Charlie said. “But when we were in your room the other day, I noticed that you still had the necklace Joseph gave you for your birthday.”
My heart ached as I thought of the necklace. It was a heart-shaped locket with a J on the front. When on, the pendant saton my breastbone, or as I liked to view it, as close to my heart as possible. Inside, it was a faded photo of Joseph and me from a photo booth at a school fair. I'd ripped it off as I stormed away from Joseph and Nikki the day I found them. I felt pretty empty without it every day, but I'd broken the chain, so even if I wanted to wear it again, I couldn't. Regardless, my keeping the necklace meant nothing about my feelings for Joseph. I just felt bad getting rid of such a thoughtful and expensive gift, regardless of how the relationship had gone.
“That has nothing to do with anything,” I said tightly. I didn't care about defending my relationship with Alexander or convincing Charlie that it was all right that I moved on — I wasn't really dating him, so it didn't matter whether I was in the right space to be in a relationship right now. But I'd be damned if I let anyone insinuate that I was in any way not over Joseph.
“He was your first boyfriend, Penny,” Charlie said. “It’s okay to be heartbroken.”
“I’m not heartbroken!” I yelled, throwing a handful of popcorn at him. It didn’t have the impact I would have preferred, but I didn’t have anything else in arm’s reach. I jumped to my feet, hands clenched in fists. “Just mind your own business, Charlie!”
He stood up too. “I’m just watching out for you, Penny! I don’t want to see you get hurt. Or hurt Alexander by stringing him along.”
