Chapter 7
Brielle
“WHAT?” Lia’s voice stripped all hearing from my ears. It was so high-pitched and so emphatic that I winced.
Then I joined in. “I KNOW!”
“WHAT THE WHAT?” She half-laughed, half-squealed.
“I KNOOOW!” I replied.
Then we just stared at each other through our phones until I collapsed on my bed, letting my phone fall next to me. But I could still hear Lia, and that was all that mattered. The events of today were beyond extraordinary, and not necessarily in a good way extraordinary. They just weren’t ordinary.
“So you are dating Brooks, then?” Lia clarified.
“I guess!” I laughed. I wanted to cry. I was mortified. I was horrified. I was terrified. I was pretty much any word that ended with ‘fied and that didn’t even seem enough. “Fake. It’s all fake,” I added.
“Duh. Of course. But now what?” Lia’s question was pretty much front and center in my brain.
“I have no clue.” I buried my face in my pillow and let out a good, long wail. With my luck, my mom would hear and come charging down the hall, thinking I’d terminally injured myself.
Sure enough. I heard the floor creak. Then a knock. Then, without waiting, my mom—gosh, I love her, but she drives me nuts!—poked her head in the door. Worry was in her brown eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, Mom.” I lifted my head from my pillow.
Lia was quiet. She knew enough not to say anything.
Mom stepped into my room. “Bad day?”
“Mediocre,” I replied. Please go away, Mom.
“I’m sorry, baby.” Mom always called me that. I’d be “baby” when I was in my sixties and she was almost dead. “Can I do anything?” she asked.
“Leave?” I retorted.
A flash of hurt streaked across her face. I tried to soften my words I’d said harshly because I was, after all, in a bit of a pickle.
“I just mean, I’m talking to Lia.” I picked up my phone and wagged it so Mom could see.
Her face brightened. “Oh hi, Lia!” She waved even though I doubted Lia could see her. “How’s Canada?”
“Fine!” Lia laughed and waved back. She loved my mom. I mean, let’s be honest. My mom is cool, she’s just—my mom. It doesn’t matter how cool you are, all moms get in the way at times. This was one of those times.
“Okay,” Mom gave me a smile. “I’ll leave you girls alone.”
“Bye!” Lia responded.
“Bye.” I said, then waited until Mom shut my door. It didn’t latch. “Mom? Can you shut my door all the way?” I was being picky, but she was used to it.
“Good grief, Brielle,” was all she said, but she pulled on the door, and this time it latched. I turned back to my phone.
“Gosh, your mom is the best,” Lia gushed.
“Yep. About Brooks,” I said, trying to get us back on track.
“Did your mom ever date in high school?” Lia wasn’t to be deterred.
“Ummm,” I contemplated. “Maybe? She read books like I do. I don’t know when she got her first boyfriend.”
“Ugh. In a couple of years, that’ll be us. Boyfriends. No time for each other.”
“Never!” I argued.
“I’m kidding.” Lia’s phone screen went all wobbly as she moved her phone until it rested against something. I could see her face now. I rose up onto my elbows and braced my phone against the wall my bed was tucked up against.
We stared at each other.
“What would your mom say about today’s events?” Lia pondered.
“She’d say to tell my friends the truth and let the rest of the fallout blow over.”
“She’s right,” Lia retorted.
“No way!” I was not going to do that. I wasn’t! “One week with Brooks as my boyfriend and then I’ll break up with him. No one will care then, and it’ll all be over.”
“Ok.” Lia nodded. “I guess.”
“You guess?” Why couldn’t Lia just get behind it? I mean, Brooks had gotten behind it! So aside from being horribly awkward and questionably ethical, what was the big deal?
I sank back onto my pillow and out of view of my phone.
“I’m a horrible person!” I wailed. I really was.
Faking a boyfriend was what had gotten me into this mess, instead of just being myself and dealing with the pestering of nosy family like my aunts and trend-setting wannabes like my friends.
“I just want to read my book and pretend none of this happened!” I finished.
“It’ll be all right. Really.” Lia was trying to find the bright side for me. “And Brooks sounds like a pretty nice guy. I mean, he could have been really mean about all of this.”
I paused then. I took a moment to think. This entire day had been a whirlwind. It had unraveled so fast and been so unpredictable I hadn’t even taken the time to process the fact that the guy of my dreams—literally!—had shown up at school. I mean, what were the odds? One in a billion?
It hadn’t been that long ago that I’d listed out all the details I thought I’d need for an imaginary boyfriend I’d adopt as my own.
Blond hair, blue eyes, baseball player, lived in North Carolina, was funny yet sensitive, was willing to put up with my emotionally unstable, argumentative, and picky side, while appreciating my funny, book-loving, and loyal side.
Of course, he went to church, loved God, had good morals, and wasn’t one of those guys who used enough bad words to make an R-rated actor blush.
Did he have faults? Sure. But why create a list of faults when he wasn’t even real?
Then I recalled sitting at my computer and after browsing a whole bunch of online photos of random people, I switched to an AI image generator and typed in my own qualifications. Some tweaking. Some regenerating. Voila! Brooks was created.
So how on earth was I to know that somewhere in a world with 8 billion people, the guy actually existed? Let alone would end up at my high school?
But the fact of the matter was, he was here. He did exist. He was nice. Too nice. He was actually cooperating with my scheme.
So if Brooks was cooperating, then what was the problem?
“There is no problem,” I muttered.
“Huh?” Lia asked.
“I’m making something wrong where there isn’t. It’s all worked out. One week. Just one week.”
And then Reece knocked on my door.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Umm, you have a problem.” His voice was muffled from the other side of the closed door.
“What?” I bolted upright.
“Aunt Elle is here.” There was a laugh in his voice. “She wants to meet Brooks.”
“So tell her she can’t. I don’t even know where he lives.” I reconsidered. “But don’t tell Aunt Elle that part.”
The door opened a crack and Reece stuck his head into my room. “Actually, Brooks is here too.”
“What?” I jumped to my feet.
“What?” Lia squealed from my phone. I snatched it and stuffed it—and her—into my back pocket. There was no way I was going through this drama without my BFF.
Reece gave me that smile a brother perfects at a young age when they’ve pulled one over on you. “Yeah, I invited him over after school. We’re going to work out in the basement together. I mean, if you’re going to date him, I need to get to know the guy.”
“Reece!” I glared at him.
“Reeffe!” I heard Lia shout from my back pocket.
Reece shrugged. “Better come before Aunt Elle goes downstairs by herself to meet Brooks.”
Oh gosh. This would be awful! I had to intercede before this got any worse. I glanced into my mirror and noticed my hair was a mess from burying my face in my pillow.
“You coming?” Reece opened my door wider.
“I look like crap.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
“What’s new?”
I chased him down the hall and in typical Reece form, he evaded my flying palm intended to slap the heck out of him.
We barreled down the carpeted stairs and both of us landed on the floor with a thud just as Aunt Elle was poking her fun-loving, well-meaning, but super nosy nose into the doorway that led to the basement.
“No!” I shouted.
“Here she is,” Reece announced.
Aunt Elle pulled back. Her blue eyes were wide in puzzlement as she looked between us. Reece edged past her, pointing to the stairs that led downward to where he and Brooks would be working out.
“I’ll just be downstairs.” He shot me an annoying look. “With Brooks.” And then Reece hurdled down the stairs, leaving me as Aunt Elle’s captive.
She was my dad’s sister. She looked a lot like my dad, only she wasn’t at all like my dad. Dad was rational and logical and would honestly be furious if he knew what I’d gotten myself into. Aunt Elle? She was going to love every moment of this.
“So, he’s here! Why didn’t you tell me your boyfriend was moving here?”
“I—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Aunt Elle waved off my incomplete sentence. “I was in the car when Patty Templeton called me.”
Mrs. Templeton. Study Hall, Mrs. Templeton.
I’d forgotten she and Aunt Elle were—what did they call themselves?
—bosom buddies? It was some Anne of Green Gables thing they had going.
Anyway, of course. It made sense. Mrs. Templeton would have called Aunt Elle.
Aunt Elle would have come straight over.
She would tell Mom, and Mom would tell Dad, and—
“Elle, you can’t—” I started, then bit my tongue.
How did one go about swearing their aunt to secrecy from parents—and live to tell about it?
And how did one hide a boyfriend, who wasn’t really their boyfriend, from their parents?
I was so grounded. And I knew if Dad found out, he’d take my phone away, which meant he’d take my only connection to Lia away, which meant catastrophe!
Wait.
Breathe, Brielle.
I had to put this into perspective. Aunt Elle knew that I was dating a guy named Brooks.
She believed he’d just moved here. She didn’t know this was all really fake, that I was essentially lying about it all, and that the whole thing was a major con designed to get her and others off my back about being boyfriendless.
When I thought about it like that, I realized how dumb this whole thing was.
But the good news? No one but Reece—well, and Brooks—knew it was fake.
So the worst-case scenario was that Mom and Dad would find out I had a boyfriend I hadn’t told them about.
Okay, not a great scenario, and it was inevitable.
They would find out. Today. Dad wouldn’t be thrilled, and I’d have to endure a lecture about not including them in my dating life and getting their approval and all that.
But the good side was that they wouldn’t know about all the deception.
And deception would be the principle Dad would get hung up on.
He wouldn’t even have a significant issue with me dating once I made it through the initial lecture.
He would be irritated that I hadn’t mentioned Brooks until now and that he didn’t know Brooks—but as long as we could move forward, it’d be okay.
Mom and Dad could meet Brooks. A week from now, I’d let them know we’d broken up.
Aunt Elle could wallow in her disappointment, and I’d be free.
So yeah. This was okay.
As long as Brooks kept playing along as he’d promised.
“Well?” Aunt Elle started for the stairs. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”
Sure. Why not?
It was a game. I needed to play it.
Just like baseball. I was up to bat.
I just hoped I didn’t strike out.