Story of a Heart

Chapter 19: Fake dates

Faye's point of view
I sighed, attempting to soothe my aching head by pressing my face further into the pillow. I'd drunk too much at last night's party and I'd known that for a long time before I'd woken up with the hangover. But Mick and Anabelle had been there, and I couldn't let myself look weak in front of my old best friends. Even if I might have given my sister a very bad impression of what I'm like at a party; she knew all too well I knew how to be civil and polite really.
I'd danced the night away with a variety of my closest friends, Lee, and as far as I could remember I'd even danced with H for a while – but given by the hammering in my head, it was a miracle I remembered any of it. I smiled as I rolled over, and I snuggled closer to where I was sure Lee should be, but instead of finding him I just found a pile of pillows and his bit of duvet. I sat up and looked around the room wondering if he'd maybe gone to the toilet or just gone to put clothes on or something like that, but I saw no sign of him being in the room. We were sharing a room weren't we? I vaguely remember him being in the room and soothing me as I felt horrifically sick as my drunkness wore away in the small hours of the morning. But he wasn't here right now; the crafty devil had run off. I decided not to dwell on it, and went back off to sleep. He'd probably be back soon enough anyway.

I tried my best to go back to sleep but it didn't last all that long before I was disturbed again. The door loudly swung open, bouncing off the wall as it did so and I knew there and then that whoever it was in the doorway I wasn't getting any more sleep. Bleary-eyed, I looked at who has burst into the room and saw Lee stood in the doorway.
"Seriously?" I asked as I watched him close the door and stroll into the room as if nothing had happened.
"Sorry?" He replied. "I'll tell you something, that brother of Lisa's has quite some pace." He added by way of explanation as he pulled his sweaty top over his head.
"Oh good for him." I replied sarcastically, as Lee pulled a clean, dry top out of his bag. I had no idea which of Lisa's brothers he could mean given she had three, but I didn't feel like reminding him of that.
"Breakfast?" He asked me. "Lisa, H and Claire are already downstairs."
I opened my mouth ready to object, but as I did so he launched a top and pair of part worn jeans across the room at me and despite them being nowhere near hitting me in the face I covered it instinctively.
"Fine. I'll get up." I moaned, rolling my eyes slightly at him. Despite how much I loved him the fact he was such a morning person irritated me no end some days.
"I'd say I'm sorry for being pushy, but really I'm not that sorry at all, so I guess I won't apologise. But you would only spend all day in bed if I didn't get you up some days." He said in response.
I took off my pyjama top as he spoke and started to fold it but in the end sighed and bundled it in a ball. I didn't care about being part naked in front of him now, he was used to it and had seen it all too many times. "No, you're not at all pushy this morning." I told him sarcastically, throwing my pyjama top at him before pulling on the clean shirt. He caught it and stuffed it into my bag.
I stood up to switch my pyjama bottoms for underwear and jeans and the entire world wobbled as I did. I slumped back down on the bed, and decided I'd rather change sat down this morning for fear I might end up with some quite pretty bruises if I didn't.

Having changed my trousers, I stood back up, and once more the room wobbled. I grabbed Lee's shoulder to steady myself, and only when I was certain the ground had stopped moving did I let go of him.
"Do you need help on the stairs?" He teased. I slapped him playfully in response.
None-the-less, I slipped my hand into his as we left the room together, him striding purposefully, me wobbling. I was still wobbling along the hallway when we reached the stairs. As I stared them down, I prayed that the stairs would have mercy on me and keep still while I tried to navigate them. Fortunately, they did. Unfortunately though, I met Mick (who seemed to be waiting for someone) halfway down, and I knew already he wasn't going to let me off given how much wobbling I was doing down the stairs.
"Oh hello." I greeted him, letting go of Lee's hand. He glanced back at me, so I signalled for him to carry on going. The second Lee was out of sight, I lurched for the handrail and clung to it for dear life.
"You can't take alcohol quite like you used to then." Mick joked.
I contemplated slapping him for a long moment before I realised that would require for me to be not quite so reliant on the handrail. Instead I shot him a look of venom.
"So what if I can't?" I retorted looking him dead in the eye. He was a bit taller than me, he always had been, but from the respectable distance between us, I could easily look into his eyes. At that moment - and before Mick could think of a characteristically witty reply - Anabelle joined us on the stairs.
"Hey honey, hey Faye." She said, slipping her hand into Mick's.
"Oh" was all I managed to say in response. How didn't I pick up on that last night? And anyway, wasn't Anabelle dating Fin when I'd left?
"I know what you're thinking. It's a relatively new thing, because Fin left me for some girl called Fliss, and a while later, we happened." She explained to me, indicating to her and Mick when she said "we".
"Oh well, I hope you do alright." And I did. I hoped all my friends were happy because that was who I was, I had happiness with Lee and I still firmly believed everyone needed that kind of a happiness in their life.
"And you with Lee." Both Mick and Anabelle replied simultaneously.
I sighed, we'll never change.

Lisa's point of view
So last night me and H hatched a brilliant plan. Okay, well after 2 and a half pints it seemed like a good idea, and it had grown from there as we'd both consumed more alcohol.
"How are you this morning honey pot." H asked, brushing his hand against my arm on our way across the room.
That was our brilliant idea. To fake being a couple. The aim, to get at Lee and Faye. Well theoretically that was the aim anyway, but with our horrific acting skills this morning and the fact just about everyone who got to know him seemed to realise H was gay, the chances weren't looking great.
"I'm alright, how are you sweetie pie?" I asked him. Claire glanced over at us raising an eyebrow as she did.
"Oh I'm great thanks." He replied as Lee entered the room. Faye wasn't far away then. I looked around the room, to double check if I'd missed her somewhere. I hadn't. I needed time to figure out whether or not this was just to make her jealous. It was a mess quite honestly. Why were we even trying to break a psychological law?
H lent over to my ear "Ready?" He whispered.
"As I'll ever be." I whispered back.
"Let's do this properly." He replied.
His hand slipped into mine, and I naturally slipped into using my left hand to grab my breakfast.
"Good morning. Faye's... negotiating with the stairs, but I think she got distracted by Mick." Lee announced.
"Nice, I'll see her when she gets down here, we saved you guys places at our table." I replied, pouring milk onto a bowl of cornflakes.
"I didn't know you were left ha... Oh." Lee said looking dead at me. He trailed off as he saw me and H holding hands.
"I'm not, just mildly ambidextrous. Have you seriously never noticed that before?" I replied, placing the bowl onto my tray.
"When did this happen?" He asked gesturing to mine and H's interlinked hands as he picked up a croissant.
H and I glanced at each other. I willed myself to think up a story about how and when we started dating. Fortunately for my creativity and my hangover, H began to explain a completely haphazard story about when we fell in love which had me holding in a groan from start to finish.
"See when we saw you two being like a pair of lovebirds in Rome, we began to realise our potential as a couple. We only started dating a couple of days ago though, and we were waiting for the right moment to tell you guys." H explained feigning dropping my hand out of embarrassment. H wasn't exactly lying, we'd both began to conceive this idea after the day in Rome, it had just taken us several months to tell each other of our respective ideas and formulate a plan that combined both.
"Oh well, I'm glad mine and Faye's love story inspired you two." He said, his uncertainty slipping into his voice towards the end.
"Glad our love story inspired... Ah them. Well done... I think?" Faye said, as she crossed the hall and spied me and H holding hands. She leant against the wall in some failed attempt to make her seem steadier on her feet than she was clearly feeling. She flashed me a smile and I smiled back. We had a moment of silence, then me and H went back to our table to join Claire, who'd already sat down.
"Congratulations." Faye announced, as her and Lee joined us at the table. I glanced at H and smiled before forcing an attempt at an awkwardly lovey blush.

I looked at my slightly soggy cornflakes as we ate in silence, and forced down another mouthful before concluding that cornflakes were no good when they'd gone soggy. Abandoning that I nibbled at some buttered toast, smiling at H as I did. I was thanking my lucky stars that I'd been to a performing arts school which had taught me how best to fake emotions well enough that everybody believes that's how I feel. After a few moments and as I felt my ears heating up from embarrassment, I looked dead at H and made two long blinks - meaning "Come with me."
H and I excused ourselves from the table and went back over to where the food was located, out of earshot of the others.
"Remind me why we're doing this?" I asked him.
"Psychology suggests that humans, specifically those with a low mental age, want what they can't have. That's why children always want to play with what their friend is holding. Come on you taught me that." He hissed.
"Yeah but this won't work... Also I really don't think calling your crush dumb is a particularly flattering way to try and start a relationship." I replied.
He cut me off "I wasn't calling... Wait no I won't finish that cause that'll just make you punch me and you definitely can't punch me if we're 'dating'... We can try. It's all we can do. Are we done? I'm hungry."
I sighed, threading together what he'd nearly said and, after shooting him a hard stare so he knew I'd worked it out, thanked him with a kiss on the cheek for not saying that out loud. I didn't feel much like punching my 'boyfriend'. "Grab some food, let's go back to the others."
He scooped up some fruit salad into a bowl, and I picked up a banana. Perfect. Then we went back to the table to continue our act.