All Planned Out

One (Alex)

She dropped her phone to the floor, let her mouth fall, and growled. "Should I call your bluff?"

"Should I call yours?"

It was my fourteenth birthday. We were sitting in my backyard, alone, when she told me she wanted to tell me something important. Looking back on it, which I do occasionally, I probably shouldn't have panicked as much as I did. I thought she was going to ask me on a date, or to be her boyfriend, or something.

"I—"

"I don't like girls." I blurted it out and then smacked myself in the face. It hurt. It hurt a lot.

Charlotte laughed. "I do." Her face went red. "I was worried you might have been planning to ask me out so I thought I'd tell you that yeah, I like girls. Guess I shouldn't have been so worried."

"Guess not."

"Have you told anyone else?" We both asked at the same time. "No." We always were a little too much in sync.

"I don't want anyone to know." She said. "I didn't even want to tell you. I told you. I was worried."

"I'd, um, like to keep what I just said a secret, too. We don't have to say anything to anybody."

We agreed to be each other's secret keepers, but two days later, Charlotte came to me with a plan.

She was like that.

"Let's fake date." She said. She had notes and everything. "If people think we're together, nobody will try to date us and we won't have to have any awkward conversations or, like, break anyone's heart. I don't want to do that."

"Fake date?"

"We're together all the time as it is, right? People probably already think we're a couple. Girl next door and boy next door, friends to lovers, tale as old as time, whatever."

"Okay."

I would like to say that it took more convincing, but it didn't. Charlotte's plans are usually pretty good. It made sense that we could protect each other and, for the most part, nothing about how we acted would have to change. We were already pretty inseparable.

The original plan lasted only a few months thanks to Homecoming. We weren't planning on going to the dance. We didn't want to push our fake relationship that far out into the open. When our parents started asking questions, we decided to sit them all down together and explain what was going on.

That was how we each ended up with five secret keepers, counting each other, and this turned out to be helpful around the holidays. Mom and Dad were able to assist in my web of lies, especially to our less tolerant relatives. Just in case, I also told them that if they ratted me out that I would force them to buy me a car when I turned sixteen. Sure, they were going to do it anyway - and did - but over three years later I have yet to have any awkward conversations about my love life, or potential love life, with any of them.

"What am I supposed to do now, Alex?" We had made it to my driveway, but when she hesitated to get out of the car I had decided to stay as well. "The more I think about it the more I...I...I'm sorry. She's probably way out of my league."

"Wow. You really do like her."

"I...I don't know. I'm attracted to her, okay? I know she's your cousin but I think she's cute."

"You keep saying that."

"But, like, just because I think she looks good, especially since she trimmed her hair down a little, doesn't mean I can just ask her to hang out and see what happens. She'd probably laugh at me." She scrunched her entire face up tight. "She probably hates me."