The Pretend Boyfriend

Chapter 27

      Kill me. Shoot me. Skin me alive. Feed me to cannibals. Anything to end this torture. I’m not exaggerating; I am literally being tortured to death by my obnoxious and hyper cousin.

            I should have agreed to having Spencer accompany me on my date with Ashton. Letting Charlie come with was the biggest mistake ever. For the first twenty minutes she just drooled over Ashton, making it extremely awkward for me.  Then she just wouldn’t shut up. Every time Ashton would lean over and kiss me or hold my hand or even look at me, Charlie would ‘awww’ at us. Kill me.

            So somehow, Ashton and I made the sneakiest plan to escape. We were like ninjas. Well, not really. We asked Charlie to buy us popcorn, and while she was waiting in line at the vendor, we ran. And ran and ran and ran and didn’t stop until we got to the reptile house on the other side of the zoo. Which is where we were now.

            “Oh. My. God,” I exclaimed, bending over and panting heavily. “I think I’m going to pass out or explode. Or both. I hate running.”

            “It wasn’t that bad,” Ashton objected, but I could tell he was out of breath too. “Do you think she followed us?”

            “In her five inch stilettos?” I asked incredulously. “No way. I mean, who wears heels to the zoo? The zoo!”

            Ashton laughed. “She is a bit, erm, strange?” he offered, not wanting to insult my cousin in front of me.

            “You mean horrible,” I corrected with a grin. He nodded in agreement.

            “Yeah… just a little,” he smirked, grabbing my hand and pulling me through the reptile house. When we came to a huge glass wall, he stopped. “Look at that huge snake!”

            “I don’t see a snake,” I looked through the entire cage. All I could see were logs and plants and frogs.

            “Right there,” Ashton pointed. A few seconds later, one of the logs moved and I let out of shriek of terror.

            “That snake is going to get through the glass and eat us!” I exclaimed, tugging at his hand as I backed away.

            “This isn’t Harry Potter,” Ashton rolled his eyes, but followed me away from the snake’s cage anyways.

            “You’ve seen Harry Potter?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. He nodded, and I let out a laugh. “Really? But you’re all, like, badass. And you’ve seen Harry Potter?”                        

            “I’m badass?” He asked, smirking again. I blushed; I hadn’t meant to tell him that. He saw my embarrassment because laughed. “I really did like Harry Potter though. I mean just look at Hermione. Hot!”

            I hit him on the shoulder. “You can’t say that in front of your girlfriend, stupid.”

            He looked at me suddenly, his eyes wide. “Girlfriend?”

            I realized what I said, and I looked at the ground in awkwardly. “Oh, well, I um-I don’t-”           

            He cut off my flustered speech by leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on my lips. “Girlfriend. I like that.”

             I smiled again, about to say something but he continued talking. “But as my girlfriend, that means you have to cook for me.”