The Fakers

Chapter 1 - Angel

Samesh Anthony can kiss my ass.

...Respectfully.

Yeah, Sam was one of my best friends, but he was also a huge pain in the neck. Case in point: how he had managed to turn what would have been a normal Wednesday morning at Alpine High School into a complete dumpster fire of a day. Worse: it wasn't even second period yet.

"You're not gonna do it," Sam's voice rang in my ear, "there's no way."

"I'm gonna do it," I muttered, even though I wasn't so sure myself.

"This is a bad idea," Justin chimed in, apparently never tiring of being our voice of reason.

The three of us stood outside of the school's dance room, waiting for our target to come into view. I shifted my weight from side to side as the clock ticked closer to 9:50. Any minute now, and I would be face to face with Hannah. No, not Hannah Adams or Hannah Lee or Hannah-with-the-nose-ring, but Hannah Gordon, also known as the hottest girl in school and the love of my life... this week anyway.

But more on that later.

"It's not too late to back out, Angel," Justin said. "Like, I can think of a million other things we could be doing right now. Walking to class. Scrolling through Twitter." He waved a hand frantically. "We could even buy food before they close the breakfast line. I hear they got cinnamon rolls today. Y'all love cinnamon rolls."

"Imagine how many cinnamon rolls you can buy with fifty dollars," Sam hissed. "And all you gotta do is ask out Hannah Gordon, the girl of our collective dreams." My game face must've wavered, because Sam's annoying grin grew even wider. "If you're too chicken, we can always hit up the vending machine."

"I'm gonna do it." Even if it was a stupid idea.

"I think you're going to cave."

"I'm gonna do it." Even if I damaged my pride while doing so.

Before Sam could say anything back, the double doors in front of us finally pushed open, releasing a stream of bubbly dancers into the cafeteria. My eyes gravitated towards them on instinct -- it was hard to ignore girls in short-shorts-- but my attention snapped back into place as a familiar honey-colored ponytail bopped into view. It's now or never, Angel.

I took a step forward.

And that, my friends, was as far as I was able to go.

"What are you doing here?" Warning lights flashed in my head, giving me enough time to stumble back into Sam before my eyes fell upon the brown-eyed glare of Natalie Wayne. "Are you really so desperate for female attention that you're lurking around the dance room? That's sad, even for you, Angel." I glanced towards the exit of the cafeteria, where Hannah's springy curls had disappeared through. And... there went my fifty dollars.

"Well, Natalie," I sighed, returning my gaze to the frowning girl, "I'm certainly not waiting for you." She cocked a brow.

"And for that, I'm incredibly thankful." Sounded like we were trying to hurt each other's feelings? That's because we were!

See, Natalie and I weren't exactly friends. Actually, we weren't friends at all. It wasn't like she was bad looking or anything. Actually she was pretty hot if one could overlook her perpetual eye rolling. My issue with her though was her mouth. Well... what came out of it. Ever since middle school, the girl had made her disdain for me abundantly clear:

Stop being so annoying, Angel.

Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk, Angel?