"Who is ready to go to Cabo?" Merren cheered.
Merren, Evie, Nia, Yara, Carmen, Aliyah, and I sat around the living room of Nia and I's apartment to book our Spring Break trip to Mexico.
"Everyone Venmoed me their part, right?" Carmen look at all of us as she attempted to book our hotel room.
I gave her a thumbs up. "As the group secretary, I have made a note that everyone sent their money. The last one was Genevieve Brown yesterday at 2:25 in the morning."
"You're welcome." Evie did a little bow. "And all of us booked the Delta flight leaving out of LAX to Los Cabos at 10:30 in the morning on Sunday, correct?"
I nodded my head. "I put everyone's seat on the Google Doc."
Yara squinted at the screen. "I thought we were staying from Sunday to Saturday? Why is Nat leaving Friday morning?"
"She's going to Dallas." Nia said in a sing-song voice.
"With her baseball playing, social media famous boyfriend." Mer added.
I rolled my eyes with a grin. "His dad is getting married and he wants me to be there. Don't worry, the flight to Texas is only two hours and it's non-stop. I won't be sitting in a random airport by myself for too long."
"When is he finally going to post you?" Aliyah questioned me.
That was a factor of fake dating that I didn't think of.
I shrugged. "I'm not posting a man that doesn't post me."
"Period." Nia agreed and everyone else nodded in response.
"Since there's no football game this weekend, I figured that we should go shopping. We're gonna need outfits for Spring Break after all." Nia suggested.
"I'm down." I agreed.
I forgot how fun girls' weekends were.
Don't get me wrong, I loved a good party, but now and then all I wanted was to stay in and watch movies. That's what we did on Friday night.
We ordered Uber Eats, watched Chick flicks, and enjoyed each other's company.
On Saturday, we headed into town to shop and eat lunch. We literally shopped until we drooped.
Nia and I didn't get back to our place until ten at night, even though we left at ten in the morning. I showered and slept from 11 to noon the next day.
Even then I didn't do anything.
It was nice to do nothing for once.
I texted my "boyfriend" that I wasn't dead just exhausted and needed time to myself. I know that I should've touched some of my schoolwork, but I didn't. I just laid in bed binge-watching TV shows.
That was a Sunday well spent for me.
Especially because I had 6 am practice on Monday.
Football season was practically over since there were only two more home games, but basketball season was around the corner.
At least basketball season meant there were only three practices a week.
I showered, went to class, and then found myself at Oakwood Preparatory Academy in the carpool line. A cute little girl ran up to my car with her signature high ponytail and bright blue bow.
"Neely!" Tatum exclaimed as she got into my car.
I always wanted to be the big sister I dreamed of having when I was younger. Don't get me wrong, I loved having an older brother, but there were some things that boys just didn't understand.
As sisters with almost a ten-year age gap, I always wanted Tatum to know that she could come to me no matter what. Especially as she got older.
"Hi, Tay!" I locked the doors and drove off. "How was your day?"
"I got to try on my Ariel costume, and it's absolutely fabulous!" she clapped her hands together. "I can't wait for you to see it."
I always loved her enthusiasm.
"Are we doing something fun, or are you just taking me home?" Tatum asked me.
"Nope." I held up my hands. "We're going to get our nails done."
Tatum squealed. "Yes! Can I get tips?"
"Absolutely not, mom would kill me. Get dip, it lasts longer than gel." I explained to my little sister. "I couldn't even get tips until like eighth grade. Your nails get long naturally anyway."
She looked at her hands. "That's true."
Tatum and I had a nice girls' day. She told me all about her school day as we got our nails done. Tate told me about the boy she had a crush on, how she wanted to do competitive dance next year, and all about how the Little Mermaid play was going.
We even got a matching nail color, bubble bath pink
Then I got back to my car to find out that I had two missing calls from Beau.
"Hi, Natalie." he answered the phone as Tatum connected her phone to my car.
I wasn't even ready for the music she was about to play.
"Hi, Maz." I responded.
"Can you meet with me tonight? I want you to read over my paper for my history class. I know that's your favorite subject." he requested.
I looked over at my sister who was giving me a side-eye.
"Wanna meet the boy?" I put my phone on mute and asked her.
I told her all about Beau (minus the fake dating part).
She nodded her head excitedly. "For sure."
I unmuted the phone call. "Where do you want to meet? Our place?"
"Oh, Sunshine's is our place now?" he chuckled.
Dammit, Nat.
"Shut up." I grumbled.
"Sunshine works." Beau responded. "Meet you in 30?"
I nodded my head. "Sounds good. Oh! I have a special guest coming too."
Then I ended the call before he could say something.
"We're going to go get free food." I held out my fist.
Tate gave me a fist bump. "We like a man that pays for our food."
"Yes, we do." I agreed.
I saw Beau's car outside of Sunshine's Diner as we pulled up. I made Tate bring in her bookbag, so she wouldn't have a bunch of homework to do when she got home.
She was a little upset, but she would be grateful for it later.
I walked back to the booth that we always sat at. It was in the back, but by a window so that you could people watch.
Beau grinned as he saw who the special guest was.
"Hi." I greeted him as we slid into the booth.
"Beau this is my little sister, Tatum. Tay, this is Beau." I introduced them.
Tatum held out her hand. "Eleanora to you. You know, until we get acquainted a bit more."
"Really, Tatum?" I looked at her.
She had been watching way too much TV.
"Beau." he shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, love the nails."
Tate grabbed my hand. " We match."
"I see." Beau looked at our matching nails.
"Tatum, get started on your homework," I said sternly. "And you, let me see this paper."
Beau handed me his computer with his paper already pulled up.
"What grade are you in, Eleanora?" Beau asked my sister.
"Third," she responded as she scavenged through her bookbag. "What grade are you in? Or whatever they call it college."
He chuckled. "I'm a junior."
"Older man." Tatum shimmed her shoulder and hit my arm.
"Shut up," I said with a smile. "I'm trying to read his paper."
Tate must have done something with her face because Beau started laughing.
"Did you know Nat is only a freshman?" my sister asked.
Beau nodded, "I did."
"What do you have for homework, T?" I tried to get her back on track.
She groaned. "Stupid math. It's the order of operations and I hate it."
"I'm good at math. Let me see what you got." Beau offered.
The waitress came to take our drink orders. I went over Beau's paper and Beau looked at Tatum's math homework.
"I can help you." he began to speak again. "You'll be flying through these problems in no time."
As I read over his paper, I listened to him explain math to Tatum in a way that he understood it. He taught her all about PEMDAS, the box method, and long division. He was so patient with her and helped her when she got something wrong.
My thing was, I liked that he helped her. He didn't do anything for her. He let her figure it out.
"Can you come to teach me math all the time? You're a much better teacher than my mom or dad." Tatum asked him.
"If you have a problem that you can't figure out, just tell Natty to text me. I'll help you out." he assured her.
There was something about guys with kids that just made you get butterflies.
Tatum nodded her head. "You can call me Tatum now."
"That was quick." I pointed out.
I handed Beau his computer back. "It's a really good paper. You taught me a lot. Your grammar just sucks."
"That's why I have you." he winked.
"Beau can help me with math and Nat can help me with English." Tatum decided as the waitress put down our food.
Tate and I both got chicken tenders, and Beau got the Turkey melt he always ordered.
"I was telling Beau that he should come over on Thanksgiving." I looked him in the eyes.
"I don't know about spending a major holiday with your family over an intimate dinner. It seems real stray puppy-ish." Beau looked at me.
"It's not intimate at all. It's a fundraiser for dad's campaign with food on the side." Tatum added.
I nodded my head. "You'll basically be a fly on the wall."
"You should come. Our family throws really good parties." Tatum spoke up.
"You can't say no to baby Tate." I fake frowned. "Give him your puppy eyes, Tay."
She gave him her saddest face.
"It's better than being all alone." I coerced him.
He took a deep breath. "Fine, I'll go."
"Yay!" Tatum cheered.
We ate our food, had small talk, and finished off dinner with a chocolate cream pie. Tate was probably going to be jumping off the walls when she got home.
"Mom is coming to pick you up from my apartment. She's on her way in from work." I told Tatum.
"Are you coming home this weekend?" Tatum's voice got lower. "I missed spending time with you."
My heart.
Then again, she was a master manipulator and loved when I spent money on her.
"I have a game on Saturday. I can come home that night for a sleepover, but it will probably be really late. We can definitely hang out again on Sunday." I offered.
She nodded her head. "That works."
I don't know how, but Tatum convinced Beau to come up to my apartment so that we could play UNO before she had to go home.
Of course, Tate managed to win three rounds.
"Mom is here." Tate looked down at her iPod Touch. "It was nice meeting you, Beau."
"You too, Tatum." he moved from the floor to my couch. "I'm gonna chill out here for a bit while you walk her down. Unless you want me to meet your mom."
I shook my head. "That can wait until Thanksgiving. She would interrogate you for thirty minutes in the parking lot and I'm not up for it right now."
I walked Tate down, got her into my mom's car, talked to my mom for a bit, and she handed me some clothes that she got for me while she was out. It always meant a lot to me when she got me stuff.
"I like your sister." Beau started as I sat down next to him on the couch. "She's like a tinier, spunkier version of you."
"Didn't I tell you that Tate was a character?" I reminded him.
He nodded his head. "You did. She really got me when she told me to call her Eleanora."
"You're really good with teaching kids." I pointed out.
"Yeah." he stated plainly. "You wanna watch a movie or something? I feel like we always go out and never stay in."
Staying in defeated the purpose of fake dating, but I didn't want to say it out loud.
"Sure." I handed him the remote. "You pick."
"Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill?" he asked me.
I shrugged. "I've never seen either."
"Natalia." he groaned. "Oh my gosh, we gotta fix that."
"Let's start with Kill Bill. Pulp Fiction is like three hours long and I feel like we need a whole night dedicated to it. You know, so you can really get into and direct it." he decided.
I liked when he talked about doing things in the future with me.
It made my heart happy.
"Ok." I agreed. "It scares me when you call me Natalia. I got so used to Nat, Natty, and Natalie."
"Sorry." he apologized. "Natty, turn off the lights please."
I stood up. "Want water or something? We're big on liquids here so we have a lot of options. Sparkling water, flavored sparkling water, cranberry juice, you name it."
"Surprise me with a flavored sparkling water." he decided.
I turned off the lights, got the sparkling water, and sat back down on the couch as the movie started.
"Mango?" he asked me.
I nodded my head. "The brand is called Bubbly."
"Noted." Beau responded. "I think this is our first time that we've hung out after seven o'clock with both of us sober."
"Almost feels weird." I propped my feet up on the coffee table.
"Yeah." he agreed.
We didn't talk for the rest of the movie unless it was about the movie. It was actually good. I normally stuck to romance or comedy, but this caught my attention.
I turned on the LED lights as he picked up his keys.
"You know, I actually think that you like to hang out with me. I don't think that part is fake." I pointed out as we walked to the door.
"I know. That's what scares me about you." he walked out. "Night, Natalie."
"Good night, Maz." I waved.
I took a shower, finished up any last-minute homework, and laid in bed.
My mind got wild at night.
I started to make up romantic scenarios with Beau in my head. You know like having picnics together or singing music together at the top of our lungs as we drove down the PCH.
Then I had to remind myself of two things.
1. Romantically, our relationship was not real.
2. He was dreadfully emotionally unavailable.
"That's what scares me about you"
Like what?
If I let myself continue to live in my fantasy world, I knew I would get hurt. Deep down I knew that he would never feel for me in the same way that I did for him.
I fall too easily and boys like Beau don't fall at all.