saturday
days left: 24
"You're taking this way to serious, Beth." He groaned as the brunette held yet another black band tee in front of me, imagining him how he would look like in it.
"Nope, not this one." Bettina declared and tossed it into the growing pile of clothes.
"I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of this." Luke sighed, taking the black leather jacket from the girl who held the piece of fabric at him.
"You know how much I like to make outfits. Nope, take that jacket off it makes your shoulders less broad..."
After what had seemed like centuries for Luke, Bettina was finally done with his makeover.
"Spin for me." Beth ordered, adding hand motions for him to follow. Unenthusiastically, Luke did as asked and once he was done with his slow spin, Bettina gasped full of pride, proud of her achievement.
And there stood Luke, dressed in his usual black, ripped skinny jeans, worn out vans in the same color paired with an ACDC muscle tee and to add more color, Bettina forced Luke to drape a jeans vest over the shirt, leaving his arms naked.
"You make it seem like it's a big deal." Luke snorted and scrunched up his nose as his friend tried to dump all the clothes scattered on the floor back to the closet.
"If you go to Hard Rock Cafe, you go there with style. And it's clearly obvious that I have an amazing taste when it comes to style." The brunette joked, throwing her brown hair back.
Luke raised a brow at her, taking her appearance in from head to toe. In fact, they were nearly twinning, with their denim and band tees, but the only exception was that Beth wore a loose denim jacket that looked a little oversized at her yet she rocked it, so as Luke thought.
"Are you done yet?" Bettina raised a brow at the guy, placing her right hand on her hip.
Luke blinked a couple times before he stuttered out a "What?"
"Are you done checking me out?" The brunette girl defined her question, still waiting for a reply.
"What? No, please-" Luke cut himself off once Bettina let out a scoff. "Let's just go, okay?"
"Whatever you say." Bettina mused and took the lead, being the first one to be downstairs.
Thank the lord Liz wasn't in the house, otherwise she'd pester the two friends with so many questions they'd probably be an hour late for the date.
"I need to know something, though." The girl stated as they walked down the sidewalk, all the way to the bus station. "Why do you want me there? I get it, his friend is there, but care to explain why? And don't tell me because his friend wants to get to know you better because we all know that's the worst lie ever."
"Can you not just do anything for me without having the need to question the reasons?" Luke retorted angrily. Maybe asking her was a bad idea after all, he thought.
"Well I'm sorry. I just don't wanna be pushed into the middle of a drug deal issue!"
"Now is not the right time to be sarcastic, Beth."
"I was just trying to loosen up the mood." The girl sighed and let herself fall on the wooden bench as the two of them waited for the bus to come.
"Bettina, that's not what I meant- I- This is so messed up." Luke stuttered and claimed the seat next to his friend, holding his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, it's just-"
"It's just that you're nervous? Okay, I'm fine and seriously, you didn't have to apologize. Everything's cool." Bettina waved it off with a flick with her hand and smiled warmly at the devastated teenage boy who seemed to be in his mood switching phase.
Just in time, the bus steering towards downtown arrived and stopped in front of the two Aussies.
"Do you want to get up with me now and be at your date on time or do you still want to feel miserable and then feel more miserable because you would piss off that hot boyfriend of yours?" The brunette chuckled and stretched her right hand out, waiting for Luke to take it.
"Just because you're right now doesn't mean that you're the more mature one now. I hope we can agree on that." Luke snorted softly as he accepted her helping hand and let her pull him up to the bus, not letting go of her hand until they claimed the seats in the last row theirs.
No, Luke didn't have romantic feelings for her, because again, he was hundred per cent gay and she was hundred per cent lesbian. Bettina was like the most annoying sister he could ever have on earth but on the other hand her presence comforted him.
The bus then took off and Bettina roiled her eyes, before stating in a matter of fact way; "Of course not. I am and always will be the sarcastic and crazy one out of us two."
+
Rock music was being blasted from the speaker as Luke and Bettina (who were ten minutes late because there was a major traffic jam) entered the Hard Rock Café. The walls were decorated with several record contracts and rock legends; bands, solos - everyone who made it very big. There even was Jon Bon Jovi's guitar displayed. The place was pretty crowded, it was a popular hangout place after all. It took Luke some time to figure out Michael but when he saw the bundle of platinum blond, almost white at the back of the room, Luke was positive he found Michael and possibly also Angel.
"Found him." Luke remarked briefly and tugged Beth to follow him, the two of them attempting to make their way through the crowd gracefully.
"Michael!" Luke shouted and the older boy turned around, a smile escaping his lips once he saw Luke.
"Hey babe." Michael greeted Luke and kissed his temple before smiling brightly at Bettina, since the day before Luke informed him that his friend would be coming too; "How ya doin', Beth?"
"Cut the overdone Aussie accent." Bettina snorted and rolled her eyes. Nevertheless, a smile formed on her lips; "I'm fine though. Thanks."
With that, Michael slid into the seat bench, Luke following him afterwards so the two of them were sitting next to each other. Bettina, on the other hand, claimed the seat right in front of Michael, hers, the table standing in the way.
"So, where is your friend, the girl?" Bettina asked, looking around. Deep inside, she was kind of curious meeting her and so was Luke. He had no idea how Michael's friend was behaving; hell, Luke didn't even know her name. It could be that Michael had mentioned her name but probably Luke wasn't listening and was too busy with something else that was running in his mind.
"She's using the toilet but should be back at any moment. Oh and I hope you don't mind that I ordered you two cheeseburgers because then the waiter would've kicked us out." Michael chuckled, finding it amusing.
"Anyway, I've never really caught her name. Luke never told me when I was in the boat." Bettina retorted, her blue eyes directly set at Luke who shot her an embarrassed look.
"What? Luke, I did tell you her name." Michael turned to the blond boy who gave him a crooked smile. "Honestly, I don't talk lots and when I do talk, you decided to not listen? Wow, that's just- I won't even say it."
"Michael, I have a reason why, though!" Luke pointed out, scratching his jawline, where some stubbles were growing.
"That's because he has a wild imagination. I mean, his bedtime stories are legitimately daddy kink stories, he wakes up to vanilla smut; he is basically messed up." Bettina simply blurted out, Luke looking as if his eyes were going to fall out of his sockets and Michael looking either not impressed since he already experienced Luke having a boner on his holy motorbike, or thinking that Luke was slightly disturbed.
He couldn't judge though, getting paid to be someone's boyfriend and basically be a call boy, excluding the sleeping of course - wasn't any better.
"Again, what is your supposed incredibly good reason?" Michael turned to Luke, slightly worried.
"If I think about the way how Beth just expressed it all, I don't really have a good reason. I was just deep in my thoughts." Luke sharply inhaled, fumbling with his fingers.
In that moment Michael would've loved to admit that Luke was provokingly crazy and should've phoned séx hotline if he was such of a thirsty boy, but Michael then realized that there had to be another reason why Luke didn't call that hotline and straight forward rented a whole boyfriend.
Of course, Michael knew it was that Ashton guy who actually looked quite fine. And of course, Michael didn't care that he was used; he knew Luke for barely a week and if he had learned from the tall, broad boy who could've been the heartthrob in school if he was as straight as a twig, he learned that Luke was extremely humble, formal but the whole opposite in his mind, his best friend Beth was basically Angel all over only with a decent appearance and Liz was a cool cheeky mom. Maybe Liz was sometimes too cheeky, but Michael still found her amusing when she taunted Luke without knowing.
Then, Michael looked away from Luke and glanced behind Bettina, seeing someone with a vivid shade of pink as her hair colour that you couldn't ever miss her, approaching their table.
"Talking about my friend, the girl, she's right behind you Beth." Michael exclaimed and the two other teens turned around.
While Luke saw her the first time and thought that if she was either homo or bi, she would definitely have chances with Beth. In all honesty, the two of them would make a cute couple. Unfortunately, Bettina thought differently and she looked as if she was about to straddle a pig and before the pink haired girl could see her face, Bettina turned her head back to the boys, boiling with anger.
"Is this a fücking joke?" The brunette snapped at Michael who didn't comprehend what she meant.
"What's your problem?" Luke hissed at his friend, trying to act subtly in front of Michael's friend.
"She is my problem!" Bettina gritted through her teeth, jaw clenching.
"Just be nice, Beth. She's coming!" Luke growled before he shot Michael an apologetic look, intending to apologize for Bettina's behaviour.
"Hey, you must be Luke, right? Wow, you look much better than Michael actually told me." The pink haired girl laughed as she took Luke's appearance in, not yet noticing Bettina whose nostrils were flaring.
Luke's lips formed an 'O' and he felt flattered. "Oh really" He challenged Michael then who waved it off with a simple hand motion.
"And you are.." Angel started off enthusiastically but once she saw Beth who leaned back and shot her a half-hearted smile before she rolled her eyes. "Please tell me this is a very bad joke."
"I said the same earlier, to be honest, Angel." Bettina sighed and leaned forward, propping her arms on the table, "We're on karma's bad side, aren't we?"
"We're seriously not talking about that, not right now and not in front of them." Angel groaned and nudged her head towards the two clueless boys. Many questions were running through both Luke and Michael's minds, yet it was Michael who found his voice at first.
"How the hell do you know each other?"
"Do you really want to know?" Bettina snapped before she started to explain; "I was that naïve enough to actually believe that it was a very wise thing of me to do. It started a year ago, I needed a girlfriend so I could kick my parents in their asses because they thought that me being homo was only a phase and they wanted to put me to some camp so I'd be back to hetero like every normal person in their eyes. So I called this ratchet organization rent-a-girlfriend and ended up with her."
"And that is why you two hate each other...?" Luke choked and switched from Angel back to Bettina.
"That's really none of your business-" Angel started but got interrupted abruptly.
"No, that's just the prologue!" Bettina exclaimed with a boiling red face. Luckily the place was loud itself so no one was giving the table of four weird looks. "So I paid her to act for a month, that was all I needed to prove my parents wrong. Everything was going fine, until Angel decided to be her true inner self and got high in my room, while my parents were there! Of course, after that, they assumed she was bad influence for me and I was sent off to camp in the holidays, which by the way Luke, explains why I wasn't there in summer vacation. Those were the worst four weeks of my life. I tell you, if the girls from Rent-A-Girlfriend are that horrible even they only had one single job and do nothing but stand there and give a couple few kisses and cheesy lines, I don't want to know what the dudes from Rent-A-Boyfriend do to make their customers the worst time of their lives."
After Bettina's long explanation, Luke was taken aback and gulped, droplets of sweat forming in his forehead and his Adams apple bobbing up and down.
"I swear, I don't do any drugs. I've tried them once, a long time ago and they tasted horribly. I don't like them." Michael murmured into the scared boy's ear with a soothing tone.
"Luke, why are you so nervous? Michael, can you..." Bettina looked like she's above to throw herself out of the window when Michael shot her a crooked smile. "Luke, please tell me it's not what I think it is."
"Actually, it is what you think it is." Angel piped in but Beth yelled her a 'Just shut up!".
Bettina gave Luke a begging look; "Luke, say something!"
"Well, I.. uh.." Luke scratched the back of his neck, a scoff escaping Beth's pale lips.
"You're so stupid, Luke. What is he point of you having a fake boyfriend? That's what I don't understand! You're so lucky that your mother supports you and your sexuality and in school, no one is discriminating you! Then why are you doing this? Besides, you just waste tons of money!"
"My case is very different from yours, Bettina!" Luke shouted at her furiously. It was his decision if he was willing to pay the price, it was his decision that he made the phone call in first place, it was all his and only his decision. "I don't have to prove anything to anyone here!"
Then the light bulb in Bettina's mind turned on and she felt a pang of pity running through her veins. That wasn't enough for though, to forgive him for his major mistake.
"You're not yet over Ashton, are you?"
"Well, that took you a long time to realize, Sherlock!"
"I think I might have to go to the toilet again." Angel excused herself, not finding it right to snoop into their heated argument and she didn't want to have anything to do with Bettina.
"Do you really think by renting a boyfriend you'll finally be over Ashton? He was the one who dumped you, Luke! He doesn't deserve you and you deserve so much more better!"
"Stop acting like you were my mother! I'm eighteen, I know what I'm doing and I surely am smart enough to know that I need a real boyfriend to get over Ashton, one that actually stays for longer time!"
"If you intend to make Ashton jealous with Michael, you're so wrong. He chose Calum over you for a reason!" Bettina fired out loud, only increasing the pot of boiling anger in Luke.
Michael could already see it coming; unless the waiter would come with the food or someone else would interrupt, Luke and Bettina could make up. Coming to the conclusion that there wouldn't be any help coming soon, Michael was forced to be the one.
"Guys, don't you think you're taking this too far-"
"Shut up, Michael!"
"Mind your own business, platinum boy!"
Michael raised his arms in surrender and leaned back, not seeing any other solution. He couldn't get out of the booth either.
"Beth, you don't understand what I've been dealing! It has been three months and I'm sick of the sight of Ashton laughing with Calum. If you can't deal with my own plans and thoughts, then just leave me alone!"
That was too much to handle for Bettina and Luke knew he had pushed her to her limit by the face expression she wore. Her eyes were now dead, her lips slightly parted. Words wanted to come out but she was too taken aback to say them out loud.
"If you really want me to leave you alone, fine. I was just trying to save you from a huge mistake that will come sooner or later." Bettina stated subtly and stood up, fixing the denim jacket before she wiggled out of the booth, ignoring Michael completely.
Beth thought Luke had enough common sense to not make such a decision but she guessed she was wrong all the time. All she wanted to was to apologize but that would've cost her pride and he was right, she told himself. He was eighteen, he was legal to make his own choices and if he didn't want advice from his best friend, then so be it.
For now, Bettina was dead for Luke and Luke was dead for Bettina.