I slowly sipped on my coffee and listened as Riley read the daily horoscope section of the newspaper. "Gemini.... where's Gemini. Oh here it is!" She often got way too excited about 'astrology'.
"Today you will find hope in the small things," she read.
Bea laughed. "I thought you liked them big, Riley?"
I choked on my coffee, and Riley glared at me.
"You think this is all fun and games, but the majority of my horoscopes are relevant to the events of my day. Want to hear yours, Valerie?" Riley asked, determined to enlighten me.
"Of course I do."
"Okay..." she rustled through the paper. "You're a Sagittarius. Sooo... today you will be surprised by your instinct."
"Aren't these supposed to be like... super specific? These sound more like fortune cookies. Not horoscopes," Bea said as she took a bite out of her croissant.
I heard a deep breath come from Riley. "Fine. Doubt the horoscopes all you want, but I'm choosing to believe them."
"You know someone just gets paid to lie to everyone about their day?" said Bea.
In a way it was amusing to see Riley so stuck on these horoscopes. Every morning she read them aloud even though she was the only one truly listening to herself.
The past few days I hadn't been able to join my friends at the café because Alex needed rides. It was nice to finally be able to settle back into my normal routine.
"So what are your plans for this weekend? We should have a sleepover and movie night," I suggested. Bea was on her phone, but sort of nodded robotically.
"Yeah that sounds like it would be fun. But can it not be another chick flick? We watch too many of those," Riley pleaded.
"Well it's not going to be Harry Potter again. We watch too many of those."
Now don't get me wrong. I love Harry Potter, but it was Riley's favorite series, and we had spent so many nights watching Voldemort desperately attempt to ruin Harry's life over and over again.
"I think we should watch something we've never seen. What about a superhero movie?" I suggested.
"We should watch Wonder Woman. I think my dad bought it on DVD," Riley announced as she clapped her hands together. I laughed at her enthusiasm. Ever since we were in junior high, Riley had always been the positivity in our little trio. She was an endless bubble of joy. I loved her for that.
Beatrice, on the other hand, was the sweetest asshole you would ever meet. By that I mean she would be sweet and caring at some points, but if you caught her on a bad day, it was in everyone's best interest to steer clear away.
"I think I should get going, guys. I have to go to lost and found. I think I left my jacket in the math room when I was retaking my math test yesterday," she said in a harsh voice. She then stood up and left. As I heard the bell on the door jingle, her words clicked together in my brain.
"Shit," I whispered.
Bea knew I was lying about the math test yesterday when I was actually on a date with Gabe. I don't know how she found out. She probably went to check on me or something.
"Riley, I'm so sorry that I forgot to tell you. It wasn't my intention to lie to you. I just did," I said, realizing how stupid this sounded coming out of my mouth.
"Well, I'm really not upset or anything. We were just curious why where you were really going was such a big secret that you needed to lie," she said.
"I went on a lunch date with Gabe. He even called it a date."
Her eyes got big. "Oh my gosh! All sins forgiven—that's awesome! Tell me about it please."
I felt relief that she wasn't upset with me.
"We went to that new burger place downtown. We talked for a long time. He's so kind and such a gentleman." I started to smile just thinking about how it felt when he touched my hand.
"You should just tell Bea. She won't stay mad at you for long if she knows why. She just hates lying, but she will be excited when she finds out you're finally getting to know your crush for years."
I could feel the redness in my cheeks grow. "I do not have a crush on him. That is such a middle school word Riley."
I shifted in my chair.
"But I can definitely say that I like him," I said as I bit the inside of my cheek, trying no giggle.
Riley squeaked with excitement as we left some cash on the table and collected our belongings.
"Bea is really going to freak when she hears this."
She was right about that.
~
"What?" she said in a beyond irritated tone.
I searched Bea's eyes in bewilderment, looking for some sort of approval.
Nope.
"I-I thought you'd be excited for me," I said softly.
She slammed her locker and stomped out towards the gym. "You lied to us, Valerie. You can't just expect that to be fine." I was so surprised. Bea had always had a temper. Maybe I should have seen this coming. She also hated lying.
But this seemed different.
"Riley is happy for me. How can you not be? I already apologized for lying. You've lied to me before. We all lie," I tried to argue.
This seemed to make her even more pissed off.
"Riley is happy about everything. Im not Riley and you know that," she spat.
"I know bu-"
"You ditched us for a stupid boy."
"He's not just a stupid boy."
"Sisters before misters."
"Just stop, Bea. You know how much I like Gabe," I said, raising my voice a little.
"Just drop it, Valerie. I don't want to talk right now," she said as she walked off.
I was actually angry. I get that I had lied, and she was upset, but this was so unlike her. She had always been so excited about my love life. Okay, so my love life was pretty much non-existent, but whenever it seemed to have hope of existing, she was always there supporting me. The Beatrice I knew would be jumping straight out of her shoes if she had known that I had gone on a date with the boy I had liked for years.
Riley touched my shoulder.
"Just give her some time. She's been acting weird for the past few days. I think her family might be stressing her out again," she said, trying to comfort me.
I thought about this and nodded. For the past year, Bea's parents had been struggling with their marriage. Bea acted strong, but everyone could see that it was taking a toll on her.
The rest of gym was awkward as hell.
Second period was even worse. Thanks to Riley's horoscope reading.
As soon as Gabe walked in the room I forgot about Bea and put my focus on him. Today was our last day at the lab station. He spoke first.
"Hey, Val. I like your hair today," he said as he eyed me.
I blushed and thanked him as I heard Mitch chuckle from next to me.
"You know, Mitch, I bet you like my hair too," I said.
"Yeah it's really just the greatest thing I've ever seen," he said with just enough sarcasm for me to pick up.
We started working and testing our last trial. Near the end of the period, I turned back to Gabe—feeling some confidence.
"So what are you doing Saturday night?" I asked in a quiet voice that only he could hear.
He shifted in his chair. "Why do you ask?"
"Well," I said with a little smile, "I was thinking maybe we could go for a second date?"
Last night I had decided that I wasn't going to waste time with Gabe. There were so many girls at my school who were just waiting to swoop in and steal him away. I'm not sure where this confidence was coming from, but I liked everything about this boy.
"Yeah, I'd really like that." he said.
My stomach fluttered and was about to say something else, but he continued, "But the problem is that I kind of already have a date Saturday."
My stomach dropped.
"Oh," was all my mouth said.
Of course. How could I be so stupid? I wasn't the only girl he had his sights set on. The next thing that came out of my mouth surprised me just as much as it surprised Gabe.
"Well, I kind of have a date too."
I wasn't going to be the only one not seeing other people.
His dark brows raised in surprise. "Oh really?"
I wondered if he believed me.
"With who?" he asked.
What I did next was absolutely insane, and I regretted it as soon as I said it.
"Mitch," I said as I slammed my elbow into his side.
He jerked up and looked at me with a glare.
"What the f—"
"We have a date tomorrow, right?" I looked him in the eye and squeezed his arm, trying to convince him to go along with it.
I mouthed to him behind my hand: You owe me.
He looked at me in utter confusion, and then looked at Gabe's face that was patiently waiting for an answer.
"Um... yes. Yes we do."
My heart was beating fast in my chest as Gabe bit the inside of his cheek. Was he jealous?
"So you two are dating?" he questioned.
I could tell he was doubtful.
"Well we aren't dating. I mean, I guess we are in a way. We aren't official or anything, but we definitely have been on a few dates," I blurted out.
Why was I so stupid? I could feel Mitch looking at me with his piercing green eyes.
"Yeah," he said. "They've been fun ...I guess."
I kicked him underneath the table, and he flinched a little.
Gabe chewed on this for a little bit before speaking.
"If you want to, you can join me on my date. Double dates are always fun," he said.
Dread seeped throughout me. What had I gotten myself into? The plan was to tell Gabe that I was going on a date with Mitch to make him jealous and prove that I wasn't hung up on only him. It wasn't to actually have to spend more than an hour with Mitch and watch some girl be all over the boy I liked.
But I could tell that Gabe was testing me. If I turned this down, he would know that Mitch and I really weren't interested in each other.
Shit.
"Of course," I said. "That sounds like fun."
I turned to Mitch to find him begging me to stop with his eyes. "Right, Mitch?"
"Yeah," he said through his teeth, "that sounds like it will be the time of our lives."
Even a deaf person could have heard the sarcasm in his voice.
I smiled at Gabe and saw a vein on his forehead tense a little bit.
"We are going to the Autumn Carnival at 7 p.m." he said.
"We will be there," I replied, just as the bell rang for class to be over.
Gabe didn't wait for me today. He hurried out of the class—probably to hide his jealousy.
But Mitch waited, and he wasn't happy.
"What the actual hell, Valerie?"
His eyes were wide, and he grabbed my arm, dragging me out of the classroom. Once we were in the hallway, he pulled me around the corner and let go of my arm.
"What makes you think that I'm going to go along with this?" he asked angrily.
I wasn't going to lie. I felt bad for dragging him into this, but he was the only guy I could think of at the time. And I hate to admit this, but even though he was quiet and seemed to hate me, he wasn't ugly. He was actually kind of good looking; if he smiled more, I might actually say that he was handsome. My coverup had to be someone at least sort of attractive enough to make Gabe jealous.
Wow that's shallow, I thought to myself.
"Mitch, I'm sorry for dragging you into this, but can't you just do this one thing for me?" I begged him.
"There's no way in hell I'm going on a double date with you and that prick," he said angrily.
"Please, Mitch. I helped you one time. Can't you just help me this once? It's not even a real date. We both know we don't like each other, so we just have to fake it." I pleaded, trying my best to convince him.
"Look, I already told you I didn't need your help. I didn't ask for it. There is no way that I'm helping you," he said as he turned to go, but I grabbed his arm.
"Just do this for me once. If not, I swear I'll tell Jake that you keyed his car."
As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like a terrible person.
Mitch raised his eyebrows in surprise, but this was quickly replaced with a glare.
"You'd really stoop so low and blackmail me?" he whispered, his voice rich with his anger.
"I truly am sorry, but I really like this guy," I apologized.
I sounded so pathetic.
"Wow. You really are a spoiled rich girl," he said with no hesitation.
Those words hurt me, but I knew that I deserved it.
"I'll do it," he said reluctantly. "But I can't promise that I'm going to be the best actor."
I handed him my phone.
"Add your number. We are going to need to prepare a little bit and I might need to contact you," I said sheepishly, embarrassed by my actions.
This was so unlike me.
Mitch took my phone and typed in his number unenthusiastically.
"Is this guy really that important to you?" he asked, catching me by surprise.
"Yes," I said.
"He better be worth me wasting my Saturday night pretending to be dating you."
As he walked off, I shouted after him, "Thank you!"
He didn't respond, but I knew that he had heard me.
A/N:
Okay, so Mitch and Valerie are obviously not getting along very well. How do you guys think the double date is going to go?