"So....you actually agreed to it?"
"Yep."
"And now the two of you are dating but not really dating? Like in those romantic books?" Calla asked.
"Yep."
"Wow"
"Damn."
"So..what now?" Calla's asked.
Lila adjusted her phone on her dresser, "He's giving me a ride to school tomorrow and my aunt is taking the twins to school so I don't have to worry about taking them myself." She said while looking at them through her phone screen.
"Well be prepared for all the talk around the school." Bee said.
"Yeah i know, i just hope this only goes on for like a couple of weeks and then we call it quits and then i can go back to living my normal." Lila said, looking into the phone camera.
The three girls spent two hours talking through facetime.
"Wear something cute tomorrow!" Calls said as she applied a face mask.
"Calla, Nathan and I are fake dating but I am not going to change myself." Lila said.
"I'm just still surprised you even agreed to this, you told me how much you hated Nathan. Especially in like middle school is when you told me that you two would always like have some rivalry, like that time you said he spilled milk on your bag at lunch in middle school." Bee said.
"Yeah he's was an ass—a jerk at times— but I don't know....I guess I tolerate him now, especially since he hasn't told anyone about my dancing."
"HUH?!" said Calla who was distractingly applying a face mask moved closer to her phone camera and had accidentally smeared the face mask onto her hair
"He what?!" said Bee who was in the middle of stretching her arm, abruptly leaned closer to the phone camera.
"....did I not tell you guys?" Lila asked
"Bitch no!"
"When was this?!" Carla said
"The day we went to see avengers endgame, I had completely forgot about it until now—when Bee mentioned that I hated him."
"What the hell? The girl who's terrified of any living being to see her dance, just so happened to forget that someone—no, not just someone—Nathan Peaters, saw her dance?" Bee said
"Am I hearing this correctly?" Calla said, adjusting her earphones.
"I was distracted okay! The movie took a huge toll on me and I forgot!" Lila sighed, "But honestly, it felt....normal"
Shaking her head, Lila continued "Its like he didn't see my secret as big deal, he said I shouldn't hide just because Jason put me down. Don't ask me why but it felt....good I guess?"
Through the phone camera, Bee and Calla shared a look.
"Well alrighty then." Calla said, going back to her face mask.
Bee shook her head, "This is gonna be one hell of a ride." Leaning away from the phone she said, "Alright Im gonna go to bed, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah same, I gotta get the mask cream off my hair before it drys. Goodnight!" Calla said, looking away from the phone, presumably her mirror.
"Goodnight see ya tomorrow!" Lila said.
Hanging up on the call, Lila walked over to her bed and plugged her phone to charge on the nightstand next to her bed.
Lila made herself comfortable on her bed and turned to look at her closet.
Maybe i should pick something out for tomorrow?
Shaking her head she said to herself "Nah, whatever I see in the morning is what i'll wear, as long as it matches."
Lila snuggled closer into her pillows, letting the darkness pull her to sleep.
************************
"Do you have everything?" Nathan said.
"Yep. Thanks again for giving me a ride."
"It's no problem it's part of what boyfriends do." Nathan said, driving away from Lila's house.
The car ride was silent between the two, the only sound that carried is the faint music coming from the radio.
"So...is it okay if i hold your hand when we walk into school?" Nathan asked
"Yeah, it's one of the things we agreed on."
"Yeah I know I just wanted to ask, just in case you, you know..."
"Didn't want to?" Lila finished for him,
"Yeah."
"It's okay, i don't mind the hand holding, but thanks for asking." Lila said looking outside the passenger window.
"Your welcome, even though this is a fake thing we have going on, I still think we should ask each other if we're comfortable about certain things. Like i said, we can take this to your pace whatever makes you comfortable."
Lila smiled, "I agree...um thanks."
Even though Lila was looking out the passenger window, Nathan could see the faint blush on her cheeks, he smiled to himself as he pulled into a parking space in the school's parking lot.
Lila turned to Nathan, "You ready?"
Nodding he said, "Yep. Let's do this."
The two got out and met each other in the front of the car.
Nathan looked at Lila with his hand outstretched. Lila turned to him and clasped her hand with his.
As they walked towards the entrance, Lila could feel the stares of a few people. She moved closer to Nathan, "Do people always stare at you?" She asked looking up at him.
"Sometimes, I try to ignore it." He said looking at her.
"Well it's weird, as if people haven't seen you with a girl before."
"I think they're staring because the two of us used to hate each other in middle school."
"Used to? What makes you think i still don't?" Lila said grinning.
"Im pretty sure you would have yelled at me to 'fuck off' when I asked you out." Nathan leaned down towards Lila "You know if I had asked you out for real." he said in a low voice.
Nodding Lila said, "Yeah but i kinda did say 'fuck off' but in a nicer way, don't you think?" Lila said grinning up at him.
"Well damn this is a sight for sore eyes." Bee said.
Lila and Nathan made it to Lila's locker, where Bee stood shoving books into Her locker next to Lilas.
"Hey Bee." Lila greeted, while opening her own locker.
"Heyy, soooo i've been thinking...." She hesitated. "Ithinkimreadytocomeouttomyparents." she murmured.
Lila made a face, "wait what? Bee slow down,"
Bee took a deep breath, "I think i'm ready to come out to my parents, you know...tell them about my sexuality, how i like girls." she said in a low voice.
"Bee, that's awesome. You know i'm here for you every step of the way." Lila said.
"Do you know when you're going to tell them?" Nathan asked.
Bee shook her head, "No, not exactly, I just know that I'm ready to tell them. I'm still thinking of when to actually tell them. How they'll take it."
Lila nodded her head, "I get it, you already know how it went with my mom, but my aunt took it better than my mom, even my uncle, and I was so terrified they would ditch me and the twins just because of who I am... Look the point is, you're mom is really sweet and your dad is cool, i'm sure they'll love you no matter what. okay?"
Bee smiled, "Okay."
"Besides you know my house is like your second home. So if things turn south you can always come to my place."
"Ha, damn right." Bee said closing her locker. "I'll see you guys in class." She said walking away.
Lila turned to Nathan, "I didn't know that you knew about Bee."
"Yeah, she told me a few months back. And you probably didn't know, that i knew because we didn't really like each other a few months ago."
"Who said I like you now?" Lila said hiding her grin.
"Ha,Ha, Very funny Lila. You and i both know you wouldn't have agreed to this if you didn't like me. When you don't like someone you always steer away from them." Nathan said, Looking around the hallway.
Lila knew he wasn't wrong. When she doesn't like someone, she preferred to stay away from them as much as she could.
The bell rung, signaling for kids to go to class.
"Come on, I'll walk you to class." Nathan said, holding her hand.
************************
Hi lovelies!
My god so many things have happened this month. I'm sure many of you are aware with what's happening in the world, with the covid19 situation and with the social injustice in the world.
I've seen the BLM protest, and my heart breaks to see that not many things have changed. It angers me how cops are harassing, and harming peaceful people who are out there protesting. It's infuriating how many people in positions of power are getting away with murder. It's infuriating how innocent Black people are dying just because of the color of their skin.
Black Lives Matter.
And If you are not caught up with what's been happening, please educate yourself, this has been going on for far too long. Now is Not the time to stay quiet. Sign petitions, donate if you can. Support black owned businesses. Even educating the people around you is a start.
I know this was a long wait for the update of this chapter, but aside from being busy with school, i couldn't pull myself to write, i actually thought about quitting this story, but i see that some of you are reading this story.
I use books and stories to....in a way pull me from reality, where i can just disassociate from life for a little bit and that's one of the reasons why decided to continue this story. i still have many ideas for it, it's still a work in progress. One thing is for sure is that i am going to include diversity, different ethnicities, different sexualities, and if you have a problem with it then i'll respectfully ask you to just stop reading and move on.
i encourage you all to look at sources outside of regular news channels. they are censoring many things, cutting out important things that makes protesters look bad, when in reality it's the people in positions of power(like cops) who are doing the actual harm, and some news channels are only showing the people what they want to show.
Please, Take care of yourselves, both mentally and physically.
Until next time, xoxo.