“Well, I…” I stammered, not wanting to outright lie but also knowing there was no way I could be truthful that she would believe. I’d told the first few people who came up to me that they were mistaken, that Lilah and I weren’t together, and that the whole situation was just one big misunderstanding. They’d all either laughed in my face or nodded along then winked as if they were just in on the secret. Nobody seemed to believe that the two of us were really just friends.
In a weird way, it was sort of validating that everyone else saw we would make a good couple, since I’d been trying to convince Lilah of that for years.
That didn’t stop it from being annoying, though.
“Was that your first kiss?” Sarah asked, her eyes bright. “Oh my gosh, that would be socuteto have your first kiss caught on camera like that!”
“Or maybe a little creepy and stalker-ish?” I suggested with a small laugh. I wasn’t famous like my brothers. I wasn’t supposed to be followed around and have people taking photos of me when I wasn’t looking. I still couldn’t quite wrap my mind around the idea that anybody thought we were interesting enough to take that picture of and even more than that, I couldn’t understand why other people were latching onto it like this.
Sarah didn’t catch the hint. “I just started a blog for school events. Can I write an article about you two?”
I blinked at her, not sure that I was understanding her correctly. “You think Lilah and I are like a student event?”
“Well, it’s not exactly only student events. More like student interest pieces. You know, I’ll cover things like who wins any sports game, any events coming up like dances, and then also what’s going on with people here like who’s gotten with who.”
I blinked at her again. Generally, I was pretty good at nodding along like I understood whatever insanity people were talking about, but right now I could barely process the words Sarah was saying. I’d gotten used to people at school knowing who I was from being on the hockey team, but never to this extent. Never to the point that they would be asking me about this, especially when I’d already told multiple people tonight that Lilah and I weren’t together.
“Oops, I see Lilah looking over here,” Sarah said, jumping up from the chair. She winked at me. “Don’t want her to see me cuddling her with her man, right?”
She disappeared into the crowd so fast that I started to wonder if I’d imagined her being there at all. I groaned and rubbed a hand over my eyes. I needed to get out of there.
I spotted Lilah across the room, grimacing through a conversation with Eva, who was talking animatedly with her hands. I figured she must be feeling the same way as I was by now, so I made my way toward her.
“You ready?” I asked her. Her shoulders seemed to sag in relief at the idea of getting away from this conversation and I let myself sit in the pride of making her feel happy instead of annoyed for once.
“Yes!” she practically yelled. She winced then forced a smile at Eva. “I mean, sorry, I’ve got to go, Eva. Tino’s got an early morning and?—”
“Don’t worry about it, girl!” Eva said, cutting her off. She whipped out her phone and started typing so fast that I thought her fingers must hurt. I took the chance to walk away, holding on to Lilah’s arm so we didn’t lose each other in the crowd.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Lilah sighed as we stepped outside. She wrapped her arms around herself against the November chill in the air and leaned into me slightly like I was supposed to be her source of warmth. I kicked myself for not bringing a sweater to wrap around her shoulders.
“I think they’re just excited,” I said. “I mean, that photo really did look very convincing.”
She sighed deeply. “I just don’t understand how anybody could get that photo. We were barely standing together like that, right? It was just the moment when…” She trailed off, and I wondered if she was reliving it in her mind the same way I was. When we grabbed that costume, when she’d spun around, her eyes alight with mischief, when I was standing so close to her that I could practically feel her heart beating through her chest.
I thought I would never be that close to Lilah Turner again. And yet now here she was, leaning into me as we walked. Life was a funny thing, wasn’t it?
“Why didn’t you tell her that it wasn’t true?” she asked me suddenly.
“Huh?” I replied, still in a little bit of a daze of the memory.
“When Eva came up to you?—”
“Came up to us, you mean. You were there too.”
“I was in shock! I didn’t know how to react!”
And just like that, she moved away and glared at me. Suddenly, I wished I’d just gone along with her version of events, claimed responsibility for it. Would she have moved away from me then? Probably at some point. I couldn’t really blame her for it, I guess. Like I said, not normal for her to dress cuddled like that, but it was normal for us to argue, and generally arguments required looking at each other.
“I couldn’t process what she was saying,” Lilah insisted, throwing her hands around in the air. “And then you were just standing there, and she asked if it was true, and you just didn’t say anything!” Her phone pinged loudly in the quiet night and she pulled it out, glancing at it with an annoyed expression. Somehow, it made her look even angrier immediately. “Oh, great, here’s a photo of us from the party and a text asking how long we’ve been together. Great going, Tino.”
A couple of girls across the street glanced in our direction with curious expressions. I wondered if they were just far away enough to not be able to hear, and all they saw was Lilah waving her hands around at me. I just smiled at them, hoping that they would think it was okay. Lilah followed my gaze and then smacked me on the shoulder.
“Ow,” I said, rubbing my shoulder, even though honestly, the slap had barely hurt. It was more of a flick than anything. “What was that for?”
“You’re giving them the wrong impression,” she said. “You’re making them think that we’re actually doing something now.”
“Well, we are doing something. We’re talking.”
