“Okay,” Mom gave me a smile. “I’ll leave you girls alone.”
“Bye!” Lia responded.
“Bye.” I said, then waited until Mom shut my door. It didn’t latch. “Mom? Can you shut my door all the way?” I was being picky, but she was used to it.
“Good grief, Brielle,” was all she said, but she pulled on the door, and this time it latched. I turned back to my phone.
“Gosh, your mom is the best,” Lia gushed.
“Yep. About Brooks,” I said, trying to get us back on track.
“Did your mom ever date in high school?” Lia wasn’t to be deterred.
“Ummm,” I contemplated. “Maybe? She read books like I do. I don’t know when she got her first boyfriend.”
“Ugh. In a couple of years, that’ll be us. Boyfriends. No time for each other.”
“Never!” I argued.
“I’m kidding.” Lia’s phone screen went all wobbly as she moved her phone until it rested against something. I could see her face now. I rose up onto my elbows and braced my phone against the wall my bed was tucked up against.
We stared at each other.
“What would your mom say about today’s events?” Lia pondered.
“She’d say to tell my friends the truth and let the rest of the fallout blow over.”
“She’s right,” Lia retorted.
“No way!” I was not going to do that. I wasn’t! “One week with Brooks as my boyfriend and then I’ll break up with him. No one will care then, and it’ll all be over.”
“Ok.” Lia nodded. “I guess.”
“You guess?” Why couldn’t Lia just get behind it? I mean, Brooks had gotten behind it! So aside from being horribly awkward and questionably ethical, what was the big deal?
I sank back onto my pillow and out of view of my phone. “I’m a horrible person!” I wailed. I really was. Faking a boyfriend was what had gotten me into this mess, instead of just being myself and dealing with the pestering of nosy family like my aunts and trend-setting wannabes like my friends. “I just want to read my book and pretend none of this happened!” I finished.
“It’ll be all right. Really.” Lia was trying to find the bright side for me. “And Brooks sounds like a pretty nice guy. I mean, he could have been really mean about all of this.”
I paused then. I took a moment to think. This entire day had been a whirlwind. It had unraveled so fast and been so unpredictable I hadn’t even taken the time to process the fact that the guy of my dreams—literally!—had shown up at school. I mean, what were the odds? One in a billion?
It hadn’t been that long ago that I’d listed out all the details I thought I’d need for an imaginary boyfriend I’d adopt as my own. Blond hair, blue eyes,baseball player, lived in North Carolina, was funny yet sensitive, was willing to put up with my emotionally unstable, argumentative, and picky side, while appreciating my funny, book-loving, and loyal side. Of course, he went to church, loved God, had good morals, and wasn’t one of those guys who used enough bad words to make an R-rated actor blush. Did he have faults? Sure. But why create a list of faults when he wasn’t even real?
Then I recalled sitting at my computer and after browsing a whole bunch of online photos of random people, I switched to an AI image generator and typed in my own qualifications. Some tweaking. Some regenerating.Voila! Brooks was created.
So how on earth was I to know that somewhere in a world with 8 billion people, the guy actually existed? Let alone would end up at my high school?
But the fact of the matter was, hewashere. Hedidexist. Hewasnice. Too nice. He was actually cooperating with my scheme.
So if Brooks was cooperating, then what was the problem?
“There is no problem,” I muttered.
“Huh?” Lia asked.
“I’m making something wrong where there isn’t. It’s all worked out. One week. Just one week.”
And then Reece knocked on my door.
