The Fake Boyfriend Experiment (17 page)

They exchanged meaningful looks, and I quickly sat up. “What now?”

Val set her hand on my shoulder and squeezed firmly. “Here’s the deal, Lily. First rule of not being a loser is to not be defeated. You have to go to the semi with a guy to show up both Rafe and Les.”

Hello? That was the situation that had created this mess in the first place! “Yeah, like who?” Another Inverness guy? Thanks so much, but I’d rather stay home and pluck my armpit hairs out one by one.

“The singer in your band,” Erin said. “We all decided he’s completely cute.”

“Chris?” I sat back and thought about it. Huh. “He is really nice. And his blue eyes are awesome.”

“Do it,” Val said. “You can still quadruple date with us.”

I eyed them, rolling around the idea of Chris in my mind. It had potential, I supposed. “Maybe...”

Mrs. Griffiths came in the room then, and everyone slid into their seats.

Erin jotted a note and slid it over to me.
You were really good Saturday night. Have you thought about finding a band to play with for real? You were cool.

She’d underlined cool about six times and I grinned. I traced my finger over the words. It had been fun, that was for sure. But it had been fun mostly because of Rafe.

Hadn’t it?

* * *

I decided to do it. To take control. To own my life. Or at least get a date for the semi that didn’t involve any lies or fake boyfriends or anything like that. Just me.

I called Chris on Thursday night. I hung up the first three times I dialed. Then I called Erin, got a pep talk, and then called him again.

He answered almost right away. “S’up?”

I cleared my throat. “Um, Chris?”

“Yeah. Who’s this?”

I almost hung up again, but made myself answer. “It’s Lily. From the band.”

“Hey, Lil.” His voice warmed up immediately. “I thought I recognized your voice. Great job Saturday night. You bailed before I could tell you.”

“Yeah, um, curfew.” I rushed on before he could bring up the incident with Rafe. “So anyway, I’ve got this semi-formal dance at my school Friday night and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.” I rushed through the invite so fast I wasn’t even sure he’d understand what I’d said.

“This Friday?”

“Yeah. It was the only time we could get the location we wanted. I mean, usually it’s a Saturday, but we picked Friday so we could have it at the Red Pines Country Club. It’s owned by the dad of this girl in my class and the food will be so good and they have this great dance floor and—”

“Relax, Lily,” he interrupted. “You don’t need to convince me to hang out with you. I’m there.”

I caught my breath. “Really? Just like that?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, just like that. Rafe’s an idiot. I’m not. I’m all over it.”

“Oh.” I leaned back in my pillows and uncurled my fingers from the phone. Relief eased through me, and my lungs started working again. That wasn’t so bad, right? Asking a guy to go with me? “Well. That’s great.” This was good. The start of my new life sans fake boyfriends.

“What time does it start?”

“Eight.”

He was silent for a sec, and I felt tension sliding through me. He was going to bail on me, wasn’t he? “How about I meet you there?” he said. “We’ve got band practice until eight. I’ll bring my stuff and jet over and meet you.”

I noticed that he didn’t ask if I was going to practice. Guess I’d been fired.

Dumped by two fake boyfriends and fired from the band.

My lucky week. But at least I had a date for the semi. Things were looking up. Rah, rah. “Yeah, that’s fine to meet me there.”

“Lily? What’s wrong?”

I twirled my hair around my finger. “Nothing.” I wouldn’t allow anything to be wrong. The Rafe thing had to be history, and I wasn’t going to let it wreck my first semi-formal. Chris was nice and cute, and he was psyched to go, and that was all I was going to let myself think about.

“We’ll have fun, I promise.”

He sounded so sincere, I actually smiled. “Okay.” For the first time since Saturday night’s disaster, I felt a little bit of hope that maybe I wasn’t going to have the social life of cow dung for my entire high school career. “Thanks.”

“Good. Be prepared to dance. I’m a great dancer.”

“I’m sure I’m better,” I shot back.

He laughed. “You’ll just have to prove it on Friday then, okay?”

“Deal.”

We hung up after that, and my elation faded almost right away. I didn’t want to go with Chris. I wanted to go with Rafe.

Too bad for me, right?

I tossed the phone aside and stared at my JamieX poster for a while, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Rafe.

So, finally, I got up and went downstairs to the piano.

I tried Mozart for about one minute, then switched over to the music they’d played at the piano bar.

I played for an hour, until I was sweating and singing and even feeling a little better. Weird. Piano had never made me feel better about anything before. Only worse.

It was Rafe’s fault.

My heart stuttered. “Really?”

Her smile widened. “I think the reason your date is late is because Rafe is taking you and he had to rush home to get a suit.”

I clutched at her arms, excitement leaping through me. “Really? You swear? Because I’ll kill you if you’re wrong!”

She giggled, her eyes gleaming. “Rafe totally loves you! Anyone watching that performance would have seen that. Now that he knows you’re single, he’s going to make his move.”

I frowned. “Les stopped liking me once he knew I was single.”

“That’s because Les is a dork.” She reached up and tucked a stray hair back into my updo. “You look awesome. Rafe will die when he sees you.”

Suddenly, a hand fell on my shoulder, and I saw Erin’s eyes widen at whoever was behind me.

I immediately spun around.

It was Chris.

Disappointment surged through me as he smiled. “Hey, Lily. You look awesome.” He leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek, his fingers loose around my wrist.

I managed a smile. “You look pretty decent in a suit, too.” He did. His hair was all slicked back and he smelled nice. Unfortunately, he wasn’t Rafe.

He held out a corsage. “For you.”

I stared at the beautiful arrangement of pink roses and baby’s breath. “You got me flowers?”

“Of course. It’s a semi-formal, isn’t it?” He tugged an elastic band free. “It’s a wrist corsage. Hold out your hand.”

I sighed as he set the flowers around my wrist. They were so pretty. I held them to my face and inhaled. They smelled great too. And Chris looked hot. So why did I feel like I was going to cry?

He threw his arm around my shoulder and started walking toward the dance floor. “I think you need a dance.”

“I don’t really feel like dancing.”

“Tough.” He released me and started dancing. “Come on, piano girl. Shake that booty like you do when you’re playing the keyboard.”

I felt my cheeks heat up even as I grinned. “Shut up.”

“Never.” He grabbed my hand and yanked me toward him. “Dance with me, Lily.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and put his mouth close to my ear so I could hear him over the music. “I know I’m not Rafe, but we can still have fun tonight, can’t we?”

I jerked my head back to look at him. He knew I liked Rafe?

He grinned, apparently reading my expression. “Everyone knows,” he yelled over the music. “That was a great scene last weekend after our gig. Totally threw him for a loop. Good one!”

I felt some of my tension ease away. “Really?”

“Heck yeah!” He spun me around. “It’s good for Rafe to get knocked around a little. It was hilarious to watch his face,” he said. “He’s been moping around at school all week, which he deserves for choosing Paige over you.”

Well, that made me feel much better to know that Rafe had been miserable all week! I grinned and started dancing when Chris let go of me. “Thanks for going with me.”

“Are you kidding? It was awesome to watch Rafe’s face when I told him tonight that you’d asked me.”

I felt my heart stutter. “What did he say?”

Chris threw his arms over his head and started doing this really funky hip-shaking move. “Nothing! He just looked shocked. It was great! He was so jealous I thought he was going to punch me.”

“Really?” That was the best news ever!

Chris leaned forward and yelled in my ear. “Lily, he’s still going out with Paige. Give up on him.”

I grimaced. He was right. “I know,” I shouted back. “I’m over him.”

“Good. Maybe then you’ll notice me.”

I gaped as Chris winked at me and then spun around to the music.

Chris and me? Hmm…

I grinned and started dancing for real.

* * *

Chris and I stopped to grab a drink after about an hour of hard-core dancing. He headed off to grab a couple waters, and I snagged a seat at one of the tables, still breathing heavily from working it on the dance floor. Chris could really shake it up, and he made me laugh. The night was going way better than I’d expected.

I’d barely thought about Rafe at all.

Feeling surprisingly happy, I leaned back in my seat and scanned the room. I wrinkled my nose when I noticed Les just off to the right, standing by himself and watching everyone else dance.

His face darkened when he noticed a gorgeous girl slow dancing with another guy. As they swirled past him, he reached out and grabbed her arm, tugging her free.

I leaned forward to listen as the girl glared at Les. “Leave me alone, Les.”

“You’re my date,” he yelled over the music. “Not his!”

Oh, no way! This was too awesome! I grinned as she rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m ditching you. Be a man and get over it.”

“But—”

She held up her hand to silence him, then she spun off with her new guy.

Les whirled around and saw me. I immediately wiped my smile off my face. He scowled, then appeared to notice I was alone and slouched over to me. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “So, you want to dance or what?”

Wow, and to think I could have been stuck with that attitude all night? No thanks. Feeling just a little bit smug, I nodded at Chris, who was walking up behind him. “I have a date.” I couldn’t help but snicker at the sour look on Les’s face as he sized up Chris, who looked decidedly hot in his suit and was slightly taller than Les.

I saw the moment Chris recognized him. His eyes narrowed a fraction, then he broke into a broad grin and slapped Les on the shoulder. “Man, am I glad you were too stupid to hang onto her. Your loss, buddy.” He set my drink in front of me and rested his hand on my shoulder, making it clear that he was with me and happy about it.

I grinned at the deepening scowl on Les’s face. “You’re really with her?” he asked.

“You better believe it. I wouldn’t have missed the chance.” Chris nodded and sat down next to me, draping his arm over the back of my chair. “See ya,” he said purposefully.

Les glared at us both and then stalked off. I burst into laughter as soon as he was out of hearing. “That was too funny!”

Chris grinned and held out my drink for me. “That guy’s an idiot. I can’t believe you were going to go with him. Let me guess, football player?”

I nodded as I took the water. “He knows nothing about music.”

“As I said, idiot.” He slanted a look at me. “Is that what you’re into? Football players?”

“Why? Are you one?” I realized I knew very little about Chris, other than that he was nice to me.

He shook his head and shoved the sleeves of his blazer up his forearms, putting a little edge in his suited appearance. “Singer all the way. That bug you?”