Page 12 of Fake It Till You Break It
Suddenly, Mia pulled out of my arms as soon as we were out of sight of our moms.
“What are you doing?”
She sat down on the steps next to the stage. Her chin pressed against the palm of her hands. “Honestly, I didn’t want to dance. I just didn’t want to go home with my mom right now. And I knew the only way she would leave me alone for a few minutes was if I were with you. Could you just stay here for a bit?”
To be honest, I was ready to go home half an hour ago. For some reason, the stupid DJ had been playing every single song that reminded me of Finn. Every song we sang together. Everything he did. It was like a freaking Finn Adler concert.
And the constant reminder in the back of my head that I’dhave to physically see him in a few months only made me more pissed.
But Mia kept staring at me—eyes wide and pleading—and I couldn’t say no. God, this was annoying. I leaned against the stairs railing and crossed my arms. “Five minutes.”
She nodded and pulled off her heels. “Seriously, though, isn’t it kind of ridiculous how long this has been going on? Fifteen years is definitely overkill. We have to do something. Does priesthood seem appealing to you?”
“Not really.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Mia made a face. “I mean, I’ve seen your browser history.”
What the hell?
“I wasn’t being nosy. Not really. I accidentally saw it a few months ago when I was printing something off of your laptop. Plus, I noticed thevideo sitethat you go on.” Her fingers made quotation marks at the wordvideo sitebefore turning away with a smirk. “I meant to save it to blackmail you with someday.” She paused. “Damn it, I shouldn’t have told you that I knew about it.”
My face burned. I didn’t know if it was annoyance or embarrassment. Probably a bit of both. Counting to ten, I let out a deep breath. “I think your five minutes of having a human shield is up, so good luck on your ride home.”
I tried to walk away, but Mia reached out and grabbed theside of my pants and continued chattering. “Seriously, if only we could somehow get them to give up on us. And we finally wouldn’t have to do everything together. No more rides to school. Summer vacations. Sunday brunches—”
I stopped trying to pull away and stared down at her. “Wait, what did you say?”
“About Sunday brunches?” She pouted. “I mean, I love dim sum, but I’d be willing to give up my shu mais and soup dumplings if it meant that I didn’t have to see you all the time.”
Barely listening to Mia now, I sat down beside her on the step as my mind raced. She was right. If our moms gave up on us being together, then we wouldn’t have to do any more stuff together. Stuff… like the cruise vacation this summer.
This was perfect.
The more I thought about it, the more I became obsessed with the idea. I scooted closer to her side. My arm lightly touched hers. “You know what? Screw our moms. I think it’s time that we put an end to this. I mean, it’s not going to work out between us no matter what they do. So rather break their hearts now than later, right?”
“Yeah, right. And how do you think we’re going to do that? Talk to them?” She rolled her eyes. “Because I’ve tried that. Hundreds of times.”
“Really? Hundreds?” My hand pressed against my chest. “I’m kind of honored that you spend that much time talking about me.”
“You wouldn’t be if you knew what I say about you.”
Now I mock clenched my heart. “Ouch, that hurts.”
She patted my shoulder. “You’re a big boy. You’ll survive.”
With a laugh, I shook my head. “Too bad we’re not dating for real. Then they would really see how much of a train wreck we actually are.”
“Seriously. I mean, ew.” After a few seconds, Mia’s eyes widened thoughtfully. “Actually, why don’t we?”
“Why don’t we what?”
“You and me. Date.”
The hell? Now it was my turn to stare at her. How much did she have to drink? “You want us to date for real? Like for real, for real?”
Mia chewed on her lower lip again, making it puffier and a shade pinker then her top lip. She really had to stop that or her lips were going to fall off someday. “Sort of. Just for two weeks or something. You know, give them what they want and then have the worst breakup of all time.”
I don’t know if I was just desperate, but everything Mia said made sense. And it was crazy enough to work. “That’s not a bad idea.”
