Just Smile, Stupid

Chapter 14

Olive you,

And everything you do.

What two words can mean,

Afraid to say the other three.

Chapter 14

Aiden’s expression was priceless.

I would’ve laughed if I wasn’t feeling embarrassed. I took a deep breath and started explaining.

“It happened right after he dropped me home from the movies...”

“Liz, I wouldn’t normally ask this, but you seem like a person I can trust...” Kyle trailed off, scratching the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Um...how do I say this? Uh...would you like to be my pretend-girlfriend?”

I pondered over those words for a few seconds, trying to decipher their meaning. I stared at Kyle, feeling completely clueless. “Pretend-girlfriend?” I echoed. “What do you mean by that?”

Kyle sighed and pushed his head back against his car seat. “Like...you just have to act like my girlfriend for a few days.”

I felt a bit insulted that he was asking me to ‘pretend’ to be his girlfriend. Sure, I didn’t know Kyle that well, and I probably wouldn’t have said yes to him if he had actually asked me to be his ‘real’ girlfriend or whatever, but seriously? Was I not good enough for him or something?

I reached for the door handle, preparing to get out. “I can’t believe you, Kyle,” I spat and threw the car door open. I didn’t care that it was an expensive car. I was angry and had to take it out on something.

“Wait, it’s not what you think it is!” Kyle cried, grabbing my hand and preventing me from getting out of the car.

“Let go. I don’t want to just sit here and be insulted by you,” I said.

“Liz, I’m gay!”

I stopped trying to pry my hand out of Kyle’s grip and turned around to look at him, blinking incredulously. “What?”

Kyle let go of my hand and hid his face with his own, but not before I noticed that his cheeks had turned bright red. “I’m gay,” he repeated.

Finally, it all started to make sense. In all the time I’ve known him, I’ve never heard that he’d had a girlfriend even though so many girls tried to get his attention every day. There were rumours that he might be swinging for the other team, but everyone waved it off as a joke. Mainly because Kyle was nothing like the stereotypical homosexual teenager.

“My teammates are getting suspicious of me,” Kyle continued when I didn’t say anything. “I don’t want them to know that I’m gay because they might throw me out of the team...”

“Kyle, they’re your friends. Why would they –”

“You don’t understand,” interrupted Kyle. “They’re going to feel uncomfortable. They’re going to ruin my life.”

Kyle took his head in his hands, looking completely dejected. I felt a bit awkward, not knowing what to say.

“And my parents,” said Kyle, “are already living separated. If they get to know I’m gay, they’ll finally divorce each other.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that. Your parents are having issues with themselves, not you.”

“And they’ll blame each other for me turning out this way.”