Next Door

A Dinner Date

"Again?" Ashlyn said, eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "It was only a few days ago last time."

"Yes, but it's business, and you two are dating." Her dad replied. "And it was a week, you two have been dating for a week."

"Yes, I know." She nodded and walked to her room to get dressed. She was not looking forward to another dinner with Jack's family, but it was in an hour. She changed then sat on her bed with a sigh. She called Big Red.

"What's up?"

"Wanted to check on you, how are you?" She asked.

"Why?"

"Well neither of us were exactly thriving earlier."

"I'm good, I think it was just the awkward environment. I mean, your fake boyfriend was sitting two seats away from me, sitting next to you. Who's my girlfriend. And his fake girlfriend." He said.

"Wow, hearing that out loud is something else."

"Mhm."

"I love you."

"Love you too Ash." He said.

"Why haven't you been talking to Jack? He'll loose interest." Ashlyn's dad said, him and Ashlyn away from the others to grab drinks.

"Which would be horrible, I know." She nodded. He didn't have to continue for her to know it was more of 'his family will loose interest' than what he had really said. "I'll make more conversation."

"Great." He said. They walked back to the table and sat down. Her seat was next to Jack's.

"So how are you?" She asked.

"Pretty good." Jack replied.

"That's good to hear."

"And how about you?"

"I'm also good." She said awkwardly.

By the time Ashlyn and Jack had managed to make regular conversation, it was time to leave. "Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Brown." Ashlyn politely said, inside impatiently waited to go to her room or outside.

"Goodbye Ashlyn. I sure hope we'll see you again soon, I'm sure Jack would love to have you over."

"Oh, sometime would be great." She forced a huge smile. "Goodnight Jack."

"'Night." He returned the fake smile.

"I'm sure you two are closer than this together, we'll go so you can say your proper goodbyes—"

"No need." Jack shook his head before planting a kiss on Ashlyn's cheek. "We're close, so public affection is easy..."

"Uh— Uh, y- yeah." She stuttered.

"Well, I'll see you at school babe." He said, walking out with his family. He turned around to mouth 'sorry, trust me.' She gave him a thumbs up, which she didn't mean any of, and ran upstairs and into her room, slamming the door on accident.

She sat on her bed and curled up with the blankets, letting a tear drop down her face. She collected herself a few minutes later and called Big Red again. She started talking as soon as he picked up. "I'm the worst girlfriend ever."

"Lies!" He said, in an over dramatic voice. "What happened?" He asked normally.

"We secret dated a few times, now we're secretly dating while I'm pretending to date someone else, who is, apparently, super comfortable with faking feelings to the point he can kiss my cheek. So yeah, worst girlfriend." She ranted.

"Uh... I heard none of that. You're talking as quickly as... I'm bad at comparisons, but you're talking really fast."

"I'm high maintenance and my fake boyfriend kissed my cheek tonight. No feelings behind it, but it was awful and I feel horrible about it."

"Hey, don't. You didn't kiss him. And you aren't high maintenance. Even if you were, no way I'd care. I love you." He said softly.

"I love you too." I smiled slightly. "I promise things will be better soon, really."

"I know hon. Goodnight?"

"Goodnight."