Let's Pretend

Chapter 10

White and green tiles meet the soles of my shoes, indicating I’m now inside the school cafeteria. Lines and lines of students waiting for their turn to pick up a meal greets me as my eyeballs dance around my sockets, trying to find Dave and the girl I hate the most as of the moment.

I spot my group of friends minus Dave at our regular table, Sean waving me to come over. I mouth “Wait,” and they all nod and I go back hunting for the boy who can’t seem to leave my mind alone.

The cafeteria is packed, making it extra hard for me to find him. My stomach grumbles and I join in line while searching.

My eyes spot a bright red color in my peripheral vision and I turn to find what I’m looking for. Seventeen feet away from me stands Stella and Dave. Stella, as expected, wears her sad pout while saying something to Dave and he looks at her intently.

I slowly stride my way towards them. As I draw near, I am hoping that I hear what she is saying to him but I don’t. The bustling sound of people in the cafeteria is the only thing filling my ears.

I’m six steps away from them. My subconscious is telling me to freaking abort my mission but after hearing the words that came out of Stella and her friends’ big mouths, I am feeling reckless today.

I back away three steps and I holler Dave’s name.

He faces me the second his name leaves my lips and our eyes make contact. I take a deep breath and run towards him. He looks surprised by what is happening and I close my eyes as I jump, hoping he’ll think and compose himself real fast and catch me.

My feet leave the ground and I stop breathing. The surprise in Dave’s face was too much before I closed my eyes. I bet he is still in shock and I’ll probably crash down the floor and look like a fool and Stella has yet another reason to see me unfitting for Dave. But luckily, I land in a muscular body then strong hands wrap around my waist. My right cheek is pressed against his chest, my arms are around Dave’s neck and my legs are wrapped around his waist. This is quite an embarrassing position knowing that we’re inside the cafeteria.

I wiggle my way up a bit and I pull my head away so I could see him. “Hey babe,” I say in my best flirty voice knowing that the expert in doing this is watching us.

He raises an eyebrow and I’m so glad he catches up fast. “Hey baby.”

Dave cutely scrunches his nose and the adrenaline in me makes me kiss it. I get a broad smile in return and I feel my cheeks flush.

Stella purposely clears his throat loudly and we both look at her.

“Sorry. Didn’t see you there, Sheila,” I say and jump down from Dave but he still has his hand on my back and I feel like he’s really mine.

Stella looks clearly annoyed and I smile at the sight in front of me. “It’s Stella.” She corrects me.

I ignore her which drives her insane. No one ignores a girl as hot as her and it pains her that a boring girl like me wouldn’t look at her twice and wouldn’t praise her good looks.

“I thought you guys are over?” She’s so surprised by what’s happening in front of her and I bite my lower lip to contain my laughter.

“Why would we be?” Dave says to her then he faces me and kisses my forehead. “Not going to let this girl out in the market. No man can touch her but me.”

Then he winks at me and gives me his cute goofy grin. I melt and go weak at the knees. I know what he said was just for show but I feel my cheeks heat up and my chest pound loudly. I place my cheek on his chest and rest my hand on his stomach and I look up at him.

“That’s so sweet.”

He winks at me and he’s so achingly handsome.

“Well I better get going,” Stella finds her voice again.

“Bye Serena.” I tease her more.

“It’s Stella.” She huffs and walks her beautiful ass away.

I let out a long breath and I pull away from Dave’s touch.

“Before I came, what was she talking about?”

“Nothing much, really. She approached me like thirty seconds before you came and all she got to say was, ‘Stay strong, there are a lot of girls out there.’."

I nod. Good thing she didn't say anything bad about me yet. I don't want her brainwashing Dave again and pulling him away from us, from me.

“Wow. What was that?” Dave asks, clearly stunned by what just happened.

“I don’t know too,” I answer honestly. What have I gotten myself into again?

“Well, are we on again?” He asks expectantly.

I turn to him and put my hand on my hip. “If jumping in your arms, kissing your nose and resting my cheek on your chest isn’t an obvious answer for that then I don’t know what is.”

His soft lips turn up in a huge smile and I mimic him. He pulls me to his chest and hugs me so tight, he is practically squishing me but I’m not complaining.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he tells me then he finally pulls away and we get our lunch and head to our table.

Sean dabs his tissue all over his mouth. “Reunited?”

Dave answers for us. “Yes. The plan is on again.”

Staying silent, I take small bites of my burger. I chew fast but not obvious, carefully putting the food on the sides of my mouth so not to touch my tongue, eager to finish my meal. My patty received too much salt and it doesn’t taste pleasant at all. Honestly, I want to puke the meat inside my mouth and throw the whole burger out in the trash but I don’t. I am blessed that I have food in my plate and for that I should be grateful.

“Wow that was fast.” Sean comments regarding the fast turn of events.

Ana eyes me suspiciously, “Too fast.”

That’s the thing about having best friends. They know too well when something is up. I can’t hide something from them.

I will tell them the real story why everything’s back to normal again. I mouth “Later,” to Ana, Sam and Sean when Dave’s not looking.

We carry on to another conversation but I remain silent. Ana is blabbing about how her mother dates one man to another and it’s sickening her. As a good friend I should comfort her and tell her just to ignore the dates of her mother but I don’t. Everything is sinking now, for what happened in the past fifteen minutes. I have added yet another problem to my problems and this won’t be easy to fix.

“Maggie!” The sound of my name startles and brings me back to my senses.

“Yes?” I answer distractedly.

“You seem a bit off,” Dave’s concern is vivid in his face.

Who wouldn’t? Knowing that I’ve purposely tripped myself on a splash of mud yet again.

“Me?” I puff. “No, no. I think it’s just the burger.” I lift the half of my burger and show a look that I’m very displeased with it.

He gives me a smile too but he doesn’t seem content. “I know what can make you smile.”

The corners of his lips turn up and it’s very distracting. I raise an eyebrow at him.

“Let me treat you at CST!”

He knows me too well, too. Looking in his beautiful eyes, I’m thinking how come I’ve never seen him this way? All handsome and charming and beautiful and sexy and hot and everything else. I smile broadly and my other friends all cheer.

“Why are you guys happy too? It’s only Maggie whom I’ll treat,” Dave jokes and we all decide on meeting later at our favorite ice cream place, all eager that everything’s on Dave.