Tingles and Things

Following Tine

"So let me get this straight, you want me to be your pretend girlfriend, but you want it to be a secret?" Asked Pam. She and Wat were in her dorm while he killed some time between classes and football practice. They needed to iron out their tactical plan.

"For the record, you recommended being my pretend girlfriend. I did not ask, just agreed," Wat said.

"Ouch, way to kick a girl while she's down. At least let me have my fantasies. Geez," she muttered, rolling her eyes. Wat got up and got down on one knee in front of her.

"Pam, would you please be my pretend girlfriend?" Wat asked, taking both hands in his and staring directly into her eyes like a fairytale prince.

She shuddered, giggled, pulled her hands away, and used them to fan herself.

"Wow, how does Tine resist you? Those eyes are weapons. And, yes, thanks for being a gentleman for once. Now back to my original question. No one but us and Tine should know about me being your pretend girlfriend? I'm failing to understand the logic here," she said.

"The point is to make Tine jealous but not to hurt you. If you publicly became my girlfriend, even if it's not real, but especially since it's not, I don't want you getting attacked by my rabid admirers," he said. He got up and stood by her desk, arms crossed.

"Why don't you ever call them fans?" Pam asked, laughing. "Look, I'm not worried about that. According to the school gossip blogs, I was essentially your girlfriend in high school, so I'm used to jealousy."

"You don't understand," he said. "This is different. The kids in school grew up with us, yes, they were annoying and catty to you, but they knew their place. These people have no loyalty or boundaries. They will tear you apart and assassinate your character. Everything you do will be magnified and dissected. I don't want you to get viciously cyberbullied or even accosted physically by people with weird ass fantasies of marrying me," he said pleadingly. Pam rolled her eyes.

"Wat, someone already photographed us together with you, I quote, whispering sweet nothings in my ear while I giggled like the attention whore I am . The vitriol is already out there. But, again, social media is a fantasy world. My self-esteem and self-worth are impenetrable. As a matter of fact, I look for the best comments to start my day as I drink my coffee. I find it motivating. Seriously, these silly girls, and some guys, I guess, aren't hurting me. I learned to take their comments with a grain of salt, especially since I planned to get with you. Plus, I also know how to defend myself. You know my dad, he was adamant about it," she argued.

"It's one thing to assume. They'll assume shit about anyone close to me. I just don't want anything to become official because that's a different type of viciousness," He said. "So, no, we are not making our fake relationship official. End of story. I'm done arguing," he said with authority. Pam gaped at him, then sighed.

"For the record, the only reason I'm letting you win this argument is that your authoritative voice does things to me that I'm still trying to unlearn. So fake, take me now!" she joked, getting up and jumping into his arms. He caught her and set her back down on the bed, laughing.

"Glad to know some of my mojo still works," he muttered.

"But Wat," she said, purposely ignoring his last comment. "What about Tine?"

"What about him?" he asked, moving to sit back down now that he didn't need the position of power.

"If you guys become an item, you realize they're going to tear him apart, right?" She asked, frowning. "That poor, adorable boy. What are you going to do then?"