Read Between the Lines

Chapter 10: Acting vain for love

MICHELLE's POV

"Repeat that again, but slower and with correct feelings." She teased and Anntonia glared at her, but there was a defeated expression on her face as she pouted.

"I don't want to, and please don't make me." The girl said as she crossed her arms over her chest, looking like a kid.

"I'm sorry my Brownie," she mused. "But I don't think I heard it right because there's just no way in hell you would ever ask me to be your date. Not without the universe exploding or something."

"Ughh! This is not a date! It's a family dinner, annoying!" She corrected her.

"Yeah. Where you promised to bring a date." She pointed out.

"It is not a date." The girl insisted harder and that made her laugh slightly, enjoying their little banter.

"Fine. But I'm sure your dad thinks it is. And so do your brother." Then she snapped hers fingers like the realization had just hit him. "Oh, I know. The fanfiction must have finally wrecked your brain, Brownie. You read too much fanfiction in wattpad lately and now you actually think you're in one." Then she caught her shoulders, slowly turning her on the side so she could look her in the eye with feigned seriousness. "Listen close to me. This is the real world, kid. Fake dating is a trope that doesn't work for actual human beings."

Anntonia immediately shrugged off her touch, lightly slapping her arm and stepped back, wrinkling her nose in that way she did when she was low-key pissed but couldn't afford showing it, that way that made her look like an adorable toddler.

Adorable... she is.

Her mind was quick to shook off her own thoughts. Because thinking about the girl being adorable, even in toddler terms, was a dangerous territory that she had sworn off of.

"Cut it out," the girl whined. "It's not a fake dating trope."

"Except your family thinks we're dating and it's fake."

Anntonia rolled her eyes dramatically, but didn't proceed to correct her and that's a proof that this is kind of a big deal to her.

Wow, She must have been truly desperate. She told herself.

"Look, Michelle Dee. Under normal days, normal circumstances, I would never ask this of you, especially—"

She watched her trailed off, but she didn't need to complete that sentence because it's clear that they both knew how it will end. Especially with how shaky things were between them after what had happened few weeks ago. They were still trying to find a balance between knowing what had gone down between them that night and struggling to keep this friendship alive. It wasn't easy, not by a long shot. She couldn't speak for Anntonia, but she had trouble holding her gaze these days. Because every time they touched, even something as simple as fingers brushing she couldn't help but lose her mind, remembering how soft her skin had felt under her touch. And when they studied together sometimes and she caught sight of her biting her lip casually, she couldn't stop remembering how warm and how insanely good they tasted that it was driving her out of her goddamn mind. As hard as her brain tried to hang on to this platonic relationship they were trying to build, her body kept remembering her like a blueprint.

She heard cleared her throat, clearly not any more willing to mention it than she was to remember it.

"I screwed up, okay?" she continued. "My dad kept pestering me about things like how I'm never with someone for long enough and about how I should settle down at some point and I just panicked. And accidentally told him I'm seeing someone. In, like, a serious... way."