Fake dating (hamzah the fantastic)

chapter 1 - house party

"Hey!" Mandy said to me as I walked through the doorway into the house. "I'm really glad you came! I haven't seen you in what feels like years," she said.

I nodded. "I know!" I said loudly. It was hard to hear each other over the music.

I stood in the living room at a house party with my friend Mandy. People surrounded us, shouting, drinking, and doing God knows what else.

Mandy grabbed my arm and brought me over to the kitchen, where it was quieter. She began pouring me some kind of drink. "Here, take this."

"Thanks," I said, taking a sip.

"So," she said. "Again, I'm really glad you're here. There's people I want you to meet. Some of my friends and my boyfriend."

I nodded and we chatted for a bit in the kitchen. This was really the first time I was able to go out because I had a lot of work to do for midterms this year. I'm a student at the University of Toronto. I have a few friends there, like Mandy, and we love hanging out together so it's really nice to finally be able to relax again.

"Martin!" Mandy said, turning towards the doorway. She grabbed his hand and faced me. "Martin, this is my friend, Lia. Lia, this is my boyfriend, Martin." He was pretty tall and had short dark hair and kind of a big nose.

I smiled and waved. "It's nice to meet you. Mandy talks about you a lot, so it's nice to finally put a name to a face."

"Hey," he said. Behind him stood a few other people, and Mandy introduced me to them as well. We chatted for a while, and they all seemed like really nice and funny people. Even though Mandy and I are pretty much best friends, we still hang out with different groups because she goes to nursing school, while I still attend university.

About half an hour passed and honestly I wasn't really having a great time. Maybe I was just tired. I eventually departed from Mandy and her friends in the kitchen because I was trying to find a bathroom. But then someone bumped into me.

"Hey!" I said, "watch where you're going." I turned to glare at whoever it was, and a guy with dark curly hair and a bad side profile stood in front of me.

"Sorry about that," he said. But he seemed off, like he kept glancing around as if he was looking for someone.

Suddenly I was in a bad mood. "'Sorry' isn't gonna cut it. You got a drink all over my shirt and you can't even look me in the eyes when apologizing!" I looked down and noticed his T-shirt. 'Mama needs a blunt' "And what kind of shirt is that?!"

But suddenly he grabbed my arm. "Do you think you could pretend to be my girlfriend?"

'What?!"

"Please," he said, "just for a second."

But then some girl with curly hair walked up to us, cutting off my response. "Hey, Hamzah. It's nice to see you again, I guess. Did you see I'm here with Micheal?" the way she said it was super snarky and smug. I instantly felt annoyed with her presence.

But Hamzah, (I deduced that that was the guy next to me's name) pulled me closer to his side and said (in an equally snarky tone), "I did see, actually, and I'm here with my new...partner also."

The girl's eyes slid to me and she looked suspicious. I realized that whoever this guy was, he needed help making this girl jealous. And I was good at that.

"Lia," I whispered to Hamzah.

He nodded. "Lia, that's her name."

I guess she really believed it, because the girl seemed to get even more annoyed. She rolled her eyes and said, "see you at Julie's birthday." And then she walked away.

Hamzah watched as she stalked through the living room and into the hallway with a nervous expression.

He turned to me. "Do you think she believed us?"

I laughed. Honestly this whole situation was kinda funny. "Yeah," I said. "She looked so pissed when you said my name." 

He smiled and laughed as well. "I like your laugh." 

"Lia!" I heard Mandy say from behind me. I turned and she was standing next to Martin. All her friends weren't with her anymore, though. "It looks like you met Hamzah." 

"You know this guy?" I said. 

Martin nodded, "yeah, that's my best friend, actually." He turned to Hamzah and said, "did you see Fran was here?" They both started talking excitedly. I imagine Hamzah was giving a play-by-play of what just happened. 

"Who's Fran?" I said to Mandy. 

"Fran is Hamzah's ex. They only recently broke up. But they both agreed they'd be 'just friends', you know that never works out, though." 

I nodded and smiled to myself. That was true. 

The rest of the party went great, actually. Mandy, Martin, Hamzah, and I just ended up talking for the rest of the night. Hamzah was actually really funny, and he even asked for my number after the party ended.