Fake It Til You Make It

10

Esmeray spent the day moping around the house. She sluggishly made her way to the couch and rested her head in her mom's lap. "This isn't like you, baby," her mom sighed as she brushed her fingers through Esmeray's curly hair. "I wish you would tell me what's going on."

The doorbell rang and Esmeray popped up, anxiously waiting to see who would be on the other side when her dad opened the door. She hoped it would be Ryan. He hadn't spoken to her since the day on the beach and that was part of the reason she was barely able to get out of bed for the past two days.

He opened the door to find only Valentina standing outside. Of course, Esmeray was happy to see at least one of her best friends, but Ryan still not being willing to speak to her broke her heart. Esmeray's dad gave her a hug and Val looked at her with a sad smile.

"Hey, Mama Díaz." Val waved politely at Esmeray's mom and she smiled sweetly back at her. She patted Esmeray on the back lovingly and Esmeray took that as her mom pushing her to spend time with her friend. The girls went up to Esmeray's room and sat in silence for a few seconds. "How've you been?" Val asked her.

"I've been better," Esmeray responds. "Have you talked to Ryan?" Val didn't respond but avoided eye contact with Esmeray. "I'll take that as a yes."

"You just gotta give him time."

"Time for what? I didn't do anything."

"Well, we know how Ryan is." Esmeray scoffs. She spent these days miserable, feeling terrible about how she hurt Ryan but he probably wasn't thinking about how he hurt her.

"I can't believe he'd drop our friendship over my relationship that has nothing to do with him."

"It's not too late to wake up, Essy. Relationship? With Cameron Carter? Like, do you even hear yourself?"

"I heard her." Val and Essy's eyes dart to the door to find Cam leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. Val rolls her eyes and looks back at Esmeray with her eyebrow raised.

"My dad let you in?" Esmeray questions.

"No, your mom did. I see where you get your looks from." Esmeray tries to hide the fact that she's cringing but Valentina audibly gagged. "I need to talk to you." Cam waited for Valentina to get the hint and leave but she didn't move. "Alone," he added promptly.

Val scoffs and glares at Cameron as she leaves the room. "I'll see you later." Cameron happily shuts the door behind her but keeps his distance from Esmeray.

"You can't just pop up at my house. If my dad were to let you in— well, actually he wouldn't."

"You haven't been to work and you haven't been answering your phone."

"You saw what happened at the beach."

"That's not really my problem." Esmeray looks taken aback. How could she possibly forget how much of a dick he is?

"Ok, so why are you here?"

"I had to talk my dad out of firing you and not giving your dad a chance," Cam tells her.

"You want a thank you?" she asked with an attitude.

"I want you to bring your ass to work. The store got robbed while you took an unsolicited vacation. We also haven't been seen together since the beach, that doesn't look good."

"I don't know why I thought this was going to be easy, you are absolutely insufferable."

"I'm hurt," he said sarcastically.

Esmeray looked at him with a dead face. For some reason, he was still standing in her room with a condescending grin on his face. She was beginning to understand why Ryan and Val were so upset about her being with him. He's a terrible and selfish person and their being together doesn't even make sense.

"My boy's having a party tonight, we're going—together, of course," Cameron says. "I'll pick you up at 9."

"It's Tuesday," she says to remind him their public days are Saturday and Sunday and she was not willing to give her Tuesday night to him.

"Oh, would you like me to go back in time to the weekend when you were M.I.A so we can make a public appearance?" he asks condescendingly. Esmeray refrained from losing control and cursing Cam out clean. "9 o'clock, be ready," he repeated as he walked out of the room.

~~~

Esmeray walked out of the house in a sleek black dress. She knew Cam was there when she heard music blasting from his car.

"Look who finally came out," Cam shouted as Esmeray got into the car with her arms crossed as if she was being held at gunpoint. Cam had an amused expression on his face when he looked at Esmeray. He couldn't lie and say she doesn't look good. She always looked pretty. Esmeray quickly turned the music down to spare her eardrums. "You look good. Maybe I'll get a lucky kiss tonight." he teases her.

"You wish. I don't think we should walk into the party together. We haven't confirmed that we're dating. Let's drag it out, keep it interesting." Esmeray suggests.

"So what? I walk in first, you come in 10 minutes after?"

"Exactly," she nods. Cam doesn't look convinced but he nods anyway and drives off.

They arrive at Cameron's friend's house and as planned, he goes in first and she stays back in the car for a while longer. She connected her phone to the radio and put on one of her favorite songs: Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis. She slowly started nodding her head along to the music and as the song continued, she was fully jamming out and dancing, forgetting that she was sitting in Cameron's car with very little tint on the front windows.

This song never failed to come on during one of Esmeray's many sleepovers with Val and Ryan when they were younger. She'll never forget when it came on at their 8th grade formal and Ryan pulled her up from the bleachers to dance with him after Cam made her night so miserable she called her parents to pick her up.

Ironically, now she was sitting in his passenger seat blasting it on his radio.

The song was coming to an end and Esmeray had chilled out but her eyes widened when she saw Val and Ryan getting out of his car. She turned the music off and slid down in the seat, hoping they wouldn't see her as they walked past the car.

Her eyes followed them until they got into the house and she could finally stop holding her breath once they walked in. Esmeray sat there puzzled trying to figure out how Valentina convinced Ryan to go to another party. It suddenly made her feel worse about the situation. He could do the thing he hates most and go to a party, but couldn't talk to his best friend.

She pulled down the sun visor to see the mirror and reapplied her lipstick, mentally preparing herself to walk into this party with the most intense energy. Esmeray was going to make sure Ryan saw her.