Fake It Til You Make It

13

"Ryan, you need to get up." a voice he knows all too well speaks as they continuously shove him.

"I'm chilling, leave me alone," Ryan says, his eyes still shut.

"It's almost 1 p.m. and you need to tell me what happened last night." they continue shoving him around before he lets his hand fly back, hitting their hands.

"Val, back up," he warns her, and she finally backs off while stifling a giggle. "Can't you talk to Essy about that?"

"She's not home," Val says quietly.

"She's not home?" Ryan sits up and immediately goes on his phone to see Esmeray's location. "She's at the mall. Why so early?"

Valentina snaps her fingers in Ryan's face twice to get his attention. "Ryan, focus. What happened?"

"We went to the bathroom to talk and get away from all the noise. I told her everything I told you." Valentina raised her eyebrow. She knew there was more. "I asked her if she honestly wanted to be with Cameron."

"And?"

"She didn't answer."

"Why not?" Val was fully engaged, desperately waiting for Ryan to finish.

Ryan looked at his phone again, watching Esmeray's pin move throughout the mall.

"I kissed her," he says softly. Val's mouth goes agape. "I didn't want to hear her answer."

"Wow. So what happened after?" Valentina questioned. Ryan had never seen Val pay this much attention in a conversation before. She didn't look at her phone once and was leaning into Ryan to hear him better through his groggy morning voice.

Ryan felt a small sense of embarrassment when thinking about what happened after. Esmeray's expression before she left told him many things. It was hard for him to decipher whether she regretted the kiss or if she was upset that it was ruined by Cam.

"It was getting intense but Cameron knocked on the door and she started panicking. She fucking made me hide in the bathtub."

Val's eyes widen. "Shit. Do you think she was embarrassed?"

"That's fucked." Ryan sighs in disappointment. He throws the blanket off of him, the cold gust of air hitting Val in the face. "Fuck, Val. What did I do?" he groans, throwing his head back.

"Why are you stressing? It's probably not as bad as you think. Just give her time, maybe some space, she'll come to you and all will be well. This is Esmeray, you know her."

~~~

Cam trudged downstairs carrying all of Esmeray's shopping bags. He believed that buying her what she wanted would make her less angry at him but when it came to Cameron, Esmeray could hold a grudge.

Cameron stood at the bottom of the staircase with a smile as if he'd just revealed his greatest art piece. The room was lit up with the reflection of the water and Esmeray silently admitted it was beautiful.

"Of course, you have an indoor pool." Esmeray rolls her eyes as she walks past him, the goofy smile still on his face.

"Nothing beats the beach, though." Cameron quickly set the bags down and stripped to his swim trunks so he could cannonball into the pool. Esmeray looked at him unamused as he pushed his hair back out of his face. "Would it kill you to smile? I thought you liked the water."

"You said we could talk. I'm not in the mood to smile with you."

Cameron frowned as he swam to the side and propped himself on the wall. "You used to be so fun, Esmeray. Do you really hate me that much?"