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three

chapter three: faking love

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May 25th, 1953

As a sophomore in high school now, the world still didn't know how to treat Eloise, even after being given plenty of chances to grow up, mature and forget about it since sixth grade.

Eloise walked around in her big a-line dresses and skirts and occasionally wore her overalls but, they weren't very comfortable to Eloise. She was more of a girly-girl who didn't really care about the things she wore.

But, nobody understood that.

They continued to laugh at Eloise and stare at her weirdly as her dresses twirled around. She still wore cat-eye glasses and sometimes wore socks with the adorable lace on the ends. She hadn't grown out of that style but, some days she just didn't feel like putting up with the comments of looking like a first grader.

Matthew Espinosa was one of the many, many kids who called her things that weren't exactly nice.

That boy now walked down the hall with a smirk on his face and his hand in his Rosie's hand. She held her book in her left hand, which was free, and kept a smile on her lips with her head up high. She knew Eloise was going to be looking so she might as well flaunt off one of the many things she had that Eloise couldn't get.

Soon enough, she felt the eyes of Eloise Jeanie Rosewood narrowing down on her as Rosie now had a smirk on her face, too. In response, Rosie began swinging their hands back and forth, more than delighted to make Eloise Rosewood jealous - a feeling of her's their high school and middle school had seen too often.

Matthew knew Eloise was jealous as well. He enjoyed seeing her eyes narrowing at Rosie, not that Rosie cared because she loved it too, and her cheeks, red from frustration and anger. Matthew enjoyed getting a reaction from Eloise.

Don't get him wrong - he hated Eloise and her face but, he loved seeing her face when she was angry or jealous.

Eloise rolled her eyes as Matthew did a little wave to Eloise. She turned around to her locker and pretended to begin grabbing things out of it as they continued to pass by.

The mixture of jealous eyes and adoring girls filled the hallway as they continued to walk.

"Awh how cute!" One of Rosie's friends said and Rosie smiled in return.

"Cute couple!" Another screamed and Rosie giggled.

As soon as they were out of sight, Matthew let go of her hand and wiped it on his jeans. Rosie looked down at her hand and quickly moved it to her books, holding them with both hands now in front of her.

"Don't they know?" Matthew asked.

"They're just playing the part," Rosie replied, leaning closer toward him. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, as Matthew was secretly a bit angry that Rosie wasn't telling her friends anything for shouting those things in the halls. "They're making it more convincing."

"I don't need anybody else to help us play the part," Matthew stepped back. Rosie stood there, just staring at Matt,
hurt. "Only we are supposed to play that part - not the whole school."

"Calm down, Matt. It was only two people."

"I don't need everybody thinking we're an actual couple."

"And why is that? Would that be so bad?" She questioned, stepping closer. Matthew gulped, staring down at her, speechlessly. He didn't know what to say at this point. What could he say?

"I-I just need to do this until I can get Eloise over me and then we can stop," Matthew said before walking away, making sure Eloise wasn't in sight before stepping out where everybody could now see him. Rosie stood there, her shoulders slumped, unable to move.

Everybody knew Matthew and Rosie were nothing more than best friends, pretending to be more than that but, all Rosie knew was that she was the only one out of the two who wasn't pretending.

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I'm obsessed with posting this story I hope you guys are enjoying it. And I'm writing it like so fast like I'm super duper excited to get into the parts I'm planning I can't wait.