False Pretence

5: sealing the deal

I'm halfway towards the bus stop when my phone starts vibrating in my pocket.

After I agreed to be Zack's fake girlfriend yesterday, we decided to part ways. There was no point in me being at his house since his dad was working late and wouldn't have seen us together anyway. Plus, Zack said that he wants to introduce me to his dad this weekend at a barbecue with his dad's work associates.

It all sounds very prestigious to me and I can't say that the thought of being the centre of attention doesn't scare me a bit. I can only hope that it's not so bad at school today otherwise the next few weeks or months are going to go by very slowly.

I pull out my phone to see that I've gotten a text from Zack:

Zack: Where are you?

I reply automatically, wondering why he's asking me such a stupid question.

Me: I'm walking towards the bus stop... why?

His response is almost instant and arrives just as I'm reaching the bus stop.

Zack: Why the heck are you at the bus stop for?! Walk back home and I'll meet you there.

His text annoys me: Why the hell does he think he can tell me what to do?! He can't just order me around and expect me to bend to his will!

I type in my response angrily, stabbing the phone with my finger as I press each letter on the touch screen. I'm sure I look a bit psychotic to the other students at the bus stop but right now I don't really care.

Me: No.

I seem to be using those two letters a lot when I'm around Zack but maybe if he wasn't such an assuming a-hole then we might be able to get along a little bit more.

I wait for a reply but my phone doesn't buzz. Why do I feel let down by this? It's just a stupid text.

I shrug off the weird feeling and distract myself by watching the cars as they whizz past. A few minutes go by and the sound of a motorbike rumbling vibrates from further up the road. I glance in the direction of the sound, not surprised to see a motorbike coming towards the bus stop. I am surprised however when it stops right in front of me.

I can't see who it is because of the helmet but I don't think it's hard to guess who it is. Hint: his last name is Winters.

"Harris?" I'm surprised to see the other Winters brother stand before me. I would have expected his "bad boy" brother to be the one who owned a motorbike.

"Expecting someone else?" he grins with a cheeky, knowing smile.

"Errr n-no," I stutter. Damn! Now he's going to think that I was expecting Zack.

Harris laughs. "You're going to have to get better at lying if you want everyone to believe that you and my brother are a real couple."

I not-so-subtly change the subject. "What are you doing here? You clearly don't need to take the bus" I gesture to the motorbike beside him.

It hasn't escaped my notice that all of the other students at the bus stop are now whispering to each other whilst blatantly looking in our direction. I hope it's not this bad at school. If they're like this when Harris comes up to me imagine how they're going to react when I'm with Zack.

"I," he begins whilst typing something into his phone. "-am just informing your boyfriend of your location."

"You're doing what? I told Zack that I'd get the bus. I don't understand why it's such a big issue that he's got you to come and find me," I say, exasperated.
Harris laughs once more and I can't help but asking, "What's so funny?"