Silver Stilettos

5 | boyfriends and boobs

It didn't settle right with me that I didn't have much voice in the plan, but as Reed pointed out, I didn't have a ton of options. Even as my despair climbed, it was weirdly comforting to have a familiar face sitting on the bed next to me. Even more comforting was the lull of his voice as he told me in careful detail how we would have to proceed.

In a way, it was a relief to just be told what to do, but it also meant my panic-driven mind had more time to create worst-case scenarios in which my parents and brother were brutally murdered in front of me.

"So we have to pretend to be"—I swallowed—"dating?" When he nodded in confirmation, I shook my head. "That sounds mega sketch," I said with disapproval. "I'm not agreeing to that."

"Fine." His shoulders rose to his ears in an elegant shrug. "I look forward to seeing you on the ten o'clock news." He flopped onto my bed, his head on my pillow.

I pinched my lips together until they felt numb. Talking to him was like getting a series of paper cuts. I felt each one raze against my chest, shredding my heart with callous disregard for the delicate organ.

"My mother has to believe you and I are legit, that you're not a threat to the familje. If she thinks you mean something to me, it will temper her response," Reed insisted.

"It just sounds so flimsy, Reed." Then, a thought occurred to me. I grabbed onto his knee and gave it a furious shake. "This isn't some ploy, is it?" I demanded. "Trying to trick me into becoming your girlfriend? Giving me some line about how I have to sleep with you in order to save my life?"

"You're insane. Do you really think you're such a huge catch?"

Immediately, I let go of his leg. Stung, I stared at him, but no sharp remark came to my lips. Instead, I felt my chin tremble and I pulled my hand to my chest in a defensive gesture. I knew I was no great beauty, but I didn't repel the male species either.

"Tomorrow, just do your best to look good. Wear that v-neck shirt from American Eagle. It shows off some cleavage."

My head reeled from his sharp tongue. First he insulted me, then he noticed I had breasts? "How do you remember that shirt?" I asked, astounded.

Reed didn't answer me. "Your mom is coming up the stairs," he said.

"Reed?" Quizzically, I was about to ask him how he could know that, when there was a soft rap at the door.

"Mayuri, dinner!"

"Coming, Mom!"

After hearing her repeated shout outside Kiran's door, I whirled on Reed, whispering, "How did you know she was coming?"

"I'm aware," he drawled. "I listen."

"I listen."

"No, what you do is mostly talk. Your lack of awareness is appalling." Reed's eyes glittered. "You talk a big game, Mayuri. But your sass isn't going to save your life. I am." While I was still digesting his claim, he surprised me by swinging his long legs off the bed and straightening his body.

"What are you doing? Where are you going?" I darted a fearful glance at the door. Surely he wasn't planning on going out the door, was he?

"Stop!" I grabbed his sleeve. "Kiran could see you." When that didn't seem to perturb him, I pulled at his hand.

Shocked, he let me. Reed's eyebrows were comically high and he looked stunned that I'd voluntarily touched him.

I let go, dropping his limb like he was a leper. "Go out the window."

"Excuse me?"

"Out. The. Window."

Artemis meowed, scampering from under the bed to dart between Reed's legs.

"And," I added, "stop encouraging my cat. The only person I want him to get attached to is me."

"I'm not leaving, Mayuri. You heard your mom. It's dinner time."

I didn't get what he was saying at first, and when I did, Reed had already opened the door. He wasn't suggesting that he would join us for dinner, was he?

"You can't!" I almost clawed at his hand. "Don't, just, please go? Please?"

"You aren't being a believable girlfriend if you're hyperventilating at the thought of your boyfriend and your family sitting down to a meal together." He raised an eyebrow.

"I've never brought a boy home before," I said in a small voice. "I can't ambush them. My mom will freak out."

"We have to do damage control." Reed leaned his body against the door frame. "We have to create a backstory. That means convincing people that I give a shit about you and vice versa. Right now, you're making that really hard. Maybe your blood sugar is low - come on, let's go eat, and I'm sure you'll feel less cranky afterward."

"Don't treat me like a child!"

"Mayuri! Now! I won't keep calling you again and again!" trickled up the stairs, the annoyance in my mother's voice painfully loud and evident.

"We can't keep your mother waiting," Reed said, and with a devil-may-care smirk, he bounded for the stairs, bumping into Kiran on the way. "Hey, man."

Kiran froze in the middle of his doorway, his earphones still hung around his neck like a yoke. "Um, hey?" His head jerked and he stared at me without blinking. "Mayuri, is that..."

"Yes. It's Reed Norcross. From school." I exhaled, forcing the words to my lips. "My boyfriend."

"Your boyfr—" Kiran didn't hold back his shock. "Shit."

"Yeah. You can say that again." I pulled the door closed just in time, cutting off Artemis' escape route. He retaliated with a series of meows that broke my heart. Then, my kitten must have decided that revenge was sweeter, because I heard a rapid series of scratches against the door.

"You'll have a hard time explaining that to Mom and Dad," said Kiran.

"The cat?"

He snorted. "Yes, the cat. But mostly the boyfriend. He's already downstairs."

Without me? I started to grind my teeth before I thought better of it. I would wear them down to the gum if I did it every time Reed annoyed me. Unless I wanted dentures by the time I was eighteen, I had to get smarter about handling my emotions.

There was no telling what Reed, with his smart ass mouth, would say to my mother. The idea of him sitting down to dinner with us, eating daal and bhaji with roti, made red-hot embarrassment crawl onto my neck. Any other day of the week we'd be having pasta or barbecue or pizza. Instead, the day Reed chose to invade my life was the day we'd be eating simple Indian fare.

"Move it, Kiran," I ordered. "You're helping me."

"Me?" He balked as I pulled him toward the stairs. "I didn't know you were dating anybody!"

"You have to act like you did. You have to sell Mom on the idea of me and Reed. Tell her how great he is."

"But I don't know him. Seniors don't talk to freshmen." There was a hint of reproach in his voice.

"Pretend. You play video games, don't you? Lying is sort of like that." I quickly thought of a way to buy his loyalty. "I'll buy you a new PlayStation game at GameStop. Whatever you want."

"No price limit?"

"One game. I'll pay whatever it costs."

"Deal."

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Perhaps this title should have been "blackmail and brothers"! ;-) Do any of YOU have a brother like Kiran?