The Upper-Class

Chapter 7: Tale of Two Liars (Part 1)

Things were going exactly as planned. There was a long weekend from school and Damian and the rest of the Trescotts plus Kai were going down to stay at the beach. Damian had told some of the girls that he goes to school with to meet them there. They would be arriving soon, but where was Kamiko?

“Where is she?” Damian wondered out loud, pacing back and forth in the living room. “You don’t think something’s wrong, do you?”

Kai shrugged, though he was only half listening. The football game was much more important than another one of Damian’s overreactions to nothing.

“Maybe I should go see if she’s okay. Maybe she doesn’t want to go through with this after all,” Damian said, speaking a mile a minute.

“Damian, sit down and shut up,” Kai replied. “You’re way overreacting to this. I’m sure she’s fine. Just sit down and shut the hell up. I’m trying to watch the game and it’s pretty damned hard to hear with you going on and on about nothing.”

Damian sighed. “Okay, fine.”

Upstairs, Kamiko was pulling a top on over her swimsuit. There’s no way I’m going to let them see my body, she thought. I wouldn’t punish them like that. Kamiko snickered at her own thoughts and took a look at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a lime green bikini and a black and white striped shirt on over it. She had on red flip flops and red sunglasses.

Kamiko cocked her head to the side. I dunno… Do I really look like I’m from the upper-class? she wondered. I’m going to have to lie my ass off to just pull this off in the first place... I need to look the part or else they might not believe me.

A small boy that was like a black and white photograph stared at her in the mirror. He wore a white button-down shirt, black pants, and black overalls. He had no eyes though. Just gaping black holes where eyes should be. He offered her a few snide comments.

“I’m getting real sick of you and your shit...” Kamiko huffed. “I’m just gonna go downstairs and be with Damian so I won’t have to deal with you.”

Kamiko walked out of the bedroom and down the wooden stairs. As if adjusting to one house wasn’t hard enough, she now knows that the Trescotts have several houses all around the country. Yet another thing that she was going to have to get used to. A lot of the people in the upper-class have multiple houses. Down on the bottom-class, you were lucky to have a blanket to keep you warm at night.

When Kamiko walked into the living room, Damian turned around. Once he saw that it was her, he stood up.

“Hey, come here really fast,” he said.

“Okay...” Kamiko replied.

Damian led Kamiko into the kitchen and placed a single white pill in her hand. He handed her a glass of water.

“Oh, and here I thought it was going to be something fun...” Kamiko said as she downed the pill and set the water on the counter.

“Just wanted to get it out of the way before we go and meet up with the girls,” Damian replied with a smile.

“Yeah... I guess it wouldn’t look too good for you if they found out you’re ‘going out’ with a schizophrenic...”

“No, it’s not that... Believe me; I couldn’t care less what they think of me. I just figure we better do it now before we forget, right?”

“Yeah I guess... I’m still going to lie to them though. I don’t want them to think less of you because of me.”

“Right... Well, you wanna get going? They should be getting to the beach about now.”

“Kai’s not going?”

“Hell no!” Kai exclaimed from the living room. Neither Damian or Kamiko were aware that he could hear them. “Sit there and watch a bunch of girls fangirl over Damian? No thank you!”

Kamiko and Damian both laughed.

“Well, we’ll just enjoy the beach without you then,” Damian called.

“Yeah, yeah... Good luck Kami! Hope you don’t get too miserable,” Kai replied.

“Me too!” Kamiko exclaimed. “And I told you not to call me Kami!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh, God...” Damian said,  his heartbeat quickening.

“What’s wrong?” Kamiko asked looking at Damian with concerned eyes.

“There they are... Those girls from school. I don’t know if I’m ready for this...”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. We just have to act like we’ve been going out for like a month, right?”

“Yeah, almost two...”

“Okay, so people that have been going out for that long and are seventeen... They hold hands, right?”

“Mhmm. And... other stuff.”

“What kind of ‘stuff’?”

“Well, they’re usually kissing and junk by like the third week...”

“K-kissing? We have to...?”

“No, no. We won’t. If they ask about it say that we have but like, I dunno... We’re shy I guess...”

“Shy, right... I can do that... Do you think they’ve seen us yet?”

“I dunno... It’s hard to tell from here.”

“Should we do something?”

“Like what?”

“I dunno... Hold hands?” Kamiko looked down at her feet blushing like crazy.

“O-okay... Good suggestion... That’s what couples do.”

Damian reached down and took Kamiko’s hand. Her hand was smaller than his and her fingers were thinner. He felt his face getting redder and redder by the second. I don’t get why I’m getting so embarrassed..., Damian thought. It’s not like this is for real or anything. We’re just pretending for today. I bet Kamiko doesn’t even like me at all... So, why am I so nervous?

Kamiko couldn’t even bring herself to look up. She could feel how hot her face was. Stop blushing. Stop blushing! Stop blushing!!! she scolded herself. He’s going to know something’s up if you don’t stop it right now! Plus, I don’t think that couples act like this while they’re at the beach! Suck it up and pretend like you’re not embarrassed.

Kamiko intertwined her fingers with Damian’s.

“Seems more... coupleish,” Kamiko said quietly, lifting her head and smiling at Damian.

“Yeah, right,” Damian forced himself to smile back.

Kamiko’s face was still hot pink with blush. She could see that Damian was blushing too. So, he’s nervous too... That actually makes me a little less nervous..., she thought.

“We’ve got to stop acting so nervous... They’ll know it’s all a lie and then they’ll never leave you alone,” Kamiko said.

“Yeah... You’re right,” Damian replied. He could feel his blush fading a bit. “You’re nervous too then?”

“Course I am!”

“Why does that make me a little less nervous?”

“I was just wondering that.”

“Hey, you think we can really do this?”

“Maybe... We’re really gonna have to pretend to like each other though.”

“Okay, no problem!”

“Right... Maybe we can do this.”

“Yeah, maybe...”