The fake girlfriend deal. ||BEING HEAVILY EDITED||

Four| Defending. (edited)

    

         Elena, Riven's mother, extends a long thin hand out to Clarissa, shaking it with a smile. "Mhm." She clears her throat and looks at me, shoot, why is she staring at me?

Maybe she's seeing what Riven could've had, and what he 'has' now. I bet I'm a disappointment to Elena and Frank. I'm not rich, or overtly smart. I know enough to pass my classes but that's it. I'm one face in a crowd of thousands. Clarissa was tall, she had a better form, curvy but somehow thin, she was what Hollywood pushed as the beauty standard. Seriously, she could be a prototype for their standards, that's how perfect she was. I couldn't hold a candle to her.

"Yuna, this is Clarissa, CHASE'S Ex, Mark's new wife!" Elena cheered, though her voice drops when she speaks to Clarissa. "Clarissa dear, Chase's new lover."

"Nice to meet you." Clarissa tried to smile but it wreaked fakeness, but hey, at least she was trying.

"I'm his girlfriend actually, not a lover." I correct Elena while avoiding her eye contact. I could hear Riven stifle a laugh and walk away to his sister again.

"Oh!" Clarissa's smile turns sinister, "So how does that work?"

"Excuse me?"

"Is he still smoking? Drinking? Has he cheated on you yet?" She pushes question after question in between sips of wine. Her brown hair shoved behind her shoulder in tight curls.

"He drinks or smokes occasionally." I shrug, I hope I look nonchalant and not like I'm crapping my pants. "He hasn't cheated."

Sure, it's a lie, but for two thousand dollars I could lie all he wanted.

"He will eventually."

Before I can speak she turns, "So, what job are you doing? What company do you work for?"

"Uhhhhh... The bean stop cafe?" My voice squeaks, was this girl so sheltered that she assumed everyone worked at huge fancy companies?

"What?" The disgust in her voice couldn't be hidden, "Where is that?"

Riven looks over at me from his spot on the couch tickling his sister, with one look at my eyes he's up and over, slinging his arm around my shoulders.

My heart drops into my stomach.

"Yuna here is working on campus and studying. Pysch, Bio and Business. She's so smart." He grinned and that dimple made its appearance again.

I haven't told him what classes I'm taking. "How'd you know?"

Riven shrugs with a slight frown, "It's written on the notebooks on your desk."

Clarissa actually laughs, "Oh she so fits the stereotype."

I feel my shoulders collapse in on themselves as my posture hunches and the ridiculing of my past comes back. Yes, I'm asian, yes I study hard. I didn't realize work ethics and good grades were a race thing.

"At least she's gonna earn her place instead of living off of daddy's money." I hear Riven say, and the words give me just enough footing, just enough power to feel okay saying something.

"Maybe it is a stereotype." I look at Clarissa, my heart racing and screaming for me to shut up. My hands are sweating. "But at least my stereotype is going to help me further my life, teach me how to work for what I want, and to not live so privileged that I don't even know the name of a frigging coffee shop if it's not starbucks."

Clarissa's hands clench her glass of wine so tight that I'm just waiting for the glass to shatter. "Chase will break your heart."

"I don't know a Chase." I pretend to look around the room, "Good thing I'm with Riven."