The Lies That We Tell

𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫

"This is all your fault!"

"My fault? How is this my fault?"

"You're pretty damn stupid if you have to ask that," Theo said, frowning for the tenth time in just a few minutes. Quentin, on the other hand, got his own piece of a good comedy while watching as he became even more annoyed each minute.

Even he had to admit that this road trip wasn't going in a way they had hoped but unlike Theo, who had only complained since they left school, Quentin enjoyed the sudden change of plans.

It all started when he had kissed Theo and claimed to be his boyfriend. He was a man enough to admit that none of that was okay but for his defense, he had panicked. The number of girls who had flirted with him in his whole seventeen years could be counted with one hand and when that had happened, he didn't know how to react.

He didn't want to break Amanda's heart in case she truly liked him, which wasn't the case according to Theo who had told him that it was just careless flirting and that she would just find another boy to do it with. Ouch. Was it so impossible to imagine someone being interested in him?

Soon Quentin realized that he shouldn't have done anything to Theo without his permission. Even assholes like him deserved a right to say no before anything happened, even if it was just a little peck on the lips.

As if kissing Theo wasn't enough, he had even claimed to be his boyfriend. Why? Why did he do that? Then he just felt stupid to admit that it was a joke so he let it be and Amanda had believed every word. That's when she had invited them to stay at her place for tomorrow's carnival.

Her family was working there, cooking food for hungry people and because there was apparently a lot of people every year, hundreds and hundreds of people, Quentin had volunteered to help. He could always go to his uncle some other day and besides, this sounded too much fun to ignore. Quentin had always loved carnivals!

"Oh no, you don't have to help. We do this each year as a family and we never have any trouble. You can still come there, though, just not to work. It's much funnier if you're not wasting your time by cooking fish for hours. Just stay the night at our place so you can come there with us when it starts and have fun!"

As she continued to tell more about the carnival and her family, which included parents, two sisters and a lot of animals, Quentin had completely forgotten Theo. He had gone to his car and was now talking on the phone, ignoring both of them which Quentin understood as a sign that he hadn't either heard about the carnival or didn't care about it.

Of course, he had hoped too much. He didn't even know how he was surprised to hear that someone like Theo didn't want to go to the 'stupid, childish carnival that will bore me to death' as he so kindly put it.

"Do this for me and I will owe you," Quentin begged and he never begged. He had his pride and he wouldn't go down to his knees for anyone.

"I already said no, are you deaf?" Theo rolled his eyes. It was clear that he had enjoyed his own time when he was able to talk on the phone much more than talking with Quentin.

"I will do your homework!" Quentin said with hopeful eyes.

"As much as I love the idea of you wasting your already uneventful time, I can do them on my own if I want. I'm not stupid, you know." Sometimes Quentin really doubted that but maybe it was safer not to say anything about that.

He had to beg for another ten minutes until Theo finally agreed, letting him know that he will get his debt whenever and wherever he wanted and Quentin couldn't say no, whatever the situation was.

That sounded a bit unfair and maybe the carnival wasn't worth whatever Theo had in mind but it was too late now, Theo had already told Amanda that they would go to her place.