Cupcake Kisses

Chapter 6: My Baby is Floating Away

Chapter 6: My Baby is Floating Away

"You're lying."

"No I'm not," I snapped, grabbing the flour out of Luke's hand and dumping it into the bowl.

"You barely know each other," Luke said, taking a handful of blueberries and shoving them into his mouth.

"First of all," I said, gritting my teeth, "could you please stop contaminating my food?"

He took another handful of blueberries.

"And second of all," I continued, "we happen to know each other very well. I mean, why would we be pretending to date?"

I am such a liar.

"Is he paying you?"

I glared at him. Was he implying that I was some kind of hooker?

"Are you paying him?"

"Do I look like I have enough money to be renting out Austin?" I hissed, trying to keep my voice down. There were twenty eight other girls in this room who had been watching me like a hawk since the minute I'd walked into Home Ec. and I refused to slip up in front of them.

Let's get one thing clear, Southport High School is a pretty small school. Despite being the only high school in town there were just about three hundred students enrolled here, a shocking number in comparison to my old high school where there were almost two thousand students. My point is, since SHS happens to be such a small school, most of the news travels incredibly fast. Meaning that by fourth period, the news that I was 'dating' Austin Taylor had reached every single teenager in the building.

As per usual, nobody had attempted to start a conversation with me. However it seemed that everybody in here wanted to start a conversation about me.

"Oh my God, who even is she?"

"Lucky bitch, I would kill to be dating him. He's so hot."

"You know, I heard that she's dating one of the Taylor twins!"

We were almost half an hour into our lesson but my face was still burning with embarrassment. Luke's (late) arrival seemed to only add fuel to the fire as the looks and whispers had gotten even worse. I suppose I couldn't blame them for that one, seeing as how Luke was practically shouting out that I was some kind of hooker.

Late last night it had occurred to me, somewhere in the back of my mind, that agreeing to be Austin's fake girlfriend would have an impact on my life, well at least my school life. I just hadn't quite anticipated how much.

"He's not your type," Luke finally said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I slid our baking tray into the oven and stood back up, glaring at him.

"You don't know what my type is," I paused. "In fact, you don't know anything about me Luke Turner so I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself."

He stared at me for a moment before his lips curved into his signature cocky smirk. "Oh but Ella Smith," he mocked, "I know a lot more than you think. I know exactly the type of guy you'd go for and that guy is not Austin."

"Really now? Go on then, do enlighten me."

Luke didn't respond for a few seconds, as if he was carefully considering his answer.

"A little shy," he began, thoughtfully. "Very awkward, much like yourself. An introvert."

"That's a big word for you, isn't it?" I joked, but he ignored me.