My Perfectly Normal and Completely Natural High School romance

The First Mistake

Mia

"So Vince and I have this bet," I announced as soon as I got to my desk.

Normally, I would not be saying this in such a theatric tone as I was using now, but I had been so caught up in the events of the morning that I had not realized Amy and Noel weren't going to be the least bit surprised at this development.

I was, in fact, almost affronted by Noel's eyeroll, until she said "What is it this time?"

Amy was a little bit more perceptive.

"You seem more excited about it than usual. That is to say, you actually seem excited about it."

I put my bag to the side and collected myself. I had started this story all wrong, but it was not yet too late to fix that.

"So this morning when we were walking to school we started talking about the latest episode of—"

"Mia, you're not building any suspense here," Noel cut in.

I leveled her with a look that I was hoping was something on the lines of I'm about to fly into a such a terrible rage right now that I might just kill a whole bunch of puppies. She just rolled her eyes.

"Go on," she sighed.

"So I mean eventually we kind of got talking about the romantic subplot. Which, I mean, was normal—"

"Mia" Noel groaned.

"Alright fine! Something-something he said I probably wouldn't know romance if I was hit in the face with it."

"Ouch," Amy winced.

I forged on.

"So I told him that he wouldn't know romance if he was run over by it on the street."

"Right," Noel grimaced.

"And then I also told him that I could bet he couldn't have a proper romantic relationship or anything for longer than six months."

"You do want to go out with him, don't you?" Amy asked mildly, though she was rubbing her temples like she had a rather troublesome headache.

I pretended she hadn't said anything.

"Anyway, he said he totally could, and that I was the one who probably couldn't keep a boyfriend of girlfriend for as long."

"You guys will be the death of each other, I swear," Noel complained, "have either of you even dated before?"

"No, they've been dancing around each other for the longest time," Amy answered in my stead.

"I have not been dancing around Vince!"

Amy quirked an eyebrow.

"Do you have another name for your massive crush that compels you to keep doing increasingly stupid things in front of him?"

"What she said," Noel added for good measure.

"Just listen to the story!" I cried.

"We'd listen if you actually got the good part," Noel said, trying not to yawn, "and quickly, before homeroom actually starts."

"I'm getting there," I grumbled, then collected my wits.

"So anyway here we are, each trying to bet that the other couldn't properly, romantically date someone for very long, and then I said I could prove to him that I could do it."

"Girl," Noel groaned, "You can't be seriously telling me that you promised a guy you have a crush on that you would successfully ask someone else out and date them for six months."

"Well..." I mumbled, "it's a bit more complicated than that. Because when I said that, he said he could prove it to me, too."

"And then?" Amy prompted, looking a little pale.

"And then I asked him how I would possibly know if he wasn't just lying to me about how romantic things were if he was dating someone. And then he said—"

"Just skip to the good part already" Noel hissed through her teeth, which meant she was now getting really impatient rather than just her regular old kind of impatient.

"Basically," I said slowly, hoping to finally get to the point this time, "we kind of came to the conclusion that the only way we could really have the bet is if we pretended to go out with each other. So now I'm sort-of dating Vince to prove to him that I could have a real actual rose-colored romance, while he also tries to prove to me that he can do the exact same thing."

Silence.

Amy's face was sympathetic, Noel's horrified.

I waited a full second. Then two.

"Excuse me!?" Noel burst out, just as our teacher, Mr. Hayes, walked in.

"Great to see you're full of energy this morning," he grinned at her.

Noel turned beet red, which was a sight to see, because she hardly every was embarrassed.

But Noel had been nursing a crush on Mr. Hayes' son, who was a senior, and at some point that had turned into an overwhelming need to impress Mr. Hayes.

Weird? Yes, but it was easier to just take Noel's weird ideas at face value.

Trying not to slam her head onto my table, Noel pressed her lips together, then whipped around so she was facing the front of the classroom. Her hair, flying from the movement, slapped me across the face, as if to say I'm not done with you yet.

And that was the first I had about not-quite-dating my best friend and longtime crush.

Needless to say, it wasn't the last.  

A/N: I feel that it is my duty as a writer to make clear that this is first and foremost a romance-comedy. Will there be dramatic irony? Probably. Will there be any real drama? Probably not. I'm writing this for fun, and so I shall have fun with it. That doesn't mean I won't appreciate feedback (if you have something to say I'd love to hear it), it just means I'm not making any promises with the plot of this story. Cool? Cool.

Thank you for reading!