"Hello? Is anyone down here?" A deep voice broke through the dark.
I had been in total darkness for five minutes, unable to find my phone in the mess of papers and chip packets I had made. The panic coursing through my body was audible, beating through my skin and echoing off the studio walls. There was no way to communicate with the outside world. Even if I'd been able to find the door on the other side of the room, there was zero possibility of me making it up the stairs to the ground floor without bodily injury.
"I'm in here!" My voice carried through the darkness, pleading to be saved.
A flashlight made its way around the corner, an unknown stranger coming toward me. They could have been a serial killer and I would not have cared, knowing I wasn't alone was worth my future horrific murder. The light came closer, illuminating me and my messy panic of fallen chairs and music stands. My savior shone the light directly in my face, blinding me, then asked, "Lucy?"
I lowered the hands from my eyes and tried to focus on my new companion. They lowered the handheld light and, from the faint glow in the room, saw that it was none other than Golden God of the Apartment Complex.
Hunter.
"Hunter? What are you doing here?" Of all people I'd run into in this moment, why did it have to be him? I felt like a complete and utter moron in his presence. The battery fiasco in the apartment had been enough to torment me, now I had to pretend to be calm and collected in the middle of a blackout?!
He scratched the back of his neck. "Um, I'm doing music theory, so I'm usually here. Are you in the music program too?" In the dim light, his eyes almost shone in an excited way. Like we both shared a common interest. It was heartbreaking to have to tell him that no, I was not into music, I was knee deep in a horrible lie to my best friends.
"Oh, no...I am, uh, just avoiding my roommate. Nice to get some alone time, you know?" He was going to think I was such a jerk, especially since he knew Annabelle and how she was Nice Barbie incarnated. But he just nodded and laughed in a knowing way before gesturing for us to both sit as he fidgeted with the flashlight to get the best lighting.
"Do you know what happened?" I motioned to the blackout around us.
"A fuse must have blown. This happens sometimes when students hook up non-campus amps. Normally it's fixed by now, not sure what's taking maintenance so long." Hunter's face was lit up in our small quarters, the dimple in his cheek appearing even deeper as his emerald eyes flickered with pale yellow. He really was gorgeous. And not in that male-model-too-good-for-you way. His classic good looks were attractive as hell, but that bubbling, happy personality made him irresistible. Every time I passed him by the mailboxes my heart leapt out of my chest with the big grin he gave me.
I was not surviving this blackout without swooning.
After some more prodding, Hunter shared a little more about the semi-regular blackouts in the building, and then about his major. He was so passionate about composition and how music came to be. Occasionally he would go on tangents about a composer I wasn't familiar with, and I would smile through my confusion because he looked too happy to stop and explain.
My earlier worry about acting like a complete idiot around my gorgeous neighbor was dismissed as thirty minutes passed in darkness. I'm not sure if it had to do with the fact we were in such a dystopian state - with the eerie flashlight lighting and total darkness beyond that - or that something similar to my friendship with Quyen happened and I was functioning like a normal human being in front of a boy.
Maybe boys are normal humans too?
Hunter asked me about my history major, and politely inquired about Annabelle. I told him all about her care packages for Tyler, and how every moment of midterms had been like walking on glass, listening to Annabelle impatiently wait for Tyler's results and either being elated or devastated by his grade. The laughter between us was constant. Thirty minutes turned into an hour, and we still sat in the unknown, chuckling about our landlord and the hell that was our upcoming finals. Time seemed to sit still in the cozy space between us.
A little part of my brain trudged to the front. You're getting along with a boy! You're even flirting a little! You are desirable to the male gender! My head was fuzzy and full with so many thoughts, mostly centered around my companion's easy smile.
Thunk. One by one, the fluorescent lights flickered on. We both shielded our eyes from the overwhelming sensitivity of real light on our retinas. Adjusting, I quickly bent down to clean up the mess I'd made during my fictional boyfriend time.
In the horrendous glare from the fluorescence, our conversation seemed to lose its flow. "So, lights are back on..." Hunter started, scratching his forearm.
"Yea.." I agreed. Wow, why was this suddenly so awkward? "We should probably go upstairs and show the world we're alive."
Slowly we trudged up the basement stairs, eyes still burning from the flood of lights. I watched the smooth way Hunter's shoulder blades moved under his henley. I had just had one of the most pleasant conversations of my life with this perfect specimen. If I kept a journal this would be listed as "most perfect day in history." Terrifying blackout and all.
***
After we'd emerged onto the ground floor of the music building to other students looking dazed, Hunter invited me to grab a coffee. While the socially awkward human (at least in the light) screamed to decline, the girl stuck in a basement blackout agreed. We sat at the campus coffee spot until the freshman dinner bell chimed and then said our adieus. I was on cloud nine.
When I arrived back at the apartment, Kristin and Annabelle were already snuggled into the couch already halfway into a romantic comedy.
"Way to wait for me," I joked as I placed my backpack in my room and threw off my jeans. A deep sigh released from my lips as I changed into the softest, grungiest pajamas I could find. In the kitchen I reheated last night's leftovers before forcing a spot for me on the couch.
Annabelle grunted as I nudged her over. "We were going to wait but you were supposed to be home over an hour ago. But I guess someone was having a little too much fun with a boy." She wiggled her eyebrows and Kristin lowly whistled oooooooohhhhhh.
My cheeks turned fire engine red as I thought about my intimate afternoon with Hunter. Yes, it wasn't romantic in the sense my friends were referring, but sitting on that floor feeling like we were the only two people in the world - that was intimate. I knew I couldn't tell them what really happened, and I was okay with that. I wanted to keep every moment of our perfect afternoon in the deepest corners of my heart forever.
Hi! Sorry it's been a while for an update. This chapter is short and took forever to come to me, but sets up lots of context for the next few chapters. M xx
YOU ARE READING
The Completely Real Story of My Fake Boyfriend
Humor"I need you to give me a hickey." Twelve years of friendship and this was by far the weirdest thing I had ever said to him. It would also start the beginning of a long lie to the girl who shared my rent. And it was all because of my fake boyfriend...
