My Geeky Boyfriend

Chapter Seven

"Hawk, you can stop making that weird face now."

But if he heard me, he definitely didn't show it.  I'd pulled him away from the hallway a few minutes ago - dozens of eyes following us out. Now, we were in the music room, but he still had that blinking eyes, half opened lips thing he's had going on for a while now. 

"Hawk!" I screeched. 

That finally seemed to do the trick.

"Jesus, Stephanie, you can make a person go deaf." 

"Trust me, SpongeBob, you've been deaf for a while now," I mused, face smug. 

"It's just that I still can't believe that happened; that you happened; that we happened; that all those people happened to see that happen. It's just so...well, you get what I mean, right?"

I put on my best mock thoughtful expression before shaking my head.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure all I heard was 'happen." 

He chuckled.

"But seriously, I was just really surprised that you asked that, and then the...you know what."

If the tinted pink on his cheeks didn't give it away, the way he rushed the last three words, definitely made me aware of what he was referring to.  And now that I had, I couldn't help the sly grin that tugged at my lips. 

"You mean the kiss? That was a pretty dramatic effect though. But it's not really a big deal, it's not like it was your first kiss or something." I finished with a chuckle, with Hawk echoing the throaty sound. 

But wait a sec, was it just me, or did his have a nervous ring to it? 

"SpongeBob," I started, unable to contain my excitement.

"Was that your first kiss?" 

He made a 'pfft' sound, adding, "what? No, like no, no."

I don't know how, but he managed to chuckle between every word.

"I mean, I've kissed you know, people." 

People? I had to struggle to hold back from chuckling.  I had a feeling that might not be true, but I chose to not comment on it as I was scared he might grow redder than he already was. And I really doubted that was possible given how red he was now.

So, I simply settled for a small, "oh, I see." 

"So, what made you change your mind?" 

I shrugged in reply.

"Actually, I was just in the bathroom and then I thought: jeez, how could I turn down an offer to date Hawk? That's so stupid of me. So, here I am." 

"Sounds like a good enough reason to me," he mused, to which I chuckled. 

"So," I started.

"How is this going to work? Do I get like a love handbook or something?" 

"Love handbook? Where'd you get that from?" He asked between chortles, something I soon joined in.

"Hey, you can't blame me, I don't do something like this on a regular, ok?" 

"True," he admitted, smiling lightly.

"I'll have to draft a plan for it though. I'll let you know when I have, and we'll start from there." 

I could only nod, trying to deceive myself into thinking that it wasn't weird at all that my love life needed to be drafted out. 

"But before then, I think we'll both need to agree on some rules on how this is going to work." He used his hand to gesture to us.

 "Seriously, Hawk, we're really going down the fake dating rules lane?"

"Yup," he answered with a small grin.

"Ignoring the rules would be like going against all the gods of fake dating. Believe me, you don't want to do that, Stephanie."

He made a show of deepening his voice for dramatic effect, leaving me to shake my head with a small chuckle.

"Ok, then, let me guess rule one, we'll date until we both get what we want. Two, we can't fall in love with each other. And three, we can never tell anyone we're fake dating," I rattled off, staring pointedly at him. 

He chortled.

"Well, not exactly. But you were right about one thing - we can't fall in love with each other." 

Could today get any weirder? 

A laugh escaped my lips, but the questioning stare he threw me left the rest of the laughter dying in my throat. 

"Wait, are you actually being serious?" 

"Yeah, totally," he answered.

"Ok, Hawk, you might have this whole cute in the weird kind of way thing going on, but trust me, you're definitely not my type."

"You know in movies, the one who says that is usually the first to fall in love," he singsong. 

"Yeah, right. Tell me one movie where that happened." 

"A Walk To Remember," he answered, grinning smugly at me.

"When Jamie told him he couldn't fall in love with her, he scoffed at the idea too. But I wonder what happened later on. And then there's My Sweet Fake boyfriend, The Girl who Likes Him, A Reason to Love You, Loving Jane, Sweet Ro..."

"Ok, I get it. But well...if I didn't fall in love with Bryce, there's no way I'll fall for you, right?" 

"Well, ouch! But still, we can't be too sure. Which is why I think we should take some precautions to ensure that doesn't happen." 

He did have a point. The last thing I needed was for him to fall in love with me.

"Fine," I sighed.

"What do you have in mind?" 

"Pretty simple. One, no kissing for more than three seconds." 

Well, yay!  After my last frozen fish adventure in the hallway, let's just say I could do without any more long lasting smooches with Hawk Gary Moose. 

"Two, no staring." 

"Great idea, Hawk. Don't worry, we'll have our conversations while looking over each other's heads, cause god forbid we actually make eye contact while speaking. You know, like normal people." I added an exaggerated sweet smile to get the sarcasm through. 

"No, not staring like that," he said between laughs.

"I mean, long stares. Like in those movies where the boy and girl stare at each other for like a whole minute, and next thing you know, bam! They're in love by the next two scenes." 

I couldn't help betraying a smile at that.

"I don't think we need to worry about that. The only person staring ever worked for is Edward Cullen." 

"Well...but yeah, that's true," he admitted, making us chuckle. 

"But still, better to be safe than sorry. If Edward Cullen could make it work, we just might too." 

Better to be safe than sorry? I couldn't help smiling inwardly. Hawk was really taking this thing seriously. It's not that I wasn't taking it seriously too, well more like trying to take it seriously. But come on, considering the situation, it was pretty hard for anyone to take it seriously.  I was dating Hawk so he'd help me fall in love with Bryce, and he was dating me so Holland could fall in love with him. And now here we were, like two soldiers drafting a battle plan. Only difference was that rather than an anti-attack plan, we were making an anti-love plan. 

Now, tell me that didn't just sound like the f****d up storyline of a scriptwriter who's been high on cheap drugs for way too long.  But this was basically my life now. What more could a girl ask for? The least I could do was try to go with the flow, which was why I decided to add a little something of my own. 

"And also, we don't need to know too much about each other's lives."

"Really?"

His words were laced with a look of sheer disappointment.

"Too bad though. I was really looking forward to telling you all about my pet turtle who I talk to every night about my day at school."

Oh my god! I knew there was something unusual about him, but I never knew it was this ba... 

The sound of his laughter broke off my thoughts.

"Of course, I don't have a pet turtle who I tell about my day. I was just messing with you. But you should have seen your face though." 

His words came out broken as a result of how much he was laughing. 

"You," I started.

"You're so crazy, seriously." 

He batted his lashes in a very unboyish way, cupping his face in hands as he did.

"Really? Thanks, Stephanie." 

I shook my head at that, a c***k of a smile finding its way to my lips. 

"So, are there any other precautions so I won't fall madly in love with you?"

I made air quotations when I said 'madly,' to which he chuckled. 

"Nah, I guess that's pretty much it. And of course, we can't tell anyone we're fake dating." 

"Yeah." 

"Then I guess we're good," he chirped. 

"Well, there is one thing," I started, slowly closing the space between us.

"You might not know this, but I really hate cheating."

"Oh...that's uh...it's good," he answered between gulps as my fingers traced his arm. 

I chuckled softly.

"So, you see the problem?" 

He shook his head in reply, taking steps away from me until he found himself hitting the piano. With nowhere to move to, he could only stare nervously at me. 

"Fake dating or not, I would never want to cheat on you," I mused, my breath fanning his neck.

I wanted to laugh at his expression when he said, "r-right," but I had to struggle to keep it in. 

"It's just, I have this problem." 

"What problem?"

He managed to choke out as I pressed my body lightly against his. 

"It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but the thing is, I could be a really horny b***h sometimes. And since I won't want to cheat on you, I was hoping you'd be able to do something about it?" 

"Something...y-yes. No, I mean no."

He tried to move again but just only ended up pressing random keys on the piano, making him jump slightly.  And that did it.  I pulled away from him between fits of laughter, leaving him to stare confused at me.

"You should have seen your face. Relax, Hawk, I was just messing around with you."

"You," he started. "You almost had me fooled there," he chuckled, his face slowly losing the bright, tomato red color it had assumed earlier. 

"You don't have to worry about that. You're kind of cute, but not in the 'oh my god, I want to f**k him' kind of way." 

"And that's a good thing?" 

"Well, it depends on how you see it," I answered with a small grin, to which he tittered in reply. 

We spent the next few seconds exchanging phone numbers. And soon after, we left the music room.  I couldn't help thinking about how this whole dating idea wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. I had to admit that I did kind of like Hawk; he was funny and easy to get along with.

And so far, things were actually going much better than I'd imagined, I could even say 'pretty easy.' 

My phone buzzed just then. I slid it open to be welcomed by messages from my friends. 

Beck: B, hang in there, ok? You've obviously been possessed by some strange beings. But I promise I'll try to save whatever is left of your soul. 

Sam: omg, B! What was that? Were you for serious about dating him? Just between us, is it because of him. Omg, how big is he for you to have done that? I need deets. 

Juliette: girl, you gotta lot of explaining to do. And I'm not going to start asking for details through a message. But are you really dating him? When did you guys even meet? Do you really like him? What about Bryce? Where are you now? Hehe, I'd stop there now. But I need details B, I'm dying here. Literally! 

Oh no! 

I was so caught up in thinking about Ava and Bryce that I didn't even once consider what accepting Hawk's offer would mean. What would I tell my friends?  Well, I knew what I wasn't going to tell them - the truth.  I doubted I was ready to face them and their many questions. And with Beck thinking I was possessed by strange beings; things were bound to take a weird turn. Let's just say Beck could get a bit intense whenever she was on to something. You don't know how many bowls of blackcurrant juice we've had to drink as kids after Beck was convinced that drinking 'blood' was our closest shot to becoming vampires. 

No, I couldn't face them now. I stopped to check the time - there was just one more period to go before school was over. And it was a class all my friends took. 

Well, then, I guessed it's goodbye to last period for me, because I sure as hell wasn't ready to face my friends now. And honestly, anyone else.  Remember when I said things seemed like it would be pretty easy?

I was wrong. 

This is going to be hard.