Beneath The Act

Not A Pity Pick

Kailee Bennett

Oh no!

Was someone watching all along? Did Sienna come to take another picture so she could humiliate me all over again?

A lot of questions ran through my mind as I opened my eyes.

I looked around but there was no one else but Ryder and I in the auditorium

I turned to ask Ryder if he heard the shutter sound too but he was smiling at his phone. I went closer to him and stood on my toes to see what he smiling at

It was a picture of us. He had taken a picture while he kissed my neck

Was the kiss just a distraction?

“Ryder, what the f**k?” I breathed out, my hands on my waist, my brows furrowed

He looked away from his phone and looked down at me, his lips curving into a wide smile

He tilted his head, slightly amused. “Why are you standing like that?”

“Why did you take a picture of me without my consent? Are you going to give this to Sienna to post it on the internet? Wait, are you the one who gave out our location on the bleachers so she could come take a picture of us and humiliate me?” I spiraled, playing mini detective in my head as I questioned him

“Woah, woah, woah.” A laugh broke through his words. “Chill out, Bennett. I didn’t give out our location to Sienna and I didn’t know she had taken a picture of us either.”

“Okay?? So why did you take that picture?” I pressed

He didn’t answer, he just moved closer to me.

Hell no. Was he seriously about to pull the flirt-and-distract routine so I’d drop it?

I wouldn’t even be distracted by him. He’s really not all that

I opened my mouth to snap at him again, but as he stopped in front of me, all my thoughts drowned away. I looked up at his six foot specimen of a body and I was immediately mute.

Why were his shoulders allowed to exist like that?

He bent over so he could reach my ears.

“Do I need a reason to take a picture of my girlfriend?” He whispered

His hot breath against my earlobe weakened my knees and I closed my eyes. But they immediately flung open when I replayed his words in my head

Girlfriend?

“When did I become your girlfriend. I never agreed to that?” I protested

He stood up straight. “Uhm, you kind of did when you agreed to help me make Sienna jealous”

“What? What the hell are you talking about? I agreed to help you make her jealous not be your girlfriend”

“Ooh, you’re feisty” he smirked.

Was he even taking me seriously at all?

“Oh, I’ll show you how feisty I can be if you don’t delete that picture” I charged at him, jumping to reach the phone in his hand

His hand wasn’t even above his head and I was jumping and struggling to reach it.

He planted a hand on my forehead, laughing as I flailed. “Look at your tiny hands”

Did he just refer to a part of my body as tiny? It must have been a mistake.

“Okay. Relax. How do you make your ex jealous? By showing them you moved on in mere days after the breakup. Clearly, I have moved on” he said smugly.

“Yeah right. If you’ve moved on, why do you even need to make her jealous?” The question just sprouted from me

“I have moved on and I don’t think I’ll be dating anyone for a while. If she wants to act like she didn’t lose anything, I’ll remind her what she threw away” his tone sounded a little sad like he was actually hurting inside 


But before I could make a comment, he bounced back to his smug, usual confident tone. “And that’s where you come in. You agreed to help me make her jealous and that means pretending to be my girlfriend. How else did you think we were going to make her jealous? If we’re gonna make her jealous, we have to look real. Real means couple pictures. Real means acting like we actually like each other”

“I never said anything about pictures.”

“You didn’t have to. You said yes to the plan. And the plan needs proof. What’s your deal with pictures anyway when you always look stunning in all of them?”

He thought I looked good? Even with my size?

My brain immediately called cap. But I still felt like a firework about to go off—giddy, confused, stupidly happy.


“I’m still going to hold up my end of the bargain so meet me when you’re ready to practice, girlfriend” he smirked and left the auditorium

Either he was lying, delusional, or both.

Guys like Ryder didn’t call girls like me stunning—they called us funny or sweet or ‘good friends.’ But the stupid flutter in my chest didn’t get the memo. It was already doing jumping jacks, screaming maybe he meant it.

God, I hated that I wanted to believe him.

But he could just be saying that so I don’t back out of the deal.

I tried to memorize my lines a bit before I finally decided to go home.

On my way home, I received an i********: notification. Someone had tagged me to their post.

I had very little following, who would tag me?

My heart skipped. Could it be another picture to embarrass me?

I panicked but pep talked myself to calm down and view the post.

It was the exact picture Ryder had taken of us at the auditorium. My eyes closed and he was kissing my neck.

But instead of the caption containing cruel words meant to shame me. They were….sweet.

I read it once, twice, ten times until I could see my phone reflecting my red face through my screen just to be sure it said what I thought it said.


The caption was: Not a pity pick, just my beautiful pick

I could already guess who it was but I still looked at the username, @ryderdoesitbetter.

I knew it was him. The smile I had on refused to leave my face.

Kailee, remember it’s just pretend. It’s all a pretence for him.

It just felt really good for someone apart from Charlotte say something nice about me

I reread the caption over and over until a thought crept into my head, making me freeze

What if Noah saw this and assumed I had a boyfriend? Worse, what if my mom or Ryder’s dad saw this?