Faking it

Chapter 2

APRIL 2015

Michael ' pov

"Hey," I say as Kristen picks up her phone, "I'm waiting in front of your house." "Thanks," Kristen says, "see you in a bit." After that the call ends and I continue waiting. Today is the day. I'm so excited to be honest. April fools is one of my favorite holidays and this year Kristen and I will fool all of our friends. It's going to be great.

A few minutes later the passengers door opens and Kristen gets into my car. "Good morning," I say cheerful. "Good morning," Kristen says. "Excited?" I ask as I start the engine and start driving to the studio. "Rather nervous," Kristen says looking out the window.

"It'll be fun," I say, "seeing their faces will be priceless."

We drive for a while in silence. "Michael," Kristen asks then sounding nervous, "do you like me?" "As a friend?" I ask, "yes very much. As boyfriend? Gosh I've sympathy for the person that'll have to marry you."

"MICHAEL!" Kristen exclaims humiliated and hits my arm jokily. "Rule number one," I say, "don't hit the driver."

It's silent again while we continue passing houses. It's still early, Kristen and I have to make sure we're earlier in the music room than any of our friends. Which is harder than you would think, Tyler seems to basically live in the music room.

"Am I really that bad?" Kristen asks sounding suddenly really insecure and nervous. Wait Kristen and insecure? I never imagined that that would happen. "What?" I say, "no of course not, I was joking! Don't be ridiculous, so many guys would love to date you."

Silence returns. Kristen probably accepted my answer.

"Would you date me?" I ask. "If you had another personality, if you were a bit shorter, if your hair was different and if your face looked different than yes, I would date you," Kristen answers. "So no," I laugh. "Well at least my answer sounds nice," Kristen says and shrugs.

I shake my head slightly and we drive in silence the last few minutes. Though I'm really excited, I also feel myself getting more nervous the closer we get to school. Luckily we only see the cars of some of the teachers when we arrive at the parking lot.

"Ready?" I ask as I park my car. "Never," Kristen says right away.

"Should we already be holding hands when we walk into the school?" she asks then. "I don't think so," I say, "then it'll be so obvious that they know right away that it's a joke."

"Okay then," Kristen says. We both take a deep breath before getting out of my car and walking into our school and climb all the stairs to our favorite place of the whole school, the music room. There we'll have our band rehearsal during first period. Nobody's there and even Tyler won’t  be here for the next 10 minutes or so.

Kristen and I have been really close friends since years ago. We're so extremely different that our friendship magically works. And I'm not exaggerating. I don't think I've ever met someone who's less like me than Kristen. Our friends think we fit perfectly together though.

No thanks.

Even if she would be the last person on this earth.

We came up with this plan only yesterday so we don't really have a plan. We'll our friends will be catching us doing something couple-ish, but what... I don't know.

We arrive in the music room and throw our bags in the corner. "What about if we just stand in a corner or so," Kristen brings up, "and when people start walking in we kiss." Instantly I start to sweat. I don't want to kiss Kristen. No, that's one bridge too far.

"What if we just start hugging right before people walk in," I say. "Okay," Kristen agrees, "but it has to look a bit real."

The final plan is great. I’m sitting on a chair behind my laptop and Kristen will be sitting in my lap. When the time is finally there and our band mates start to walk in, I quickly wrap my arms around Kristen and act like we don't even notice them walking in.

"Hi guys," Tyler is the first to speak, "what are you guys doing." I quickly unwrap my arms from Kristen and she stands up away from. I just look away from Kristen and look very guilty, which isn’t even hard to do. My face just instantly gets read anyway. 

"N-nothing," I stutter a bit.

"Oh my gosh!" Alyssa exclaims then, "it is true, they are actually real."

"What?!" Kristen says sounding confused, "what are you saying."

"Oh come on," Alyssa says, "we're not blind, we can see Krichael is real."

Kristen looks questioning at me and I just shrug. "Okay then," I say and sigh, "you're right."

"Wait actually?!" Tyler says surprised at which Kristen and I nod.

"When?" someone else asks.

"A while ago," Kristen starts looking at me. I nod in agreement.

Then the unexpected happened. Everybody starts to freak out. Actually we expected that, but this is a little extreme.

"What's going on in here!" our teacher says a while later when he walks in sounding pretty confused and a bit mad. "KRICHAEL IS REAL," Emily basically yells and after she said it people start to cheer.

"That's awesome!" Our teacher says, "but can we please start rehearsal."

I've been looking in shock to everyone freaking out for the last few minutes so I'm glad we start with rehearsal.

The day is weird. The news spread so much quicker than we thought it would. After first period when I look on my phone I see that my social medias flipped. The couple ‘fans’ we have, which are all probably attending the same school as we are, the only reason why they know of our band’s existing, are asking if it's true and it's just a big mess.

It kind of scares me to be honest. The plan was to fool our friends, now it feels like we're fooling the whole school.

The whole day I'm kind of silent and as the day goes on I start to regret doing this more and more.

I'm not the only one though, Kristen seems pretty off too.

Near the end of the day I can't handle being around all those people anyone. I put my shoes and jacket on and grab my back. "What are you going to do?" Kristen asks. "I'm going to get coffee," I say, "I have to get away from here for a while."

Kristen smiles. "I'll come," she says, "I totally agree."

We haven't talked since we said to everyone we were dating, but this seems to be the perfect.

"So what do you think of it?" I ask her when we're sitting in Starbucks all alone. "It's a little intimidating," Kristen confesses, "I thought it would just stay in our group of friends and that people wouldn't freak out as much as they did."

"Yea I agree," I say, "how are they going to react when we announce it was all a joke tonight?" Kristen shrugs. "I really don't know," she says, "and I don't know if I even want to know."

Kristen 's pov

Michael and I are slowly drinking our coffees. We don't talk. I think we both became a bit silent from everything that happened today. The silence gets suddenly interrupted by Michael phone causing my heart to make a little jump.

"Hi mom," he says as he picks up. For a while I hear him talk, but I can't even guess what it's about. Besides, it's a pretty long conversation too. Michael ' mom doesn't call him often, so I wonder what's up.

"That was my mom," Michael says as he ends the call. I roll my eyes. Wow, didn't know that yet. "What's up?" I ask a bit confused.

"She called because The Next Step is going to film another season and we'll both be part of it," he says, but doesn't sound happy. "Really?!" I say cheerful, "that's great!"

"Well..." Michael says, "they actually didn't plan on keeping Noah and Richelle for another, but since we're 'dating' they wanted to make Nochelle happen. So that's basically the only reason why we'll be featured in another season." Micahel and I are slowly drinking our coffees. We don't talk. I think we both became a bit silent from everything that happened today. The silence gets suddenly interrupted by Michael phone causing my heart to make a little jump.

"Hi mom," he says as he picks up. For a while I hear him talk, but I can't even guess what it's about. Besides, it's a pretty long conversation too. Michael’s mom doesn't call him often, so I wonder what's up.

"That was my mom," Michael says as he ends the call. I roll my eyes. Wow, didn't know that yet. "What's up?" I ask a bit confused.

"Remember that show we auditioned for months ago, they’re going to film another season and they want us both to be part of it," he says, but doesn't sound happy. "Really?!" I say cheerful, "that's great!"

"Well..." Michael says, "they actually didn't plan on giving us the roles, but they did love our chemistry and now we’re dating they want our characters to be dating on the show and have them singing romantic duets and stuff. So that's basically the only reason why we'll be featured in a season."

My excitement disappears right away. "So if we never said we were dating, we wouldn't be cast," I ask. "Exactly," Michael says worried and sighs.

"Great!" I say sarcastically. This is not good.

"That wasn't everything though," Michael continues looking down at his hands.

"Is this really all because we said we're dating?" I ask surprised.

"Unfortunately yes," Michael says causing me to shake my head slightly.

"This is not good," I say, "how are people going to react when we announce it was all an April fool's joke.

"Then there's just one thing to do left," Michael says taking a deep breath, "we don't tell them it's a joke."

"What do you mean?" I ask afraid that what I think he said, is what he really said.

"We pretend to be dating for a while longer," he says, "profit from all the opportunities it gives us, and 'break up' after a while."

No. I don't agree with this. I really don't want to do this. I don't want to lie to my friends and I really don't want to date Michael. Dating Michael is really the last thing I want, but I also don't want to disappoint people.

We're basically trapped and every decisions seems to be the wrong one.