How to Fake a Love Story

11: Of First Kisses

For a few short seconds, Ryan had a deer-in-the-headlights moment.

Uh oh.

A few things clicked in his head:

The glare of a bright, shiny camera lens.

The large circle of rather perplexed people now surrounding them.

The way his face was getting steadily redder.

And, of course, the blonde girl with the microphone eyeing him somewhat lecherously.

Needless to say, a small part of Ryan died; right then and there.

"Mr Winston! What a surprise to see you here! Enjoying a day off-my who's this?" she asked suggestively, drawing attention to Ryan-who was still finding himself in a state of catatonia at all the horrifying thoughts fluttering through his head.

The label of a popular local news station was pinned to her coat and marked on the camera.

Jared laughed it off lifting their connected hands, getting a better sense of the situation than Ryan-clearly. "Well, you see..."

The reporter grinned like a cat that had just found a mouse. She arched her perfectly tweezed eyebrows up in a highly interested manner.

"This is your new sweetheart then?"

Ryan just about seized with fear, able to express just about none of it in light of the cameras pointed right at them. Right now, he would've given anything to just shrivel up and die, hoping his family wasn't watching this somewhere back in England.

His sisters would never let him live it down.

Ryan Grayson, declared sweetheart of another man while wearing a skirt and wig with little ribbons tied in it.

It was the stuff humiliation was made of.

The urge to run home and guzzle down a bottle of formaldehyde was overwhelming.

Jared turned to him and regarded him for a moment. The look of classic horror never left Ryan's face. Turning back to the reporter, Jared beamed.

"Yes, he's my one and only."

Somewhere beyond the crowd that had gathered, Ryan's heart skipped a beat as he caught sight of a familiar red head of hair, peeking around the crowded masses-straining for a look.

No way.

He had lost her.

Lost people don't just show up and make your life worse.

Especially when you went to lengths like dressing up as a girl to hide from those types of people.

But Myra tended to have a penchant for doing just that.

Even so, he couldn't be sure.

"How sweet! How long have you two been going out? You recently—"

Ryan stood on his tiptoes a bit to look-as fear pounded on his heart.

"—that you were single and searching! Just how on earth did you—"

No... he couldn't be sure.

"—spilled a drink on him. Took him out for dinner and we hit it off from—"

She turned.

Oh God no.

It was her.

Not now.

Please not now.

Ryan's blood ran cold.

"How adorable! You two seem so perfectly matched for each other."

Jared laughed. "I like to think so. He's very precious—"

Ryan's brain started to work furiously. No, she had nothing on him even if she caught him here. He had nothing to worry about; Myra couldn't touch him. Myra wouldn't pull something like murder in broad daylight, in front of cameras and a whole crowd of witnesses who could testify to a psychopathic lunatic doing just that.

Would she?

"Why don't you give the camera a kiss—"

"—with your new—"

His eyes widened.

Oh no.

"—sweetheart?"

Myra's head, in slow motion, turned towards them.

Jared turned to him, smiling. "Sorry, but I don't think he wants our first—"

Panicking, Ryan threw his arms around Jared's neck and pulled his face towards his in a kiss, swinging his body just enough to hide him from Myra's sight—and the glare of the camera behind the reporter.

Myra glanced in their direction and raised an eyebrow curiously at the crowd before shaking her head, turning back, and walking on.

Ryan mentally sighed in relief.

Crisis averted.

And now for something completely different.

Specifically the 'something' attached to his lips.

Ryan had closed his eyes, hoping it would make it all better—or at least more like a nightmare he could wake up from and forget all about the next day.

There was a sort of apprehension from the other side Ryan never noticed, in light of his own horror, as Jared gingerly put both hands on his hips.

But then it wasn't long before his brain caught up to what his body was doing.

Ryan started to shake violently.

Warm lips pressed against his.

Hands placed gently at his sides.

Crowds of people cheering and cooing.

And taking pictures.

Cameras recorded his first-ever kiss with a gay man.

On television.

Their lips came apart— not a French kiss, thank God— and Ryan blacked out, falling limply in Jared's arms. Jared struggled with Ryan's dead weight for a bit before adjusting.

The reporter was staring with wide eyes and was slightly flushed in the face. The camera man had to jostle her a little back to reality.

Jerking, she whistled, turning back to the camera. "Wow. There you have it viewers, Mr Winston's first hot kiss with his newfound love! Even Mr Winston looks a bit surprised from that one, aren't you?" she asked, turning the microphone back to him, winking.

Jared cleared his throat, fighting the swelling of emotions ranging from shock and surprise to abject horror at what happened-on television. Not to mention the fact that he didn't feel exactly disgusted but merely horrified though that could be contributed due to the presence of cameras. Taking a few more seconds to orient himself, he wished that he was the one passed out right now, instead of Ryan.

"Y-Yeah. S-Surprised is a word for it."

The reporter smiled. "And I suppose we won't be getting a word from him any time soon, will we?" She winked with a glance towards the unconscious body hanging limply in his arms.

Hopefully Amelia wasn't watching, Jared thought mournfully.

"N-No. Not for a while... I think."

Another smile. The reporter turned around and finished off her broadcast off with a snap.

This was the going to be the headline for the local news today.

The cameras turned off.

The camera crew shut down.

The crowds slowly dispersed.

Jared swallowed briefly, overcome with the powerful urge to go wash his mouth out.

At least, that's what he told himself.

When he looked back at Ryan—passed out in his arms—he sighed.

Perhaps this had gone far enough.

Glancing around, he placed Ryan on the near-by bench before clicking a few pictures on his phone.

This would make for a memorable day in his life.