The Fake Boyfriend Experiment(11)

I flipped her hand off, resentment beginning to boil inside me. “I don’t need a charity date. I’m—”

“It’s okay, Lily,” Erin said. “You don’t have to pretend with us.”

“Pretend what? That I have a life?” The identical expression of pity on all their faces infuriated me. “I can get a date. A hot date. Not a leftover who isn’t cute enough for you guys.”

“Good.” Erin grinned. “Then come to the party on Saturday and pick who you want.”

“I will.” I sat back in the chair and folded my arms, determined to prove to them I could be as cool as they were. I could jump right into their little clique with their new boys…

Then I remembered I had a recital on Saturday. I couldn’t go to the party. Not fair!



Erin sighed at the look on my face. “You can’t come, can you? Piano thing?”

“I have to do a recital for a senior citizen banquet thing in Portland, Maine,” I muttered.

Val raised her eyebrows, Delilah sighed, and Erin patted my shoulder, shaking her head as Val started to say something.

And that’s when I realized how they all saw me. Despite their claims, I was the ugly, loser friend with no life. They took care of me because I was too pathetic to fend for myself, not because they loved me or saw me as one of their inner circle.

I had become an outsider with the only friends I had. While I was gone, they’d gotten tight. They had the boys, they had the dates, and I was baggage. All because I’d spent the summer on tour instead of hanging out with them. They didn’t need to see that picture of me in the Globe, because that’s how they perceived me already. Ugly loser.

But they were wrong. They had to be. For my sake. “I can get a date,” I announced. “A hot guy.”

They all looked at me with the same doubtful expression on their faces. “Name one cute guy you know,” Erin said.

“Rafe.” The named tumbled off my tongue before I could stop it.

“Rafe? Who’s Rafe?” Val looked skeptical. “A guy at the gas station who filled your mom’s car?”

“No. He’s sixteen, and he’s a drummer at Mueller-Fordham. He’s way hotter than Jeff.” All that was completely true, and I felt better immediately. How could I have forgotten about Rafe, my handsome protector? I smiled, going all warm inside as I thought of the way Rafe had looked at me after we’d finished playing our song. Yeah, he’d noticed me as more than a loser.

Delilah wrinkled her nose. “Everyone’s hotter than Jeff.”

Erin gave me this doubtful look, like she felt sorry for me that I had to lie. “Have you even met this guy, Rafe? Or have you just passed him by in the halls?”

“Of course I’ve met him,” I said haughtily. “I’m dating him.” Oh…oops. How had that slipped out? I quickly tried to change the subject. “So, what time is the party on Saturday? Maybe I could find a way to squeeze it in.”

My three friends stared at me as if I’d gone insane. “You’re dating a guy?” Erin asked skeptically. “Your parents would never let you date.”

“Well, he’s a musician,” I mumbled, turning away to retrieve my backpack. “They like that about him. Does anyone have an extra pen? I think I forgot mine.”



Delilah leaned forward and peered intently at me. “Have you kissed him?” Her voice was loaded with challenge, completely in my face to expose me.

Uh, oh. If I said I’d kissed him, they’d want a description and Val would know I was lying, because she’d kissed tons of guys. But if I hadn’t kissed him, that didn’t really count as dating. But I so wasn’t going to take their pity party any more. Mostly because they were right, and I didn’t want them to be. I couldn’t have this conversation. It had to end now. Crud!

“Well?” Delilah asked. “Did you kiss him?”

Oh! Idea! How could I have forgotten the only significant moment of my summer aside from the Rafe incident? I jerked up my shirt and showed them my pale stomach in a most excellent change of subject. “I got a belly button ring this summer.” There it was, a light green stone sparkling in my navel. I’d done it so early in the summer that I didn’t think much about it anymore. I’d been so fired up about it at the time, feeling like such a rebel, but when I’d realized that it hadn’t changed my life at all, I’d stopped wasting my time gloating over it. But right now, I was loving it. “Cool, huh?”

They gaped at my new jewelry, and Erin slapped her hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe it! Did your parents freak or what?”