exotic

I don't think I'd ever been so reluctant to walk into school the way I was that Monday morning. As much as it was my plan to fake date Garo, I did not like the attention it garnered.

"You are sweating like a pig, I can't keep holding your hand like this." Garo whispered to me in the crowded hallway and I lifted my gaze to look at her with a smile. There wasn't much I could do with half the student body in the hallway staring at us.

"I'm nervous."

"Ro and Sair!" I heard someone call for us and turned around to see Garo's two friends waddling towards us.

"How do they know my name?" I elbowed Garo.

"I had to tell my friends I have a boyfriend." She mumbled.

"Did you tell them this is fake?" Last thing I wanted was Garo's friends thinking I was her actual boyfriend and being trapped in their ridiculous attention seeking group.

"No, Jasmine talks a lot." She tilted her head towards the redhead in a pink tracksuit walking next to the brunette in an all-black outfit. "Angie's okay but don't give her a reason to start investigating." She informed and I shrugged. "Also, kiss me as soon as they get here."

I gulped hard, looking directly at her. "What?!"

"Now." Garo grabbed my face and seconds later I felt her lips touch mine. I was frozen in shock. My heart was thumping vigorously against my chest as I tried to catch my breath. I began sweating more when I felt her lips move.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Garo finally pulled away and I could breathe once again. The redhead, Jasmine, nudged my shoulder and I passed her an awkward smile, not knowing what to say. "Well, when did this happen?"

"I told you, it's just been a couple of weeks. We wanted to be sure before making it official." Garo was so good at playing pretend that I almost believed her even though I was in on it too.

"So, does he come with a voice feature?" The brunette, Angie, looked at me confused and I let out nervous laugh.

"I do." I smiled. "I'm Sair, you must be Angie and Jasmine." I introduced myself, offering them both a handshake that they politely declined.

"Tell us about yourself. Where are you from, like, originally?" Jasmine asked, flipping her hair and swishing around a piece of gum in her mouth.

"Um...I'm half Lebanese and half Egyptian." I kept smiling but truly, I just wanted to dig a deep hole and hide in it for the rest of the school year.

"Oh, exotic." Jasmine nodded.

"Jas, what did I tell you about using that word?" Angie gave her a look that genuinely scared me and, to top it all off, her all black attire and makeup wasn't helping the situation either.

"What? I'm not being racist." She spat out in response. "It's hot." She looked up and smiled at me again.

"Okay, that's enough. I'll see you girls at lunch." Garo entwined our arms together as we began walking to God knows where.

"Where are we going? I have a class." I asked.

"Relax, I didn't even hear the bell yet." She smiled. "Let's take a victory lap around school and see where Levi and Chloe are. I couldn't spot them in the hallway."

"Do you think this'll work?"

"It will. At least to some degree." She replied.

"What if Chloe doesn't talk to me after seeing all this?"

"Highly unlikely. If she hates me as much as I hate her, she'll try her best to get you on her side again. You just have to make her beg for it." Oh, Garo was good at this. Even more than I had expected her to be. It was like she had done it all before. She was a natural at plotting and scheming.

As the day went by, I grew more and more confident in the theory that Chloe had taken the day off. Garo had messaged me about spotting Levi in one of her classes. I only had one class with Chloe before lunch and I was secretly hoping for her to be absent. What I was doing was going to hurt her and I wasn't ready to deal with those consequences yet.

Nothing I was hoping for mattered when I walked into my biology class and saw Chloe seated in the last row, smiling down at her phone. She didn't see me walk in so I decided to sit a couple of rows away.

Eventually, when the teacher walked in and the class began, Chloe noticed me. She passed me a smile and, like a pathetic little loser, I smiled right back. It was a reflex action. Whenever she looked at me, my attention span towards any other activity was as good as that of a goldfish. Her smiling at me also meant that she hadn't seen Garo and I together yet and I was, strangely, happy about that.

"Psshh." I heard a weird sound come from behind me but I decided to ignore it. "Amhaz." I jolted in my seat upon hearing my last name this time and made sure the teacher wasn't looking in my direction as I turned around to look at the culprit.

It was a bulky looking guy in West Field's soccer uniform. A jock, through and through. "Do I know you?" I asked.

"Caleb." He nodded, offering his hand for a handshake in the middle of the class. I, reluctantly, shook hands with him. "Your Garo's new guy right?" He, finally, came to the point and everything made sense.

"Yup." I pursed my lips, nodding back.

"How the hell did you score her man? I've been trying for months." I sighed, turning back to look at the teacher again.

"Long story, man." I whispered.

"Hey." Chloe walked up to after class and I felt cold sweat creeping up in my palms at a rate that was beyond description.

"Hey."

"It's lunchtime, let's go." She grabbed my arm but I yanked it away which seemed to startle her. "Are you good?"

"I-"

"Babe!" I saw Garo walking up to me in the hallway and my sweat glands went into overdrive. The anxiety of it all was just too much for my body to handle.

Chloe turned around, an amused look on her face. Garo stopped right in front of us and gave me a quick peck on the lips. "Hey." I bent down and placed a kiss on her cheek, ready to take on the world.

"What are you doing here? Let's get lunch." Garo looked into my eyes, tracing my cheekbone with her thumb. If it were up to me, I would've handed her the academy award right there.

"He's getting lunch with me." Chloe declared. She looked at Garo and then back at me with the biggest question mark on her face. "Sair, let's go."

"You're not taking my boyfriend anywhere." Garo gripped my hand tightly.

"He's not your boyfriend." Chloe rolled her eyes. I didn't like the confidence in her voice even after she saw Garo and I kiss right in front of her.

"Actually, I am." I wrapped my arm around Garo's shoulder. "I'll see you later."