61 The Next Step

The next step of Alexa's plan didn't happen until the semester was over. She and Zack were graduating so the entire club went to the ceremony to show their support.

Alexa texted him beforehand telling him to wear something nice so while the rest of his friends were wearing jeans and tee shirts, Justin was wearing a light blue button-down shirt and slacks with his one pair of dress shoes that his mother bought him for his high school graduation. This was only his third time wearing them.

The ceremony was long and boring but the whole club cheered when Alexa Stanhope and Zachary Bacon were called to the stage to receive their diplomas. Afterwards, they met up outside of the stadium to take pictures together. This was where Alexa's plan came in.

"I want pictures with all of you guys but I need a little help with Operation: Get Justin a Girlfriend first."

After the club meeting where Alexa spilled the beans everyone knew Justin liked someone. They were curious what Alexa was planning and willing to play along.

Alexa instructed Mandy to hold her phone and take the pictures before turning to Justin. "I need you to look happy, okay?"

He groaned. "I'm not good at forcing a smile. It always looks fake."

She pursed her lips. "Somebody make Justin laugh! This has to look natural."

Dominic immediately grabbed Rick and they started to perform a dramatic but sloppy tango. Rick was alarmed at first but got into the spirit quickly and soon everyone was laughing, not only the intended target. While Justin laughed Alexa waved her arm impatiently at Mandy so she would start taking pictures.

Alexa struck as many overused girly romance poses as she could. She wrapped her arms around Justin's waist from the side and popped her foot up cutely. She made him give her a piggyback ride. Last, but certainly not least, she jumped into his arms princess-style and delicately kicked the air with her stiletto as she wrapped her arms around his neck. These sneak attacks happened so abruptly that Justin was still laughing about Rick and Dominic's dance the whole time.

Releasing his neck and hopping down, Alexa thanked everyone for their cooperation and demanded that they get in the group shots already. Someone pulled out a selfie stick so they were all able to fit. Alexa had a lot of friends who took pictures with her that day.

As Justin looked around he realized that friends were the only ones who had come to Alexa's graduation. No parents. There wasn't a single adult over the age of 24 who came to celebrate her accomplishment.

Come to think of it…Alexa hadn't gone home for Thanksgiving either. Did she not have a family? Or was she on bad terms with them? Thinking of his own family, Justin felt sorry for her.

He didn't want to ask her about it. It was her business but he couldn't help but feel a little sad anyway.

By the time he got home he was exhausted from socializing too much. He got online and noticed he had a few notifications on Friendbook. Since he hardly posted notifications were rare.

He clicked on them and saw they were all pictures Alexa had tagged him in from her graduation. That was fast.

Looking through them, his lips tightened into a thin line. He had hardly paid attention to what she was doing earlier but now that he saw the pictures…what was that girl thinking? These pictures screamed romantic implications!

Alexa's plan was far too convoluted for Justin to make sense of. First she wanted to be mean to him in front of Emily and make her mad. Next she wanted to ignore him completely to make Emily feel bad for him. Now she was what? Declaring their relationship for all the world to see?

There weren't any captions but the pictures with Justin were the only ones taken alone with a guy other than Zack, who was also in graduation robes and doing regular, unromantic poses. She had a few with individual girlfriends too but the rest were group shots.

Another notification popped up. Emily Carter commented on a photo he was tagged in. With a shaky hand, he clicked on it, wanting to know what she had to say.

'You guys look good together'

Justin froze in shock. What on earth did that mean?!

He was about to text Alexa to demand an explanation when she beat him to it. 'My plan worked perfectly. You're welcome'

'You are not welcome! What was your goal here?! Now she totally thinks we're together!' In his anger, he typed out his message at top speed.

'Relax, my anxious friend! It's all part of the plan. I know exactly what I'm doing. Her reaction was about what I expected so the plan is on track! After all this time, you still don't trust me?' She added a couple crying emojis at the end of her message.

'It's not that I don't trust you…it's that I have no idea what you're trying to accomplish'

'I told you before; if you knew what I was doing beforehand your reactions wouldn't be authentic. She can be suspicious of me all she wants but Emily can't be suspicious of you or the whole thing will be a complete waste. Got it?'

Justin's head hurt. This was too much. He didn't want this. True, he had begun digging the hole but Alexa was turning it into an underground maze! He was pretty low on options at this point because on his own he'd only ever managed to make things worse. Alexa was, unfortunately, his best bet at this point.

'Alright, alright. I got it'