I put down my foclóir and glare at Ishu. “I’m not mad at you.”
“That’s convincing.” She deadpans.
“Don’t be cute!”
“I’m not being cute!” Ishu exclaims. “I’m just … I’m sorry,” she says. That word still sounds strange coming out of her lips. “I’m sorry if I said something that made you uncomfortable. I just … I was just joking on Saturday and …” She takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
“I just don’t like when people joke about stuff like that,” I say. “Because … the whole thing with Aisling and Dee and … I don’t know.” I shake my head. “I want us to be friends. And I know that we’re doing this dating thing, but … we can’t … I don’t want us to make it into a joke, even if it’s not real.”
“I won’t,” Ishu says quickly. “I didn’t … I wasn’t trying to …” She seems at a loss for words. Flustered. There’s even a slight flush rising up her cheeks. If only Ishu wasn’t joking about being girlfriends. If only this weren’t a fake relationship. Then things would be a lot easier.
“Are we friends?” I interrupt her stutters.
“Yes.” Her voice is more confident than it has been this whole conversation. “Even if it pigeonholes us or whatever, we’re friends.”
I nod. “Good. And we’re … pretending to be girlfriends.”
“Yeah …” Ishu says. “And we love heterophobia.”
I have to laugh at that. “Aisling is so ridiculous sometimes.”
“She is,” Ishu smiles. “She’s …” Ishu hesitates, like she’s having to really choose her words here. Like she’s not sure how to say the next words she has to say. “What do you like about Aisling?”
That’s definitely not the question I expect.
“I don’t know. She’s … a good friend,” I say.
“In what way?”
“Um … she’s fun. I always have fun when I’m with her,” I say. “I mean … you can see why I’m friends with her. You’ve hung out with her. With them both. You like them, right?”
She nods slowly. “Yeah. They’re both … interesting.”
“Aisling definitely likes you,” I assure her. “Like … she thinks you’re cool.”
“She told you that?”
“No, but I can tell,” I say. “She sat next to you in biology. On purpose. She could have sat next to me, or on the other side of the table like she usually does.”
Ishu nods again. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess our plan really is working, huh?”
I smile. There’s not a whole lot of time until we vote for Head Girl. I just have to find a way to keep my feelings at bay and get through these next few weeks.
“We obviously came up with a really good plan.”
I make the decision to try and lay low for a little while. After all, the summer exams are only weeks away and I definitely haven’t been focusing on my studies. If I can steer clear of Ishu and me spending time together alone, I should be all set. Hanging out with Aisling and Dee is fine because they always take over the conversation anyway.
I can do this.
At least that’s what I tell myself. I’ve convinced myself of it.
The next morning, Ishu greets me at my locker like that’s something we do.
“Morning,” she says.
“Morning …” I’m definitely not a morning person, but I’m even worse when I’m ambushed like this by a girl I was dreaming about just a few hours ago. “What are you doing here?”
“Well … applications for prefect and Head Girl are closing today,” she says. “You applied for prefect, right?”
“Yeah … obviously. I told you that I did, didn’t I?”
“Well … that means the teachers are going to start considering us soon. We’re going to have our interviews and then the votes.” Ishu’s eyes are getting wider and wider with every word that she speaks. “And then—”
“Ishu … stop freaking out.”
“I just think we need to make more of an effort, you know?” she says.
“An effort to …？” Instead of answering my question, Ishu leans forward and takes my hand in hers.
“To look like the couple we’re supposed to be?” she says. “I mean, other than some Instagram photos it’s not like we’re going to win cutest couple in our yearbook or anything.”