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“When someone knocks on the door, you’re supposed to open it, Tulsa. I shouldn’t have to do crap like that just because you’re not paying attention. Now get down there and tell him to leave.” she slammed the bedroom door so hard it shook on its hinges.
Now she was confused. So Joliet hadn’t heard everything? They could keep doing this?
“Who was she talking about?” Stephanie asked. Tully looked at her, confused.
“Huh?”
“The ‘he’ she wanted you to get rid of.”
Oh. She’d been so focused on potentially having exposed herself that she hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to what she said.
“I don’t know. I’ll go see.” She pushed off the door and went out of her room. There wasn’t anyone there and the front door was shut, but she walked down the stairs to check anyway.
She swung it open at the same time Nathan’s hand came out and hit the air in a failed knock.
Tully and Nathan both jumped. She blinked and opened her mouth to ask him why he was there, but then she saw what was in his hands. An overly large bouquet of red roses, wrapped in a green ribbon.
Tully’s mouth dropped open a little bit at the sight. From behind, she heard Stephanie descend the stairs and perch over her shoulder to get a look at the ‘he’ at the door. Stephanie made a surprised sound somewhere between a gasp and a laugh.
Nathan grinned, looking effortlessly confident. “Angel, will you go to homecoming with me?” He extended the bouquet into her face, and the floral scent of rose engulfed her.
A million thoughts in her head and she couldn’t pick out a single one to say.
The short conversation they had where she agreed they needed to go to homecoming together was enough for her to assume that they didn’t need to delve into the issue further. Yet, here they were. Standing in her doorway on the front porch she was so surprised she couldn’t even choke out a simple ‘yes’.
Nathan raised his eyebrows, silently encouraging her to answer. Sothisis what Joliet had seen that made her so upset. Once Tully realized that, a little puff of amusement was what made her proceed.
“Yes.” Fake Tully clapped her hands together and smiled. She saw someone react this same way in the hallway yesterday morning. She copied them exactly and nodded her head eagerly. It wasn’t technically necessary, since only Stephanie was watching and she already knew it was all fake, but Joliet was probably more intent on listening than she let on. “Of course I will.”
She accepted the bouquet and sniffed the red petals.
“And this.” Nathan held out something else she hadn’t seen in his hand under all the buds. It was a small plastic pack of Reese’s Pieces. “I got your favorite.”
This time her laugh was real. “You remembered.” It wasn’t that long ago that they’d gone to the movie theater together, but she wouldn’t have thought he would remember her saying what her favorite candy was.
“You know I did. I remember everything about you.”
Fake Tully’s breath caught in her throat as her heart skipped. Nathan was the perfect fake boyfriend. No doubt about it.
“Are these real?” Stephanie asked and leaned forward to smell the roses.
Tully scoffed. “Of course they’re real.”
“I didn’t know what kind you liked so I just grabbed roses,” Nathan said, and put the hand that wasn’t holding the sign into his pocket. He rocked back and forth on his heels.
“They’re beautiful.”
“Sunflowers are her favorite,” Stephanie said, and Tully gave her a stern look.
“Stephanie.”
“What? Your boyfriend should know what kind of flower you like.” She looked at Nathan and shot him a knowing wink. “But roses are nice too, I guess.” She looked between the two of them and backed away. “Well, I guess I’ll give you love birds some space.”
Tully gave her an exasperated look as she retreated back up the stairs. She shook her head and walked out onto the porch, shutting the door firmly behind her. “You really didn’t need to do this.” She gestured to everything.
He shrugged. “It would be weirder if I didn’t.”
“Wouldn’t it have been better if you did it in public at least?”
