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"My crush is focusing on his hockey career right now. Dating isn't exactly on his mind," Dane, my brother, told me before he sipped on his homemade tea for the morning. I began to tell him that it's important not to push the relationship farther.
"But I want to date him!" My brother whined, saying that he wanted the whole romance cliché of being welcomed by his boyfriend experience. I called him old-fashioned.
"You want to date Bowie that badly?" I sipped my dark coffee.
"You act like you don't need a man, Maria." My brother is starting to act like my parents again. I sighed.
"And what's wrong with that?"
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"Welcome home, Maria!" Ali, my skateboarding rival, greeted me. "Would you like your bath, do a little bit of skateboarding, or me?" is she attempting to flirt with me for the fifth time this week? I answered with skateboarding.
"All that you care about is your stupid skateboard!"
This is what my brother was talking about… but this is what he wanted. Maybe I should brag to our parents about this & finally tell them. Still, how did we end up here?
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"Wow. No matter what school your parents choose, you're successful in all of the classes!" Ali said the obvious.
"Of course, street rat. They're always bringing me to different schools because they can’t handle the fact that their daughter is fucking single!!!" I took a deep breath, just like what my therapist said (but it doesn't work all the time). "They are always trying to get me to date a boy just so they can brag about it with their colleagues…"
Ali, for once in her life, took a wild guess like she was playing Uno and got it right. "You lied to your parents that you have a partner?"
There was a beat in the room as I ate some store-bought spicy ramen noodles. "Well. They do want to see him… right? Why not have someone pretend to be your boyfriend?"
I began to talk trash about my parents, how they would complain about 'his' sports career or how much money 'he' makes.
"Damn it!" I groaned, beginning to rant about how dumb it is to be a lesbian and having parents who want me to be 'normal' like all of the other girls in my school.
Ali tilted her head, at first she was confused. But then she smiled at me, asking me if she wants to be my fake boyfriend/girlfriend.
“What now?" I wanted to call her a street rat but I didn't want to ruin the moment.
"We could totally try! Kind of like a same-sex marriage but with dating! Your brother is still dating Bowie, so why can’t you do that?"
"Because at least he keeps his crush on Bowie to himself & his crush! I’m bad at keeping secrets!" I began to punch my fist on the table. Ali sighed as she held my hand.
"Well. If that's true, I'll just talk to my father about it." Ali said before packing her bags and skateboard away to her father’s house.