Chapter One

Mike Who?

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I'd been mixing chemicals in lab, and the fumes must've given me temporary leave of sanity. Because my eyes couldn't leave Mike Newton, from where he worked at the front of the lab. There was so many things my body yearned for. A boyfriend. Someone to kiss and cuddle. A person that belonged solely to me.

The first sixteen years of my life, I hadn't had much luck.

Nobody had asked me out, let alone sent me a valentine. In Freshman and Sophomore year, I could shrug off not being invited to Homecoming dances and Winter Formals, because I had no strong desire to go anyway. But my laid back approach was biting me in the butt.

My apathy had descended into deep rooted longing.

I wanted to look back at prom pictures, smiling on the arm of a guy who wanted to be there with me. Having read enough romance books, I knew prom nights were special for girls who didn't go home afterward.

It was the night they experienced pleasure in the arms of their boyfriend.

The idea of it being a faceless stranger, or worse spending the evening alone in bed – made my toes curl in apprehension. There was still over a year to go, but I needed to start now. Mike was a good candidate. Last year, when we were sophomores, he'd asked me if I was going to the homecoming dance when we'd been lab partners during first semester.

The only one who cared to ask.

This year, because I was junior class president, a lot more people had asked, this time girls. I'd ended up going stag, because I was one of the organizers and it would be weird if I didn't go.

The upcoming Winter Formal was going to get the same treatment, until the student body decided to flip things round, and make the Winter Formal a Sadie Hawkins dance instead.

So that meant the girls had to ask the guys.

I was a big believer in signs from the universe, and this was too big to pass up. The universe was telling me, that if a guy wasn't going to ask me, then it was about time I asked a guy instead. Naturally, my first object of desire was too far out of reach. He was a hot senior that I'd never seen before but had started the school year like everybody else, a Native American who rode a powerful Nuda to and from school.

That guy was so cool, he could just take off his helmet and make ovaries self-fertilise.

The second was Mike.

Mike was achievable.

Far as I knew, he didn't have a girlfriend and had similar personality traits to me, taking a lot of AP classes to overachieve and didn't care for sports much.

"Bella?"

I was interrupted in the middle of musing.

I looked sideways at my lab partner, Angela, who pushed her glasses up her nose. Angela was a fantastic lab partner. She didn't need much guidance and often synced up to my thoughts exactly. This lab we'd been titrating, and she knew the exact amount of phenolphthalein to add to the sodium hydroxide.

With a jolt, I noticed she'd packed up her bag and it was resting on her shoulder. "Class has finished. Do you want to go for lunch?"

"Are you going to the Cafeteria?" I asked.

"Yeah, they're serving cheesy tacos today."

I looked to the front and saw Mike's back disappearing out of the door, still in his white lab coat, and my heart gave a curious lurch.

"Is it okay if I join you later? I need to go to the library first."

"Oh, I'll join you," Angela happily said.

"No!" Her eyes turned wide. Feeling pressured to leave her behind, but not offend her feelings, I hastened to add, "I need to pay a fine and then perhaps see Mr Banner about a question I'm stuck on. It'll take fifteen minutes max."

"Oh, okay then."

With that in mind, I haphazardly shoved my notes into my bag, nearly leaving a pen behind but yelling at Angela to grab it and ran out of lab, to see Mike long gone. Not giving up, I took a flight of stairs to the third floor and ran down it, just in time to see Mike pausing outside the equipment cupboard, balancing a tray of vials and pipettes that had been flushed out.

While the rest of us left our glassware on the draining board by the sinks, Mike did experiments so efficiently, he was done within half the allotted time, and spent the remaining time drawing up a graph, or solving equations. Therefore he was the only one trusted to return his equipment straight to the cupboard, and keep everything tidy.

"Mike!"

He was about to put the tray on the floor, to put in the code before I stopped him.

"Here, let me hold that for you."

I offered both arms and Mike stared down at me, looking extremely startled. He was tall, skinny and had brown eyes that had a habit of revealing his thoughts. Right now, I could tell he was debating whether to leave the tray with me, but since I'd offered, and it would be rude not to accept, he placed it gently within my arms and turned to unlock the cupboard.

The back of his lab coat had a crease.

I grinned at it.

The door opened and he went in.

"Was there something you needed?" his muffled voice came from inside.

He came out, took the tray and disappeared back in. I could hear the conical flasks being stacked together.

"Sadies is coming up," I said, not wavering.

Mike didn't reply so I immediately felt dread fill my stomach.

"What was that?" he replied two minutes later, when he came out of the cupboard and locked the door, so I could breathe in again. Oh, so he hadn't heard! Now I felt abashed and nervousness had crept in.

"Sorry, do you mind?" he said, not looking at me as he took of his lab coat, and folded it over an arm. His shirt underneath stuck to him, and he pinched some material away from his stomach and wafted it, to get some cool air down his collar. "I'm going down to my locker to put this away, do you want to come with me?"

The offer was unexpected but welcome.

A thrill swooped through me, and settled in my stomach, mixing with the queasiness and now I felt lightheaded and slightly sick. Following him back to the staircase, I made the mistake of letting him get to too far ahead, so when it came to the stairs, I started to sway and feel like I'd fall down them. A pathetic whimper left my lips and I sagged against the wall.

"Are you okay?" Mike came back up, and stopped two below, so his face was in line with mine. The instant I saw him, and the fact he'd come back, I began to feel better again and I gave a soft smile.

"I'm okay."

"Are you sure? I can take you to the nurse."

"I'll be fine once I get some food in me. Can I hold your arm?"

"Sure."

He got to my stair, and took hold of my hand, hooking it around his elbow and guiding me down. By the time we got to the courtyard, and fresh air reached my nostrils, I was perfectly fine to walk on my own but kept my hand exactly where he put it, not wanting to let go. Most students were in the cafeteria, including Angela by now, but a few were milling around in the courtyard and some were at their lockers.

This area was more exposed, and anyone close enough would be able to hear our conversation.

But who cared about two or three strangers?

It was time to seize the moment.

Ignoring the two boys who had started to pay special attention to us, because they had to skirt to the side to avoid bumping into Mike or me, I let go of his arm to let him spin the dial to his blue paint-licked locker and instead leaned on the one beside it. He put in his folded lab coat, thumbed through a few textbooks and took them out.

"Should we go to the cafeteria next?" he asked, glancing at me.

"About Sadies," I said with renewed determination. Mike had just asked me down to his locker and then to the cafeteria, it certainly didn't seem the action of someone who wanted to get rid of me. There was a chance this could end in success, and I would have a boyfriend I could kiss regularly and go on dates with, not to mention every dance.

"What about it?" he quizzed, before remembering. "Oh! Are you going?"

"I have to," I preened. "I'm one of the event organizers."

"That makes sense, who are you going with?"

I stared at him, putting the answer in my eyes. At first he didn't get it. His eyes went behind me, and slightly up, giving a friendly nod to someone before they came back to my face and expectantly waited. After a while, his eyes started widening and a faint blush started crawling up from underneath his collar.

"Oh," he said. "Were you planning to ask me?"

"Yes," I quietly replied, so only he could hear.

"Ah, the thing is – you know – I should've told you – I mean, I didn't know-"

I let out a panicked gasp.

"Thing is – I mean I don't know if you know - but someone has already asked me. Not that you're not"- he gestured at me, up and down –"not, ah, I mean very much so. You looked beautiful in that green dress at homecoming."

He was at homecoming?

With a girl?

Kill me now.

Take me under, wrap me in chains, and never let me return to this fresh living hell. To my credit, I didn't break apart or faint, I just stared through him and tried to recover from this stark reminder of reality that had just landed a blow in my hopes and dreams for my remaining time at high school. Thank god, there weren't many around to witness my humiliation so I could forget about this.

It would be easier to avoid one person, than an entire group of gossipers who'd never let me forget.

"Yeah, I mean, are you going -" he shuffled his feet. "That way?" he finished lamely. "I, uh, am going to go this way." He pointed over his shoulder, towards the path both of us should've taken for cheesy tacos. But right now, I didn't want to join him on that five minute walk.

I wanted as much distance to separate us as possible.

"You should go." My voice was coming from me, but I was having an outer body experience where I was shrieking and wailing into thin air. "I'm not hungry."

"Hey, let me at least take you to the nurse-"

"Just go, man."

The voice that came from behind had me shrinking into the lockers. It must be one of those two boys. Hiding into my shoulder-length hair, I watched Mike turn even more red-faced, but follow their advice and walk down the path he'd pointed with his thumb just moments before.

Someone put their arm around my shoulders and twirled me into their chest.

Whoever it was, had an intoxicating combination of sweat and musk, in the right amounts.

I tunnelled my head into their neck, as large hands soothed over my back.

It was quite nice.

"Should I leave you to it?" said the other guy.

"Yeah man," a voice rumbled under my cheek. "Let me rescue this baby girl."

"Whatever, Seth."

"See ya later, Brian!"

I lifted my cheek slightly, so I could see what was going on but instead my eyes landed on black DocMartens standing in front of a locker twenty feet away, matching levi's that fitted over a spectacular looking ass, and a familiar face that averted his gaze when my eyes landed on his. In his hands, was a motorcycle helmet that he'd just pulled out of his locker. Not looking in my direction, he single-handedly slammed the locker door close and strode towards the parking lot.

It was the hot senior with a Nuda.

He had been so embarrassed for me, he couldn't even look at me.

What parallel universe was this?

Someone who didn't even know I existed, noticing me like this.

I wanted to laugh or cry, preferably both.

"That's my cuz, Jacob," said the voice.

In horror, I pushed back and saw Seth Clearwater looming over me. Everybody in school knew who Seth Clearwater was. He was the star wide receiver in our football team, and was certainly one of the better looking seniors in our school. Like the hot Nuda, Seth was Native American, with tan skin, thick eyelashes and black hair that was cut short, unlike the hot Nuda who kept his chin length. They looked similar but not enough to guess they were cousins.

"Oh no," I whispered.

"We're not that bad." Seth gave an offended laugh.

"Why do two of the hottest boys of the school have to witness me getting rejected? Life isn't fair," I moaned.

"You consider us hot?" Seth's eyes twinkled. "What fantasies have you been having? Does it include a threesome?"

"Not you," I said, "but your…" I stopped myself. "What's a threesome?"

"Uh, never you mind." Seth looked around. "So, should I tell him? My cuz deserves to know you're into him."

"Don't you dare!" I shrieked.

"Okay, I won't," he insisted. "But you need to tell me another fantasy, so I don't use this one against you. Make it a good one." He leaned back and tapped a finger on his lips and I felt indignant he could dive so quickly past my barriers and try to find out more.

Wanting to make him feel uncomfortable, I stalked forward and felt victory when Seth backed into the lockers and couldn't escape. I placed a hand by his shoulder and stared at his lips which he covered with a hand.

"Forget it," I hissed.

Turning around, I stepped off the walkway and began crossing the courtyard, so I could enter the parking lot like hot Nuda did, and get into my car so I could go home early. I heard running footsteps, and before I knew it I was being lifted off the ground and spun as a face buried into my neck. A few people laughed and clapped when they saw us, before their jaws dropped and phones were taken out.

"What are you doing?" I cried. "People are taking photos!"

Seth put me down. I turned to face him.

"What are you doing?" I repeated the question.

"Ask me to Sadies," he urged.

"Fine," I complied sarcastically. "Will you go to Sadies with me?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation.

I took a step back unsure of his mental stability. He closed the gap.

"Ask me why I'm doing this," he prompted.

"Why are you doing this?"

"It's because I'm not ready to come out and need a beard."

He needed me as a beard? I'd heard that term before. It was when gay guys needed a girl to date out in the open, so they could conceal their sexual orientation from their family and friends. My eyes flew to Seth's and my jaw dropped. Had he just revealed he was gay to me? On one hand, I was happy to know but on the other I felt like it came with a lot of burden.

"What the frick," I spluttered.

"Now you know a secret about me," he said. "So how about it? I will be your boyfriend for the rest of the year and you will have the perks that come with it. Entry into the hottest parties. Unlimited access to my home. Rides in my car to and from school. A person that will be there whenever you feel alone and someone who keeps your secrets safe."

"That sounds insane." I trembled. "What if I meet a genuine guy, and I can't be with him, because I'm in a fake relationship with you?"

"What? Like my cuz?" Seth snorted.

"Does your cuz know?" I asked with a pointed eyebrow.

Seth growled. "No, he doesn't. And I'd like to keep it that way."

"Then no deal."

He groaned. "Oh, for goodness sake. If by some miracle, you find a guy that is perfect for you, then I won't stand in your way. Depending on who he is, we can work something out." He huffed. "You don't have to give your answer today. Sleep on it."

Sensing the rebellion, Seth quickly walked away. I smoothed down my hair and resumed my walk to the parking lot. There was so many things to think about. I'd wanted Mike to be my date to Sadies, and to be my boyfriend – and by some twisted fate, I got Seth instead. Seth who wasn't attracted to me, but saw enough of my humiliation to feel comfortable in asking me to be his beard, and knowing that I would consider it.

I would have all the security of a relationship, without actually having to be in one.

Yes, I've never been kissed.

Yes, I was innocent in many ways.

But I was tempted.

Who needs to be in a physical relationship?

I could live without being kissed. I'd gone sixteen years without it, it wasn't like I knew what I was missing. It would nice, sure, but it wasn't a national emergency. It would be nice having someone there I could count on. I could go to dances without wondering who to go with. If I were lonely on the weekend, there would be somebody to hang out with. It felt nice to be needed for something.

And maybe Seth would grow to be a very close friend.

Mike who?

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AN: Reviews will be nice :) I left a previous story to start one more up my street.