Sue booted up her computer. She hated watching these videos, but she hated wondering what they looked like even more. Or, at least, she thought they did, until she saw them. Mr Madison wasn’t holding back any more. Practically every shot of her had Frank in it, and every shot of Frank had her in the background, and most of the time Seth was glaring at them… or seemed to be.
“Knock, knock,” she heard, looked up, and almost screamed.
“Frank?”
“Hi.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “How did you get in?”
“Your sister let me in.” He waved at her earbuds, “I guess you didn’t hear. Watching the videos?”
“Yes. Yes, of course, I always watch them,” she said, trying to act as if it was just something she did because, well, because.
“So… what do you want to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Pretty soon, not sure when, everybody will find out about the videos. And… and they will assume that we are in a relationship. So… what do you want to do? Should we just tell them that, nah, that’s just for the videos?”
Or? Or?? But when he didn’t say it, she managed, “What do you want to do?”
“Well, I don’t want you to feel forced into a relationship.”
“Oh, I don’t, I mean, I’m not. What do you want to do?”
“Well, I’m a guy. I mean, I’ve had a couple of girl friends and it didn’t go so well.”
“Well, but we are acting, right? We need to make it look good. So even if you snore or something…” I stopped, horrified at what I had just suggested, “I mean, pick your nose…” That wasn’t any better! “Sorry, I can’t really think of a good example but, you know, if we were acting…”
“Acting?”
“I’m sorry, I thought that was what you were suggesting. That we could start, you know, acting like we were boy and girlfriend. Like you did already, coming over here. Into my bedroom…”
I was sure my face was red.
“Oh! I hadn’t thought of that. You’re so smart. But… we would need lines. Not lines, lines, but like principles. Are we up to ice cream? Do I close your door? Do we kiss in public or just behind closed doors??”
“Oh! Yes, that is so smart. Do you want to work on them now?”
“Yeah. You got paper? We need a slow build up. And we’ll do lots of denial and not showing up together in public.”
“But we could, sort of, accidentally touch each other from time to time.”
“Oh, that’s perfect. Do you want to let your folks know?”
“No, no, much better not.”
“Ok.”
“So,” he said, taking the paper. “We start with today. You texted me…”
“Oh, no, nobody will believe that!”
“No, listen. You texted me with a question about the game, and I suggested that I come over and we talk about it.”
“But I missed your text, or I would have met you downstairs.”
“Oh, that’s good,” he said, writing it down…
Frank said to George, “Where is Sue?”
“I dunno,” George said, biting into a kolache. “How’s your dating going?”
Frank turned red. This was so awkward. Pretending to date a girl he really wanted to date. She wasn’t the prettiest girl in the universe, but she really seemed to like him… and that really was the most important thing, eh? It sure made a girl more attractive when she seemed to like you!
Just then Seth walked in, with Julia on his arm. How had he ended up with her! She was always so bouncy, so cheerful, so excited about everything the team was going… and so into Seth! And how he had managed Frank certainly didn’t know.
“How’s it going, Peeps?” Seth asked, going over and grabbing a coke, a sausage dog, and a chocolate donut.
“Frank’s worried about where Sue is,” George said.
“I am not, I just wondered,” Frank said, embarrassed. Which he didn’t need to be. Worrying about where Sue was good for the act they were putting on, no?
Seth pulled Julia onto his lap, but she frowned and got back off. But she didn’t frown that much and put her hand on his lap, and he grinned and put his arm around her shoulders and leaned up against her. “Girls are great,” he said. “Glad you’ve got one.”
“Sue and I aren’t… I mean, we sort of are… oh, good, here she is.”
“Hello,” Sue said, coming in. She was wearing a different dress this time, long, almost to her feet, with flat sandals that seemed like they almost weren’t there… which was probably the idea. Make it look like she was barefoot without making her run around barefooted. “Sorry I’m late, my bike got a flat. Good thing I keep a kit.”
She went over and got a water and a granola bar, which Frank saw that Mr Madison had started stocking.
“Oy, come on in!” Mr Madison called from the speaker. “Let’s get this show on the road. Get in here.”
The team got up and followed Frank into the studio. “Ok, guys, sit down!”
The team sat down and Julia went across the way and sat behind Mr Madison and grinned at them. “And… we’re live. So it’s been going great with you lot. Having a great healer is really helping you lot!”
Frank watched Sue blush. It was one thing he really liked about her, how modest she was. She hated getting credit for anything. And she looked so good when she blushed.
Mr Madison went on and on about how important having a good healer was to their team. He acted like they were the only team that had a healer!
“And how about you, Frank, how are you finding your job as leader?”
Frank looked at Mr Madison. Well, over his shoulder. And was tempted to frown. “Well, Sir, it’s been a struggle.” This wasn’t exactly the kind of image he wanted to show! “Learning to lead a group in battle is difficult. I have to not only do my own fighting, but think about how the whole team is doing…”
Well, maybe this wasn’t so bad, Frank thought as he read the prepared speech. It would cover for him when he messed up, and give him a ‘growth’ arc. Indeed, it would make everything he did seem better.
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Von