The Pitch: Everyone believes that Gigi's boyfriend is completely made up, but is he?
First published at part of the @romancesparks Valentine's Day Anthology
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Who is that?"
Gigi was staring wistfully at her phone at a picture of a god-like individual looking up from the screen. She smiled sheepishly at Joey who squinted his questioning eyes at her.
"My boyfriend," she sighed.
"When did you get a boyfriend?"
Gigi was sure that the question didn't mean to sound as harsh as it did. This boyfriend thing was new to her too. She could see Joey still trying to process the situation. She didn't blame him. Not only had Gigi never really had a boyfriend before, but there was also the added complication that Joey had set up a blind date for her with his cousin for the upcoming valentine's dance after Gigi had pouted that she didn't want to be the only person going alone. She had totally forgot about the dance, swept up her new boyfriend's eyes, and voice, and arms, and was still dreamily floating around, even now that they were separated by an entire ocean.
"Over the weekend, when I was skiing in Switzerland." She immediately regretted answering as she felt everyone's eyes in the class on her and she shrunk under the attention. She should have come up with a plan to tell Joey he'd have to cancel the date, or at least stopped starring at her new boyfriend's picture for a minute during computer class to realize what the consequences were going to be.
"You went to Switzerland for the weekend?" Joey questioned loudly capturing the attention of the rest of the people who hadn't already been paying attention around them. Gigi found herself no longer in a row of high school students working on assignments as the teacher left to drop some forms off at the office, but completely surrounded by classmates on their rolley-chairs. Gigi could feel her heart start to thump as she tried to ineffectively come up with some idea how to change the subject.
"Yes," she squeaked out. She could tell that no one believed her. She didn't blame them. When Gigi first started going to Conservatory Prep just outside Toronto, she had been incredibly nervous and had developed a destructive habit of lying to fit in and cope with all the changes that had been happening in her life at the time. It had got her in a lot of trouble as her lies started to unravel, turning her into a semi-social pariah. Gigi had been lucky though, through a million, soul revealing, guilt-laden apologies, she had made her way back from the depths of social despair to more than a few good friends that she could count on and a few others who she felt appreciated her presence. She knew they were still a little wary of some of the things she said, and sometimes teased her half-heartedly when she would say something a little out of the ordinary. Gigi having a boyfriend was a little out of the ordinary. "Yes, that's why I wasn't here yesterday." Her words came out slowly as her eyes fixed on her shoes.
