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Warning for a crossover with IT/Game of Thrones and a slight bit out of character due to the crossover used. There are also mentions of cheating on a significant other even though they aren't really dating yet. Word count is 3,315. I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of How to Make Your Fake Girlfriend Your Real Girlfriend.
"Pretend to laugh at something that I just said," said the curly-haired young man that had just joined me at the table. He was looking over his shoulder in a way that screamed someone he really rather not speak with was coming this way.
"What?" I asked, following his look and seeing a rather attractive blonde girl coming our way. She looked like the sort of girl that any guy would want to date. Which honestly confused me as to why this one seemed to be so afraid of her.
"Pretend to laugh at something that I just said," he repeated, breaking out into laughter of his own.
I didn't know what was going but I was going to find out what it was after this was dealt with. I started to laugh mirth filling my grey eyes. I could see a relieved look flow through the eyes of the man sitting across me.
"Stanley, is that you?" asked the blonde woman, walking over as though she'd just spotted him and hadn't been following him. "You didn't call after our last date."
Stanley went pink in the face and started to fidget a bit. I knew that look well enough to know that this was a man who was in need of help.
"Your last date?" I asked, turning to Stanley so that the woman wouldn't see that I was close to laughing. My voice had stayed stern, a trick that I'd picked up from my brother Brandon. He can always keep his voice stern no matter how funny he thought something was. "Are you seeing someone behind my back?"
"Um….uh….it was a one-time thing, honey," Stanley said, reaching across the table and trying to take my hand.
I pulled my hands back toward myself. If I was going to do this I sure as hell was going to sell the act. "A one-time thing?" I asked, looking over at the woman who seemed to be getting angry as well. "A one-time thing? How could you do this to me, Stanley?"
"I didn't know he was seeing anyone," the girl said, trying to put a comforting hand on my shoulder as the pretend tears started to fall from my eyes. "If I'd have known I wouldn't have even asked him out."
"Babe," Stanley said, looking at me as I sold my anguish over being cheated on, "don't cry?" He got up and walked over to me pulling me into a hug. "What are you doing?" he whisper hissed at me.
"What does it look like I'm doing," I whisper hissed back. "I'm selling the act that you started by implying that we were dating."
"Oh," he whispered low enough that only I would have heard it. "I'm Stanley, by the way. Stanley Uris."
"Lyanna," I said, turning my upward so that only he could see and smiling at him. "Lyanna Stark."
"Is she alright?" the blonde asked, looking in concern at me. "Do you want me to campus cops and have them…."
"There is no need for that," Stanley said, looking alarmed.
"No need to get you away from the girl that you are clearly troubling," the blonde said, shaking her head. "I don't even know why I thought you were cute in the first place." She turned to me and shook her head sadly. "Honey, if you need anyone to talk about this lying cheater…."
"It certainly wouldn't be the person that he lied about cheating on me with," I said, glaring daggers at her.
The blonde looked between myself and Stanley as though expecting one of us to say something that wasn't slamming her or the situation. When neither of us said anything, she looked angrily between us and then stormed off.
Stanley seemed to relax when the woman was well out of sight and earshot again. "I'm sorry about that," he said, looking like he meant it. "It's just I made the mistake of taking her to this function I had for work and I guess she thought that meant that we were dating or something like that."
"Charming," I said rather dryly.
"The thing is that I told her before that we were only going as friends. I wasn't looking to date my first year in college, you know? I want to settle down and focus on working on my career."
"I guess I can understand wanting to settle down and focus on a career path," I said, watching him. "But at least you could have told her that instead of finding some girl to pretend to be your girlfriend."
"I did tell her that. She thought that was some convoluted lie to get her to leave me alone." He laughed a bit and ran his hand through his curly hair. "I guess the lie is always more believable than the truth, huh?"
"I guess so," I said, seeing a shadow of something dark cross his face. "Is there some other reason that you wouldn't want to get involved with anyone? Besides the whole lying about having a girlfriend thing, you seem like a pretty nice guy."
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said, standing up and getting ready to leave.
"Maybe I would," I said, grabbing a piece of paper out of a notebook that I kept in my purse and writing my number down. I held it out to him. "Here's my number if you ever feel like talking about this thing I wouldn't believe."
His grey eyes stared at the piece of paper hanging in my hand in the air between us for a while. I was almost afraid he wasn't going to take it. The dark look had crossed his face once more before he reached out and took my number.
"I don't know if I ever will feel like talking about it but I guess it would be nice to have at least one friend on campus."
I chuckled and nodded, watching as he back away from the table and turned to leave. "See you around, Stanley Uris," I said, waving at him in a friendly manner.
"Yeah," he said, waving back at me. "See you around, Lyanna Stark."
When I got home from my almost run-in with Stephanie in the cafe I was startled to see the light on my answering machine blinking. No one usually called me unless it was my parents. I had told everyone that I was trying to hunker down and focus on my studies. I was planning on being one of the youngest accountants ever. But still, that blinking red light on my answering machine sent a chill down my spine that wasn't very pleasant.
Pushing the button on the machine, I gritted my teeth as one of the guys that I was chummy with in class spoke.
"Stan, it's Bobby," he said, probably thinking that I would be wondering who was calling. "I know you said that you were trying to focus on your studies, buddy. But I need a wingman for this date that I'm having tonight. She has this friend and she refuses to go out without this girl having a date too. So I was wondering if you could be a real pal and maybe take one for the team and be this girl's date. Call me back when you get this? If I don't hear from you by Saturday, I'm going to assume that's a yes."
"Crap!" I shout, sitting down on the rented dorm couch and putting my head in my hands. Then I remembered the number that I'd stuck in my pocket. Lyanna's number. "She's going to laugh right in my face."
Even as I said this, I picked up the phone from its cradle and punch in the number on the piece of paper that still smelled like her. She answered after the third ring and I couldn't help but wonder if she was waiting for me to call. But how had she known I was going to use the number and throw it away?
"Hi, Lyanna?" I asked, trying to keep the question out of my voice and failing miserably.
"This is she," Lyanna's voice chirped cheerily through the phone line. "Who may I ask is calling?"
"It's….uh...Stanley," I said, wanting to slap myself in the face. How many other guys were named Stanley too at this college? "Stanley Uris. We met earlier this afternoon at the cafe, remember?"
She chuckled. A sound that made me want to laugh as well and I would have too if I wasn't about to ask something like I was about to.
"I do remember," she said, the smile plainly still in her voice. "My fake boyfriend, right?"
"That's me," I said, trying to think of a way to put my request that wouldn't sound too out of the ordinary.
"That was pretty quick," she said, sounding amused.
"I'm sorry?"
"When I gave you my number I wasn't expecting to hear from you right away. Not that it's not great to hear from you. It's really great to hear from you. It's just…." She stopped and then I could hear her mumbling to herself on the other side of the phone. "Way to go Lyanna. Make him think you're crazy."
"I don't think you're crazy," I said, stopping her mid-rant. "Um….but you see I did kind of have an agenda when I called you."
"Is that so?" I could hear the chuckle clearly threatening to break free from her lips and travel down the phone wire to my ears.
"That's so."
"What exactly is this agenda you seem to have, Mr. Uris?"
"Stanley," I said, feeling my cheeks pink up even though she couldn't see it. "Mr. Uris is my father."
"Stanley," she said. Her voice saying my name sounded like music from the heavens and I couldn't wait to hear her say it again.
"You know how you kind of help me out of that situation with that girl earlier, Stephanie?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"Well, I know it's a lot to ask of you. But I was kind of hoping that you would be willing to help me out once more."
"How?"
I was startled into silence. This was the first time since leaving Derry that things hadn't gone as I had predicted that they would go. I wasn't used to this sort of thing happening. My silence must have confused her because I could hear calling my name as I tried to figure out what was going on here.
"I'm sorry," I said, laughing a bit. "It's just that was not how I thought you were going to react to that."
"That's not how I thought I was going to react to that either," she said, that bit of laughter still present in her voice. "I guess I surprised us both on that count, huh?"
"Yeah. You did."
"Be that as it may, how can I help you out of this current situation that you seem to have gotten yourself in the past two hours since our meeting?"
"Two hours?"
She couldn't stop the laughter this time and neither could I. I don't know how long we spent laughing at the joke that wasn't a joke. But when the laughter died down finally I knew that I was doing the right thing. This felt like the right thing to do.
"Yes," she said, giggling a bit. "Two hours. How much trouble have you gotten yourself into, my fake boyfriend?"
"It's not trouble so to say," I said, feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It would be if I didn't get her to agree to go on this date with me and pretend me be my girlfriend again. "It's just this friend of mine from class is trying to set me up with this girl that his girl is friends with."
"And you want me to go with you and pretend to be your girlfriend so that you don't have to go out with this girl, right?"
"Yes. Although now that I actually hear the words, I do kind of sound like a dick, don't I?"
"It's understandable," she said, sounding like she believed this to be entirely true. "I wouldn't want to be forced into going on a date so that my friend could lucky either."
"You really do get it, don't you, Lyanna?" I asked, looking at the message machine. "So, what do you say? Are you willing to help your fake boyfriend out of yet another jam?"
"Of course, I am. Just give me the time and date and I'll be there with bells on."
"Thank you so much! I'll just call and get the information from the guy and then I'll give you a call back. How does that sound?"
"Sounds great, Stanley," she said.
"You can call me Stan if you want to. All of my friends do and plus you're supposed to be my girlfriend."
"Alright, Stan. Then you can call me Lya if you want to. Most of my friends and my family call me that. Plus you are supposed to be my boyfriend."
"Sounds good. I'll call you back in a few minutes, Lya."
"Until then," she said and hung up.
I stared at the phone for a bit before hanging up and dialing Bobby's number. He picked up on the first ring and sounded super annoyed.
"Man, I called you hours ago where were you?" he asked, the tapping of his usual box of cigarettes sounded from the other side of the phone. He only ever smoked when he was aggravated about something.
"I was trying to study for my advanced Maths test on Friday," I said, trying not to let my own annoyance shine through in my voice.
"Look, I know you said that you wanted to hunker down and study and get your degree as fast as you could, man," Bobby said, sounding like he thought the idea laughable. "But can you help me out and be my wingman?"
"I would but I don't think that my girlfriend, Lyanna, wouldn't like the idea of me going out with another woman," I said, smiling at the silence that came from the other end of the phone. "Bobby?"
"That's cool, man," he said, sounding like it was the exact opposite. "I didn't know that you were seeing anyone and figured that seeing as you'd already been out with Stephanie…."
"Which was a huge mistake. Thanks for that."
"If I'd have known that you had a girl I wouldn't have set you up with her, to begin with." More silence filled the phone line. "Why don't you bring Lyanna with you and I'll find someone else for Stephanie?"
"I don't know. Lyanna and Stephanie did have a pretty bad run-in at the cafe earlier which could have come to blows if…."
"I'll pay for you and Lyanna. Just do me this solid, man. Please?"
"Alright," I said, smiling and unable to wait to call Lyanna back. "What time and day?"
I jotted it down as I listened to Bobby ramble off the information. I thanked him and he told me fuck off in that joking way that friends do. We then hung up and I quickly dialed Lyanna back and told her the time and date of our official fake first date. Which I told her was actually our twentieth date.
Stanley Uris is one hell of a liar, I thought as I listened to him tell me about fake dating history. How we'd met in the cafe during one of his study period which the only part of that that was true was the place of our meeting. Not that I minded having to lie to help him. He was a really nice guy and I would have helped either way.
"So, we've been on twenty dates so far?" I asked, taking in that information. "So we started dating at the beginning of the semester?"
"Exactly," Stanley said, sounding like he was relieved that I was understanding this.
"Then what you're saying is you are taking your girlfriend on your twentieth date anniversary to be the wingman for a friend?" I asked, trying to sound stern the way that a normal girlfriend would if she knew this.
"Um...uh…."
I broke up laughing at this and could just picture the blush that was crossing his cheeks. "Stan, I'm just messing with you," I said. "Formal wear or casual?"
"Casual. I'm dressing casually at least."
"Then so will I."
"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you at…."
"You'll pick me up here at 7:30."
"Dinner's not until around 8:30 though."
"Um, they'll have questions and we might want to work on the answers that we give them, right?"
"Yeah. So, how about 7? Give us more than an hour to hash everything through and come up with the perfect answers."
"Sounds like a plan, Stan. See you then."
"Yeah. See you then."
I was just putting the phone down on the cradle when Catelyn and Brandon walked into the apartment that I shared with them. Catelyn was the first to notice the smile on my face and quickly took my arm, pulling me into my room.
"Who was that that was on the phone?" she asked, watching me as I started towards my closet. "Was it a boy?"
"Um...yes," I said, smiling. "We met earlier today when I helped him out of a jam and he asked me to accompany him to dinner this weekend."
"Do we get to meet this young man?" Brandon asked, standing in the doorway of my bedroom as I opened my closet door. "Or will I just have to make sure that I'm here when he comes to pick you up? After all, I have to make sure the man whose dating my little sister is a good one, don't I?"
"Brandon!" Catelyn chided, moving towards the closet to help me choose an outfit out for my date/not date.
"All I said was that I wanted to meet the guy is that so wrong?" Brandon asked, watching us as we pulled the perfect outfit together.
"You will meet him," I said, looking over my shoulder at Brandon. "Stan's coming over earlier before the date to talk and hang out a bit."
"Lyanna!" Brandon chided.
"What?"
"You aren't pretending to be dating this boy because mother and father don't think you have a social life, are you?" he asked, watching me carefully.
"That hadn't featured into anything for a while now," I said, putting the pink cotton dress over my desk chair and going over to my dresser to search out a pair of pink stockings I had that matched the dress. "Maybe I just like the guy and want to give him a chance? Is that such a crime, Bran?"
"No," Brandon said, watching me carefully once more. "If that's the case then I'm sure your young man won't mind coming over on Thursday night having dinner with us. So, that we can get to know him that is."
"I'm sure Stan would enjoy that," I said, feeling my cheeks pink up as I tried to turn back to my searching. "I'll invite him over when we meet up tomorrow."
"Good. I'm looking forward to it."
"Me too."
"Let's give Lyanna some space now, Brandon," Catelyn said, leading Brandon back into the living room. I could hear them arguing as they went which was soon joined by my other brother Ned's voice.
"How do you get yourself into these situations, Lyanna?" I asked myself. I wasn't sure if Stan would agree to come to dinner with my family or not. One thing I did know was that I was going to at least him to tomorrow. That was the least I could do.
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of How to Make Your Fake Girlfriend Your Real Girlfriend as much as I enjoyed writing it.