Imagine the OMGs never tricked Elle into stepping into the kissing booth. Elle and Noah never kissed and none of the movie after the night of the carnival happened. I'm not saying none of those feelings are there... just that nothing's happened—yet. Now it's the next fall, Noah's at Harvard, and June's asked him for a favor. Warning: ridiculous.

Professor Hearn's even more fired up than usual today, so it's nearly ten past four when he finally wraps up his lecture and I can start gathering my stuff. Note to self: next semester, don't sign up for Friday afternoon classes. I'm still getting my laptop into my bag when my friend Mike stops next to me.

"Girls' volleyball has a match in thirty minutes and I promised Stephanie I'd bring a cheering section. You in?"

"Not this time."

"Come on... I've mentioned the short shorts, right?"

"Repeatedly. But I have to meet someone."

"Oh yeah?" Mike immediately looks intrigued. "Anyone special?"

I frown. Yeah, but not the way he's implying. "My kid brother's friend. She's here for some high school debate thing and I promised my mom I'd show her around."

"Is she hot?"

"She's in high school," I glare. "And you have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, but... is she?"

"No."

Not entirely accurate, but I'm not in the mood for Mike's jokes today. And, even if she is, it's irrelevant, because she's also Shelly. Well, Elle—Elle that I'm under orders never to call Shelly again, even if I break that pledge a lot. Elle whom I've promised my mom I'd be nice to and keep an eye out for this weekend, as if she weren't the least help-wanting person I know. She's here with a bunch of other LA debaters and their coach, so I don't see why she'd need any help from me anyway, but Mom insisted. So—I'll give Elle a tour, she'll catch me up on school gossip, we'll send Mom a picture to prove it happened, and then we can both get on with our weekends.

I find Elle just where her message said she'd be, sitting outside the student center with a bunch of other highschool-looking kids that must be attending the same tournament. She smiles broadly when she sees me, waving to get my attention—as if I hadn't recognized that laugh of hers as soon as I entered the quad—and when I reach the group she instantly springs up and wraps her arms around me.

"You really missed me, huh?" I joke, confused by the display of affection. Shelly's usually more likely to greet me with a punch to the shoulder than a hug, but maybe it's true absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or in this case, maybe absence makes the brain forgive a few of the various grudges she holds against me.

"Of course!" Elle laughs, but there's something a little weird about her tone. "Guys, this is Noah. Noah, my fellow debate geeks. Alright, let's go!" Elle tugs my arm in the direction I just came from.

"Go?" I'd figured she'd want to hang out with her friends longer, but Elle seems intent on leaving.

"Yeah. To dinner, remember? I'm starving." She's giving me another oddly bright smile.

I have no idea what she's talking about, but that's nothing new.

"Uh, sure. Dinner." It's not even five yet and I have dinner plans of my own later, but I'm pretty sure the look on her face means play along.

"See you all tomorrow!" Elle tells the others as we walk away, and suddenly she's looping an arm around my waist as we walk. Do I mind? Not really. Do I have any idea why? Also no, but again—playing along for now. She's leaning into me enough that her ponytail brushes against my arm with every step she takes, and I can't remember the last time we were this close. Elle's always around when I'm home, but usually we're glaring at each other from across a table or she's holed up in Lee's room; having her close enough to recognize her shampoo is a rare occurrence. Well, there was that one time last year when she tried to destroy my curtains, and a few movie nights this summer when she fell asleep next to me. She'd looked too cozy to disturb, and besides, Shelly's cute when she's asleep. I'm not really sure why that came to mind just now. Then again, I also still don't know why she's acting so weird, and that's the more pressing mystery.

I wait until we're out of earshot of her friends before stopping and turning to Elle with a quizzical look.

"Mind telling me what that was all about?"

"What what was all about?"

"We have dinner plans? Did Mom forget to tell me?"

Elle blushes. "Not really. I just... didn't want to go to dinner with the other debaters, but I didn't want to be rude. So... I told them I had plans with you. But we don't actually have to."

"And?" I can tell from her expression there's more she's not telling me.

"And what?"

"And... you're so afraid of getting lost on this big scary campus you decided to hold on to me for safety?"

Shelly's arm immediately pulls back from me and I'm a little sorry I said anything.

"Oh, that. I, um, I guess I'm so used to walking with Lee that it's just a reflex," she tells me with a nervous smile.

Now I know there's something she's not telling me; never in her life has Elle confused me with Lee. I notice her eyes darting back to the student center steps, as if checking to see whether her friends can still see us.

"Elle." I stare at her, waiting her out.

"Okay... don't get mad."

Never a good sign. "What am I not getting mad about?"

"I, um, may have mischaracterized, or, ah, intentionally overstated the precise nature of our relationship to some of those people."

"English, Elle."

"I may have implied we're dating."

I burst out laughing. "We're dating? You and I?"

"It's not funny!"

"It really kind of is, Shelly."

She's still glancing nervously back at her friends and I'm suddenly inspired to lean down and gently tuck a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear, giving her a lingering look as my hand stays curved at the nape of her neck.

"Noah, what are you doing?" Elle looks mortified and I can tell she's torn between squirming away and keeping up the act.

"Well, you seem worried your friends are watching us, and apparently we're dating, so... I'm just gazing adoringly into my fake girlfriend's eyes, hoping she'll tell me what the hell's going on." I smirk.

"I should have known you were going to be an ass about this." Elle sighs, shaking my hand off.

"Look, I still don't know what this is. Maybe if you told me..."

"Fine. That guy in the red hoodie... his name is Jamie. I've seen him at a bunch of tournaments, and he always follows me around, and then today he was on my flight and switched seats with someone just to be next to me, and he wouldn't stop talking to me, and he kept hinting about how his school has this big fall formal coming up..."

Yeah, I see where this is going. For all the times she's yelled at me to stay out of her love life, she's sure quick to drag me in when it's useful to her.

"And you couldn't just... tell this guy you're not interested?"

"I have to spend all weekend with him. And possibly be paired for some of the debate rounds. I didn't want things to be more awkward than they had to be. So... I just happened to mention how glad I was this tournament was at Harvard. So I could visit my boyfriend."

"I see. And now you need me to play the role of said boyfriend?"

Elle nods sheepishly.

"No." I just... No.

"Please? Just for this weekend, and no one else will ever hear about it."

"No." There's no way this ends well.

"Oh, come on. It's not like I'm asking you to make out with me."

I can't help grinning. "So I get no benefit from this arrangement?"

Elle blushes scarlet, but parries back quickly. "Would that change your answer?"

I pretend to think about it, then shake my head. "Nah."

"You are impossible."

"Look, Elle, why do you even need me to go along with this? You told this loser we're dating, he's seen us together, you're good."

"Wellllll..."

Of course—there's more she hadn't mentioned yet. There always is.

"There's a dinner tomorrow. For all the teams. And I kinda said you'd be there."

"And what if I already have plans tomorrow? Like, say, a real date? With a girl that might actually make out with me?"

"Do you?"

"Not yet. But I could change that."

Elle's eyes flash angrily, then narrow again as she fixes me with a determined look before letting a single word drop.

"Mustang."

"What?"

"That nasty scrape on the Mustang. My memory of that day... it's getting clearer. Maybe it's not a mystery how that could have happened."

"Wow, Shelly. Blackmail, really?"

She simply stares back at me, her gaze unblinking.

"Yeah, it's all coming back to me now," Elle muses, one finger slowly tapping against her lip. "Maybe it wasn't some unknown jerk passing too close. Maybe... maybe someone really sucks at parking. Maybe Lee never should have agreed to let someone borrow his pride and joy."

I'd be madder if she didn't look so adorably pleased with herself. I'd missed dealing with her nonsense.

"So this is your deal, huh? I pretend to be your boyfriend because you're too chicken to tell a guy to get lost, or you make sure Lee kills me? Not that Lee's going to like this either." I point out.

"Lee will never know about this. Lee can't ever know. Seriously, Noah, it's just one dinner. An hour, tops, and then you can go back to your easily-impressed coeds or whatever your usual weekend plans are. No one but my debate friends will know, and after the weekend I'll say we broke up."

"Fine. One hour and I get to call you Shelly the entire time."

Elle rolls her eyes, but I can tell she's hiding a smile. "Like you wouldn't anyway. Deal?"

I smirk at her and she seems to take that as the agreement it was. I could torture her longer before agreeing, but she's right, she's not asking much. And, as the last few minutes have reminded me, I have kind of missed Elle's particular brand of crazy—especially when it isn't paired with Lee.

"Alright, on to that campus tour Mom ordered me to provide, or should I skip the mossy old buildings and just show you to the nearest ice cream shop?" This time I'm the one who wraps an arm around her as we resume walking—her friends can probably still see us, after all—and I guess this isn't the worst way to start my weekend.

Author's Note: I originally planned to finish this whole story before I started posting it. But... then TKB2 came out and now I can't wait to share. So... let me know what you think, and please be patient with updates - it'll get done, especially if I know people are enjoying this :)

New chapters get posted to WattPad first - so join me there if you're extra impatient.