♫Erica♫
I stared at everyone’s faces. My lips opened, into a silent scream. I tried to take a breath, but I couldn’t. Everything faded into darkness. The last thing I can remember seeing, was Daniel’s shocked face.
***
╣Daniel╠
Eric…Erica had feinted.
I can’t believe this…
No one spoke. It was complete silence.
I moved to Erica’s body, and picked her up. She felt so small in my arms. Was she pretending to be a guy, this whole time?
Confusion blurred into anger.
Still silent, I turned around, and carried her away.
***
Twelve hours later
***
♫Erica♫
I woke up, groggy and disorientated. My eyes searched the high ceilinged room slowly… Where was I? I didn’t recognize this place… The whole place was illuminated by the dim streetlights outside, shining from the massive twelve-foot tall windows, set into one whole wall.
There was a silhouette of a man, with his back turned to me, staring out of the windows.
My body knew who it was before my mind worked it out. My heart started thumping hard, and I blushed red.
“Daniel…?” Was he mad at me?
He didn’t turn around.
“Daniel? What is this place?”
“Come and see for yourself.” His voice was cold and dispassionate. He was mad at me, then.
Frowning, I struggled to my feet. My head was still feeling a little woozy, so I stumbled my over to the window. When I reached it, I gasped.
“D-Daniel…What…?”
We were in Paris. I swallowed. Daniel brought me here, with him?
“When did you bring me here?”
“While you were unconscious, Eric…or Erica. Whichever you prefer.”
“Wait, Daniel. I can explain.”
“You better,” he said, turning around to face me for the first time. His blue eyes were burning with anger. “You better have a perfect explanation for pretending to be a guy, coming to a boys’ school, lying to me, and then playing with my feelings.”
“Daniel…I really didn’t want to lie…”
“But you did. Let’s move past that. Just tell me.”
I took a deep breath, and started talking. “It was about four weeks ago. I got an offer from this amazing, award-winning director. He wanted me to be the lead for a new movie. But there was one catch. I had to be a guy in the movie. To get some practice, he sent me to an all boy’s boarding school…when I met you.”
He had no reaction, but I pressed on.
“That one day, when I had to shower, I bumped into you… That’s when we met, boy to girl, I guess. At the same time, I had to do some jobs outside school…as Erica. You came to them, even though I was trying to avoid you so hard. Then the picture of us kissing got published, and my agent thought that if I dated you, I would become famous or something. And so we did.”
I tried to sound as detached as possible, like it wasn’t my own story I was telling.
“I guess…that’s it. I didn’t want it to be like this, Daniel, I really didn’t. I’m sorry.”
