Frankly My Dear, All's Fair in Love and War

21. Blackmail Extraordinaire

Tristan.

I didn't know when it happened, but I guess it starts to happen.

I start to split my gaze between Tyra and Cassie.

Even thinking about it makes my heart hurts. I thought I was a loyal person. I have been loyal. I've slept with a few other girls, and they never stayed in my mind.

It helped that all of them immediately panicked after we did the deed.

Cassie never seems to panic. Not when I held her hands in public or kissed her hair. Not when we walked hand in hand in the school's halls. She smiled and looked at me as if I was the best man in the world. And I knew that it was probably part of her whimsical lying trick, but damn if it didn't feel good. For the first time, I'm not a dirty little secret.

I guess I have to cut our little fake 'show' short. For my own sake.

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Chapter Twenty One: Blackmail Extraordinaire

There had been a lot of touching involved between Cassie and Tristan. They held hands. They kissed each other's cheeks and necks and hands and sometimes even hair. The kiss never lasted more than a second. It's a required thing. It's a make-believe thing. It's a show thing.

But like all acting, there has to be a line. And for Cassie, the line had been kissing.

Apparently, Tristan shared her notion.

He stumbled away from her -stumbled!-, the back of his hand wiping his mouth, as if his lips had just been in contact with something slimy and disgusting.

"W-What the hell?" He rasped. "You took a photo of us?"

"It's part of the plan," Cassie said. She had to admit that the thundering beneath her chest felt painful. She couldn't decide if it was because she had just kissed Tristan or if it was because he seemed like he didn't enjoy it. "I mean, if there's a photo of us making out, it might be enough to take the attention away from the other photo."

"First of all, please don't say his name now. And second... what the hell, Cassie?"

Cassie repeated the statement. But that didn't change anything in Tristan's expression. In fact, his gaze grew rougher and rougher, as if he got even madder at her for explaining. What, was it so bad that she kissed him? Was it so bad that any other girl aside from the beautiful and statuesque Tyra kissed him? The thought brewed at the back of her mind and her heart raced with fury.

"I thought that when you agreed to this fake-dating thing, it would mean kissing me occasionally, when urgently needed." Cassie actually scrolled over her phone because there was something in the shared notes in their group-text that discussed about this. She remembered the mandate clearly.

'Kissing was okay, when needed. Touching was required when out in public. Lots of affection, lots of staring each other in the eye. And if any of you two are afraid to fall in love while doing all that, then just take the time away from each other off school, you dumbfucks. Otherwise, you can make babies for all I care as long as you two keep the charade of 'Happy, lustful, head-over-heels couple' in school.' Tyra had typed the mandate #6 on the note titled 'RULES'.

"I know, I also remembered what Tyra told us," Tristan said before Cassie had the chance to read the whole thing to him. Weirdly, hearing him saying her name just after they kissed also angered her. "It... I don't like it. I've done my best to be the best boyfriend to you at public, but here, with just the two of us. I- I don't want to."

"None taken," Cassie said coldly.

"It wasn't meant to be offensive! I was surprised, -a good surprise, when you kissed me, and then the camera shutters happened and it just-" he imitated the exploding motion with his hand. "Look, I don't want to complicate things."