Keeping Up Appearances

by Elizabeth Stevens

  “Okay. Shall we go?” Xander asked as he jogged back down the stairs, pulling a jacket over his shirt.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Sure,” I breathed.

  He took my chin in his thumb and forefinger and looked at me closely. “You okay?”

  I nodded again. “Totally fine. Let’s bowl.”

  The look on his face suggested he didn’t quite believe me, but he nodded once. “Okay. Mind if I drive?”

  “You worried the girl is a terrible driver?”

  He grinned. “Not at all. I just have this chivalrous streak that makes me feel like driving you for our first date is more romantic.”

  “Nothing about tonight needs to be romantic, Xander.”

  His grin fell a little, but he covered well. “Let it not be said that King Douche doesn’t do a first date properly. Now. Your chariot awaits, my lady.”

  I mumbled to myself, but let him take my hand and walk me outside to his car.

  His car – not his parents’ car that he drove like most kids our age, but his own car – was a Beamer, of course. Yep, BMW. What kind, I didn’t know. But, I knew it would have been expensive. Then again, I was pretty sure his dad had a Ferrari and their house sure made it look like they weren’t hard up for money.

  Xander let me sit in my own head as we drove to Kingpin Bowling. The carpark was expectedly full for a Saturday evening, but Xander managed to catch someone leaving. He met me at the back of the car, took my hand and we went inside. He dealt with all the paying and lane and shoe stuff while I looked around in the hopes that no one we knew was there as well; it was Adelaide after all.

  As we walked to our lane, I got a little bit more with the program. Xander was smiling at me warmly and he was exuding that infectious charm again.

  “If you’re as freakishly good at this as you are at mashing the keypad, I might break up with you,” he teasingly warned me.

  “Bollocks!” I scoffed. “You’re far too enamoured with me.”

  He grabbed me around the waist from behind and buried his nose in my neck. “Well, that’s true,” he said as we crab-walked the final few steps to our lane’s bench.

  I remain adamant that my heart didn’t almost fall for it, but I did giggle.

  “Okay, enough. There’s no one here to con, King Douche.”

  He chuckled roughly and let me go. “You know,” he started as he sat down and started changing his shoes, “I don’t even remember the last time I went bowling.”

  My heart tripped over its untied laces and my stomach plummeted. “Jason, Nancy and I used to bowl all the time.”

  He slid across the bench so his hip bumped mine, his hand across the back behind me. “Watch out, Doll. We’re about to make some amazing memories that’ll wash all your pain away.”

  I looked at him sceptically.

  “Okay, not all your pain maybe. But, I’m going to do my best to make you forget it at least for a little while.” He kissed my nose and jumped up before I could react. I busied myself with my laces. “Now, how do you like your balls?”

  My eyes snapped up to him and I found him wearing that cocky smirk. He threw me a wink.

  “I always find bigger’s better. But, I worry about your piddly little arms…” He gave me that stupid teasing pout.

  I stood up. “There is nothing wrong with having piddly little arms. Better than your… How much do you actually have to work out for those muscles?”

  Oh, he got cheeky now. He took two steps towards me and swung me into his arms. “You let me lift you and I probably won’t have to go to the gym at all.”

  I tried to supress my giggle. “You calling me fat?”

  He ran his nose up my neck. “I’m not calling you anything. If I was, I’d say you were perfect just as you are.”

  Calm down, heart. “You’re not using me as gym equipment.”

  “I promise you won’t notice.” He span me so my legs were straddling his waist and I decided that it was probably sort of a requirement he touch my arse at that point. “Little holding you against a wall, little carrying you upstairs.” He winked again. “It won’t matter if your knees go weak.”

  I had this very strange flutter in my chest that I pushed away with gusto. But, I gave him a smile as I wrapped my arms around his neck; the whole body flirtatious thing I could allow for a moment, but nothing else was going to be involved here.

  “You think you kiss that well, do you?”

  Those cognac eyes fairly shone and I didn’t hate being that close to see them. “Oh, I know I do.”

  I let towards him. But instead of kissing me, he dropped me gently to the ground and turned to the rows of balls.

  “Come on then, Doll. You never did tell me your size.”

  “Uh, six. I think.”

  He frowned at me. “Six? That’s a little light isn’t it?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just what I usually use.”

  He nodded. “All right.”

  He picked up a couple of balls for each of us and put them on our machine. While I finished tying up my shoes, he keyed our names in. When I looked up again, I found he’d labelled us ‘Doll’ and ‘KingD’.

  I raised my eyebrow at him and he gave me that split-second grin. “You’re up, Doll.”

  I picked up my ball and took my place. I threw and watched as the ball meandered down the lane. I hit the pins just right of centre and it took down five of them.

  “Oo, nice,” Xander said.

  I picked up my second ball and threw it again. Naturally, I missed entirely and it went slipping down the right gutter.

  “Ah, shit. Well, I doubt I’ll do any better,” Xander commented as we changed places.

  After a few rounds, it was painfully obvious that Xander had been completely bullshitting or at the very least doing a terrible job of making me feel better; he got a strike or spare basically every bowl. I meanwhile wasn’t doing very well.

  “Doll, can I offer some advice?” he asked as I picked up my ball.

  “What, King Douche?”

  “Do you want to try the eight?” He spoke slowly, like that was going to be less insulting or something.

  I sighed as I looked at the pins then him. “Do you think it will help?”

  “I’m not really well-versed in all balls, Doll.” He winked again. “But, I figure a little bit more weight might get you a bit more…oomph?”

  I waved my head around as I thought about it. Finally, I decided why the hell not. “Okay.”

  He grinned and jumped up. “How’s this?” He picked one up and showed it to me.

  I returned his smile. “Fine. Thank you.”

  He held it out for me. As I took it, he pulled it towards him, pulling me with it.

  “Xand–”

  He pressed his lips to mine quickly then jumped away with an impish smile. “Off you go then.”

  I wrinkled my nose at him in a terribly unbelievable display of annoyance and turned to take my shot. I let go of the ball and watched it roll down almost the middle of the lane. When the hideously fluoro orange ball hit the pins, the lot of them crashed to the ground for my first strike ever!

  I threw my arms in the air as I heard Xander cheering. I span and we shared a huge smile.

  “You did it!” he yelled, looking the most proud and excited I think I’d actually ever seen anyone but maybe Mark be of me.

  “I did it!” I yelled back.

  He opened his arms and I ran into them in excitement. Hang this idea of not giving him the wrong idea or getting too close or whatever it was that made my brain tell my heart it was an awful idea. I was happy and I wanted to share it with him.

  I threw my arms around his neck as he picked me up and span me around, both of us laughing. He held me tight and I did likewise as he let my feet hit the ground again. I pulled away far enough to look at him. His eyes were warm.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “You’re welcome. It is a
boyfriend’s job to make his girl’s life better.”

  The romantic in me beamed at the same time as the modern woman in me frowned. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

  “Why not? A partner’s supposed to be there to lift you up,” he did just that for a second with a smile, “when you’re down, help you reach your goals, walk through life beside you. They’re a best friend, a confidant, someone you can count on.”

  Well, I guess I couldn’t be mad about that. “That would be sweet. If we were actually dating.”

  “If we were actually dating.” He got that infectiously charming look in his eyes and I looked down to hide my smile. “All right. My turn!” he said and I couldn’t decide if he was forcing the joviality or not.

  But, the rest of the night went well. We laughed and we talked and paid each other out; Xander was an excellent performer who spent as much time teasing himself as I did. Like all our previous Messenger conversations, he was surprisingly easy to talk to and the conversation flowed easily and naturally. We had burgers for dinner, where he did a marvellous walrus impression with his chips. And, we got to into the cinema just before the ads were finishing with a great giggling and awkward shuffling over people to get to our seats.

  I even let him hold my hand.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I looked up from my phone when I heard Kate’s high-pitched giggle as she said Xander’s name. She was leaning up against him, her hand on his chest, and looking up at him as she batted her eyelashes. I knew flirting when I saw it, not that I was terribly good at it myself. I watched with some disinterest as he pushed her away with his charming smile. But, it seems she wasn’t giving in that easily.

  “Do you share him? Or just know you can’t keep him honest?” Nancy appeared beside me and I jumped a little.

  “What?” I asked.

  She kicked her head to Xander. “Is there a limit on how many other sluts your boyfriend gets to hook up with a week? Or do you play it by ear?”

  I frowned at her, wondering where the hell my best friend had gone. I wondered if maybe she had liked Jason this whole time. I just didn’t know why she had to be acting like this and dragging him down with her.

  Then, the actual implication of her words hit me and I realised a sight like Xander being hit on was supposed to make me annoyed because we were desperately in love, or some shit. And I won’t deny that a part of me had felt a little jealous about it, but I’d just momentarily forgotten that my automatic response was supposed to be one of outrage and indignation, not amusement and indifference.

  I deepened my frown at Nancy, then walked over to Xander and Kate. I couldn’t have told you what I’d been planning to do. But when I got there, I walked straight in front of Kate, slammed Xander against the lockers and kissed the hell out of him.

  Keeping up appearances or not, I may have thrown a little more into it than I’d meant to and his response was dangerously close to making my knees go weak. By the time we pulled apart, we only had eyes for each other. Except, I couldn’t look too hard into his because there was something in there that something in me was about to respond to but couldn’t, not if I was walking away at the end of this with my dignity intact.

  “What was that for?” he asked, slightly out of breath.

  “Oh, you didn’t like it?” I asked flippantly, pushing off him and I saw Kate must have walked off.

  But, he grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him. “Oh, I liked it far too much,” he said, running his finger down my cheek. “It just seemed a little PDA for you.”

  “I just thought you could use a reminder as to who you were dating.”

  He leant to my ear. “Fake dating.”

  I shrugged and threw his usual reply back at him, “Sure.”

  “You keep kissing me like that and I might forget we’re fake dating, Doll.”

  “Xander Bowen doesn’t know how to real date.” I pushed away from him again and winked at him. My heart had this weird feeling in it, but I kept my smile in place.

  He grinned at me charmingly, my heart forgetting its previous mood and doing little skips. “I dunno. Saturday seemed like a pretty good date to me.”

  I scoffed. “Says the guy who’s been on… Count them, one date.”

  He smirked, lighting up his eyes. “Well, you’ll just have to take me on more.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  His smile grew for a second, then he pressed a quick kiss to my lips as he took my hand and we headed out for recess. I looked back for a moment and saw Nancy staring after me. She had the weirdest look on her face; I could have sworn she was plotting my most grisly murder, but she also looked like a five year old who’d lost their parents at the zoo.

  “Ignore her, Doll. She and the git can suck it.”

  “She probably does,” was out of my mouth before I could remind myself what a filter was.

  Xander snorted and his hand tightened on mine. “Is that me having a bad influence or are there sides to you I haven’t met yet?” he asked.

  I nudged him with my shoulder. “You’ll have to wait and find out.”

  “Oh, I look forward to it. But, I put my money on it being the second one.” He gasped dramatically. “Don’t tell me, Little Miss Prim-and-Proper has a dirty side!”

  I felt my cheeks warm. “No. Of course not.”

  He tugged me towards him and I looked up at him. He breathed in heavily. “You do!” he said with a smile like all his Christmasses had come at once.

  “I do not.” I tried not to smile from awkwardness.

  “Oh, you do!” He wrapped his arms around my waist and dipped his lips to my ear. “And, exactly what does it take to bring out this dirty side?” he practically purred in my ear.

  Goose bumps chased themselves across my skin and I swear my stupid little heart went chasing right on after them. You. “That would require me having one.”

  Xander’s hand left my back and slid downwards. I frowned at him expectantly as I watched him try not to smile. Honestly, a part of me didn’t really care that he was touching my arse. It was the implication I couldn’t let stand; the touching of arses or anything else remotely more than lips would send him the wrong message. It would send me the wrong message. We weren’t really dating; ergo there was to be no…funny business. The previous Saturday was to be the only exception.

  Xander didn’t move his hand this time and I didn’t do anything to make him. “Did you lock it up because the git was a prude? Or was it Nancy?” he asked, a challenge in his eyes.

  I pressed my lips together to stop my smile before I answered. “Neither. Just because you’re dirty enough to make Lucifer blush doesn’t mean the rest of us are.”

  Xander was damn close to that infectious charm. “You’re getting comfortable with me, Doll.”

  Yes. “I’m doing nothing of the sort.”

  “You are. You’re–”

  “Right, let’s see it then,” Greg chuckled as he bounded over to us.

  I glared at him, and it wasn’t because he’d interrupted our conversation. “Sorry, mate. Nothing to see,” I answered as I pulled my collar away to show my mark-free neck.

  Greg’s excitement faded, only to be replaced a moment later with that knowing smile. “Well, then. I’m expecting to be best man.” He winked as he pointed between us as though it was decided.

  I tried hard to keep a straight face as Xander sighed, “Mate, it’s not–” and Greg’s face fell again.

  “The hell it isn’t,” Greg said with a knowing look in my direction. I had the weirdest feeling that Greg was disappointed with Xander because he thought Xander was treating me badly by not admitting there was more here.

  “And, if I’m just a prude?” I asked.

  Xander snorted and I glared at him, knowing he was still thinking about my apparent dirty side.

  “Oi! Don’t be rude to our Doll,” Greg said and grabbed him in a head lock.

  The boys tussled for
a moment and then Xander actually accidentally got a flailing fist to the side of Greg’s head as Greg paused with his mouth open and a handful of Xander’s school shirt in his fist.

  “Shit!” Xander cried. “You right, mate?”

  “Me? I’m fine. But, that?” he pointed to Xander’s neck.

  “But, what?” Xander asked with enough of his usual cavalier nonchalance.

  “What the fuck!” Greg chuckled as Xander looked at me like I was the root of all his problems.

  Xander shrugged out of Greg’s grip and pulled his collar back over the hicky on his neck. “Seems our Doll could teach me a thing or two.” His usual nonchalance here slipped a little.

  He was less pleased by the situation than had been the plan and I didn’t blame him.

  So yeah, Xander and I had thought it would have been funny if I gave him a hicky since Greg had seemed so excited about the whole thing. What had started out as a joke as I’d straddled him in his car – can you see where hindsight might have been helpful here? – had quickly escalated into a very real make out session which had only ended when my phone went off, sounding very loud in the small, quiet space. All I could say was thank God Mark liked to check in when he hadn’t heard from me for a while, otherwise my whole theory of ‘don’t cross lines’ would have been well out the window.

  It had become too real, too quickly and I don’t think either of us could really deal with the reminder as well as we might have liked. Well, I wasn’t really dealing with it and it made me see him not really dealing with it either, whether he was or not.

  My body’s memory of the weekend was the only reason I could think that I’d fairly crushed him against his locker and a part of me really wished I hadn’t. Too many kisses led to hearts forgetting what was going on; I could feel it, and I knew I couldn’t let it happen.

  “Well, fuck me,” Greg breathed, bringing me back to the present situation.

  “Rather not,” I heard myself quip and then I grimaced.

  Xander wrapped his arm around my shoulders as though everything was fine. “Oh yeah, Doll’s got a dirty side we’ve only just warmed up,” he said in answer to Greg’s look of shock.