The Girlfriend Shield Read online

He came closer and reached for my hand. I let him take it. He massaged it while keeping his eyes lowered. “I promise I’ll tell them.”

  I knew that he wasn’t promising to do what my parents wanted, but it was the best I was going to get.

  “Want to do something tomorrow?” he asked.

  “I have to study.”

  “You’ve studied enough.”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Why are you worried about your grades? You’re not here on a merit scholarship.”

  I pulled my hand away and glared at him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I can’t make good grades?”

  “No, you can, sometimes.”

  I jerked the door open and went inside. I pulled it shut on his face.

  “Sarah, I didn’t say you were dumb! Only that you don’t need to make good grades!” he yelled at me.

  “You’re only digging your grave deeper,” I said through the door.

  “What does that mean?”

  I went to the elevator. It was annoying how smart he was because he could be so dumb at times.

  Chapter 2

  I didn’t bother with a disguise the next day to study. I packed my satchel with all my textbooks and went to meet Noah at the library. If Damien showed up, I knew how to get rid of him: I’d ask him if he’d spoken to his parents. I hadn’t said a word to my parents. I still wasn’t comfortable with the pseudo-truth He wanted me to tell them. Dad had been looking up things to do in Hawaii. He’d bought sunscreen and had broken out into a hula dance that morning at breakfast. Mom even seemed to be softening to the idea. She’d smiled at Dad’s antics at least. This would be really great for them. We hadn’t gone away on a family vacation in years, the last one being a trip to Nags Head by car.

  He was at the table when I got there. He gave me a friendly hello when I arrived. He held up the history flashcards. I reached for them, but he pulled them back.

  “Let me quiz you.”

  “Don’t you need to study?”

  “I will. Don’t worry.”

  I let him quiz me. When he finished, I checked my watch and was surprised to see it was almost eleven o’clock. “Wow. I didn’t mean to take so much of your time.”

  He shrugged it off. “Don’t worry about it.”

  I had to go to the bathroom. When I entered, there were two girls in the stalls. I slipped into the last empty one.

  “Did you see Noah Nash studying with Sarah Smith?”

  “Yeah, they looked real cozy.”

  I went still and listened intently.

  “Do you think they’re really secretly dating?”

  “I don’t know what’s secret about it. I heard they were on a double date last night with Damien West and Angela Blackthorne.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Totally. They were in the game room for hours together.”

  “Huh, and they did go to the West Estate together.”

  “Yeah. They’re dating. Fact.”

  “But he keeps taking out other girls.”

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t kiss them or anything. Heather said he barely talked to her the whole night they were at the Halloween Ball.”

  “And I bet she tried for more.”

  “You better believe it. But he wasn’t having any of it.”

  “Is it because she’s poor?”

  “What?”

  “Why doesn’t he take Sarah Smith?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe his parents don’t approve or something.”

  “Forbidden love is the best love.”

  The other girl snorted. “Whatever.”

  The two girls left and I sat on the toilet in shock. I’d barely seen Noah since the West Estate and to suddenly have people talking about us being a couple was shocking. I quickly used the bathroom and hurried back to the table. I needed to leave. I couldn’t stay sitting with him.

  I started packing up.

  “Lunch time?” he asked, packing up as well.

  “No! I mean no, I’m going back to my room to study.”

  “Really? Why?”

  I had to think of a lie fast. “It’s too distracting here. Thanks for quizzing me.”

  “If you want, we could go back to my place.”

  “No!”

  His eyebrows rose at my strong objection.

  “I need to be by myself,” I said.

  “Well, if you ever need a place to escape, you can come to my suite.”

  The offer was too readily given and set off my suspicion meter, but all I said was thanks. I shoved the last book into my satchel and hurried home, but when I got to my room, I didn’t take out my books. I wasn’t going to study. I sat down at my computer and logged into the Noble Social Network. I hadn’t logged in for months. I hadn’t felt the need. I saw everyone I wanted to keep up with in person. I was surprised to find that I’d been tagged in a number of photos. I hadn’t been notified about any of them. The first one was me yelling at Damien. He was yelling back. We looked like we were about to fight. It wasn’t a good photo. There were comments underneath.

  “Ah, young love./s”

  “These two are so scary.”

  “Get’im, Sarah!”

  I didn’t recognize the person who’d uploaded the photo. The profile was suspiciously light on details. I checked out the other photos on the profile. There were a ton. There were pictures from basketball games, school functions. I never saw a picture of the person who supposedly owned the profile though. The profile seemed devoted to catching couples together. There were a lot of “Busted!” comments and other Noble students seemed to catch on that it was a fake account, demanding to know who it was posting this stuff. And I found photos of Noah and me. Photos that I knew couldn’t be real. I’d never sat alone with him in the library before yesterday, but there was a picture of us studying alone together. There was a picture of us walking down the hall together shoulder-to-shoulder holding hands. That had NEVER happened. And there were a few legit pictures like when he would sit with the three of us at lunch. In one picture, he was leaning over my shoulder, saying something to Damien. I checked dates. Supposedly they’d been uploaded over a span of the last month. The comments on these were speculative. Some girls wondered what he saw in me. Others questioned if we were actually going out or not. “Just like Cinderella. ” I couldn’t believe this. I quickly turned notifications back on in my profile. I wanted to know the moment I was tagged in another photo.

  I called Angela to find out if she knew anything about this.

  “Hey, what’s up?” she said.

  “It appears I’m dating Noah Nash,” I replied.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “On NSN, there are pictures of him and me holding hands and stuff. I heard two girls talking about it in the library.”

  “When did you—“

  “I NEVER DID! But on NSN, it looks like we’ve been dating for months!”

  “I have to see this.” Distantly I could hear Angela typing on her laptop.

  “I’m tagged in the photos.”

  “That’s bold of them. Who the heck is Milo?”

  “It’s some fake account where everything is uploaded.”

  “But only Noble students can have accounts.”

  I knew I hadn’t turned off notifications on my profile. And Angela was right. Only current Noble students could have accounts. Or at least, that’s what the site owner would have everyone believe. And the site owner had insisted on quizzing me all morning. Did he do it for a photo op?

  “Noah’s doing this.”

  “But why? Has he hit on you?”

  “No, he hasn’t. What could be his game?”

  “With him, who knows?”

  “He better know. I mean he better have a good reason to give me when I confront him about this.”

  “Do you need backup?”

  And this was another reason why Angela was my best friend. “No, but thanks. I think he’ll be more honest if it
’s just me.”

  “Try to record it if you can that way he can’t deny it later.”

  Angela had a point. Noah could be very slippery. “Will do. I hope Damien doesn’t find out and blow his top.”

  “I know what you mean. Good luck.”

  I really needed to study, but I had to find out what was going on with Noah. Why would he be setting me up to be his girlfriend? Was he getting back at Damien? I had no clue. I sent him a text. *Hey, is that invitation to study in your suite still open?*

  *Definitely. Come on over.*

  I packed up my books and headed to the West dorm.

  Noah was in the lobby waiting for me when I arrived.

  “Thanks for letting me come over,” I said.

  “No problem. Let’s go.”

  His suite was as I remembered it with pictures of him accepting awards and those awards were displayed around the room. His suite was full of him, but nothing else. No pictures of family or friends were sprinkled among the pictures of him. He was an island unto himself, seemingly with no need of anyone else. Except he seemed to need me for some strange reason. Was he trying to cause trouble? To needle Damien? To get me in trouble?

  “Do you want something to drink?” he asked.

  “Water please,” I said.

  While he went into the kitchenette to get me a bottle of water, I snuck out my phone and set it to record. I set the phone out innocently on the coffee table and pulled out a textbook. I waited tensely in the stuffed chair for him to come back.

  “Here you go,” he said.

  I took the glass with a nod of thanks.

  “Do you want me to quiz you on anything?” I offered.

  “No, I’m good.” He sat down on the sofa. Sat may not have been the word. He lounged. He looked relaxed and confident. I wanted to wipe that expression off his face.

  “Are you sure I can’t help you study? I’ve taken up so much of your time, and we’re so close.”

  He tilted his head. “How close are we?”

  My eyes narrowed. “Cinderella-close.”

  He flashed a false smile. “I don’t know what that means.”

  “I mean the rich, handsome boy secretly dating the servant girl.”

  His smile turned sly. “You think I’m handsome?”

  “No, I think you’re creepy. Why are you faking a relationship with me?”

  “I can’t believe it took you this long to find out.”

  “Now I have. Why are you doing this?”

  “Don’t know why you’re upset. A lot of girls would love to date me.”

  “Exactly. Now, I’m asking for the third time: Why make me your fake girlfriend?”

  "My mother thinks I need a girlfriend."

  "There are plenty of other girls at Noble. Lots who'd even be your real girlfriend."

  "My mother has picked a specific girl who she thinks would be perfect for me."

  "I'm sure she's very nice."

  "I don't want my mother picking my girlfriend."

  "Then pick someone yourself!"

  He pointed at me. "I have."

  "Not me, you dingus. Why don't you want a real girlfriend?"

  "I did want a real girlfriend, but she turned out to be gay."

  "So? There are lots of straight girls to choose from."

  "I don't want to date anyone. I want to be on my own for a bit."

  "Fine. Be on your own. By yourself. Without me."

  "That won't satisfy my mother."

  "I'm sorry for you. But I can't help you."

  "But you can."

  I didn't like the way he said that. "Why should I?"

  "Because Angela needs you to."

  I frowned. "Angela does not need me to date you."

  "She does if she wants to keep her secret."

  I went cold at his words. "What are you trying to say?"

  "I'm saying that as you're recording this conversation, I have recordings too. Recordings that would be very damaging if they got out."

  He still had the recordings from the West Estate. Specifically, the one where Angela confessed to being gay. I hadn’t thought about what he would do with it. I’d actually felt a little sorry for him, finding out about Angela like that. I’d been such a chump. "You can't be serious. You know what’ll happen to Angela if her family finds out. They’ll send her to a deprogramming camp. If you ever truly cared about her, you wouldn’t do that."

  "I'm desperate. My mother is insistent that I date this girl. She's practically planning my wedding to her. If I don't get a girlfriend immediately, she'll have me engaged before I know it."

  "No, she won't. Geez, that’s like illegal."

  "My mother has very good lawyers."

  “Noah, seriously, she can’t force you to be with someone.”

  “You haven’t met my mother.”

  It was true. I knew next to nothing about his parents except that they'd had a nasty divorce last year. There was speculation that his father would topple from his spot as the second richest man in the world due to the alimony awarded to his ex-wife. The reason for the divorce was reported as “Irreconcilable differences”, but Mr. Nash was already dating someone else, a junior VP in his company.

  Changing tact, I said, "You wouldn't betray Angela."

  "I told you, I'm desperate."

  "Doesn't matter. This is ridiculous. Why even fake a relationship with me? You can have a real girlfriend."

  "I told you. I don't want a real relationship, and you're the only one I can trust not to push for a real relationship."

  He had a point there. Almost every girl in Noble wanted to be his girlfriend. They wouldn’t be happy pretending either, and they had no reason to keep his secret, but I still couldn't accept this nonsense. "I am not going to be your fake girlfriend."

  "If you don’t, Damien will be available very soon."

  “Would you really ruin Angela?”

  He took a deep breath before answering, “If I have to.”

  “Then did you ever really like her?” I asked. I believed he had cared for Angela.

  “Maybe not.”

  I couldn’t tell if he were lying and that irritated me. I snapped shut my textbook. “No, we are not doing this. You can’t force me.”

  “I’m not.”

  “And what do you call this?”

  “Consequences.”

  “Don’t be coy. You can’t pull it off. This is blackmail.”

  “Would it be so awful to be my girlfriend?”

  “Yes, it would.”

  “How? If you’re my girlfriend, no one will suspect you and Damien are secretly in love.”

  His use of the “L” word in relation to Damien and me put me in a panic. “We aren’t in love!”

  He snorted derisively.

  “We aren’t! I don’t know what we are, but-but-“ I didn’t know how to finish my protest. “We just aren’t!”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “And speaking of Damien, do you expect him to be hunky dory with this stupid scheme?”

  “Not my problem.”

  “It will be when he punches you.”

  “That won’t look good for Angela.”

  “Won’t look good for you either. A broken nose generally doesn’t improve someone’s looks.”

  He didn’t respond. It began to sink in. I was going to have to do this. If I refused to play along, Angela would be ruined. “I have to tell them that this is fake.”

  “I won’t stop you.”

  “He still won’t like it.”

  “He doesn’t have to. He just has to play along.”

  He knew he had me in a Catch-22. If I didn't go along with him, he'd ruin Angela. If I did go along with him, I’d have to pretend to be his girlfriend, and I couldn't tell the others the real reason I was doing it. If they knew he was threatening Angela, they would insist on me not helping him. And the end result would be the same: Angela would be sent away.

  "If we do this, there will be ground rules," I sa
id.

  "I'm pretty sure we have the same ones in mind."

  "No kissing."

  "Yep."

  "No rumors of more than kissing."

  "Wouldn't dream of it. I have a reputation to protect."

  "All of your flashcards."

  He grinned. "Even my French ones?"

  "Oui."

  Chuckling, he nodded.

  "No romantic dates."

  "You will have to be seen in public with me."

  "Do you really want to become official? It might play better if we keep it secret."

  "No, my mother is getting suspicious. I need to be able to hold you up publicly as my girlfriend."

  "Fine. All of the other rules remain."

  "What about winter break?" he asked.

  "What about it?"

  "Let’s go somewhere?"

  "With you?"

  "No, with Dean Crowe." His eyes lit up. “You've already made plans to go to Hawaii with Damien."

  I regretted ever telling him that.

  "Yeah, he invited us. He’s not going to invite you."

  He shook his head smirking. “And no one will be suspicious when they see you and Damien cavorting in the waves?”

  "Angela will be there, too."

  "I can picture it now the three of you walking down the beach hand-in-hand-in-hand. It’ll be a hell of a photo."

  "Who's gonna take pictures?"

  "You mean besides my mother? Anyone who thinks they can make a buck off a West scandal."

  "There will be security."

  "Are you really ready to trust West security?"

  "Mr. Jones is gone."

  He kept staring at me.

  "What?"

  "He was the head of security. A well-liked superior. The details about his dismissal were buried under an NDA, except for the fact that you were somehow involved, and if you were involved, you're likely to blame."

  “You’re making that up.”

  “Am I? How can you be sure?”

  “I can ask him.”

  “You think he’d tell you if his security had a grudge against you?”

  He had me there. I doubted Damien would be truthful about something like that. Then I remembered my trump card. “My parents are coming on the trip.”

  “That’s great. I’d love to see Barbara and David again.”

  “My mom doesn’t like you.”

  “She barely knows me.”

  “Yeah, she’s quite perceptive.”