Fake Date, Real Fate-Chapter 299: Streetlights and Confessions

Aria drives like the car personally insulted her mother.

She takes turns too fast, brakes too late, one hand on the wheel and the other gesturing aggressively at absolutely nothing. The tires hum too loud against the road, the engine whining every time she accelerates just a little too hard. Streetlights blur past the windows, streaks of gold and white slicing through the dark.

I sat in the passenger seat, gripping the door handle with one hand, my mind whirled with everything that had just happened. The humming tension, the whispered secrets, the towering figure of Adrien looming over me, guiding and protecting me. The way my skin still tingled from the ghost of his touch.

My gaze drifted back to the scrawled numbers on my palm, the ink heating my skin like a brand. Two weeks. The...Adrien had left me with more questions than answers.

Who was this man, who seemed to know so much about me, even when I barely knew myself? How did he fit into this strange, upside-down world where dreams and reality blurred together like watercolors on wet paper?

More importantly, why do I feel like agreeing to this mysterious rendezvous?

I try to wipe the ink off against my jeans... Well, not really wipe hard.

It remains intact.

I scrub at it with my thumb... Well, mostly the edges of the ink.

I scrub at it again with the hem of my jacket, then the edge of a napkin Aria shoved at me five minutes ago. It smudges, at the corners but still whole. Worse—every time I touch it, a strange, electric tingle crawls up my arm, like my nerves are lighting up in protest. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

I try again.

My hand tingles—buzzes, like it’s been struck by a live wire—and I yank it back, pressing it against my chest instead.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I feel Aria’s eyes on me through the rearview mirror. I don’t look up. Instead, I harden my expression and finally meet her gaze in the reflection, narrowing my eyes in what I hope is a stare that says you betraying snake of a woman.

She grins.

"So," she says, all perky, like she didn’t just orchestrate the most confusing moment of my life, "Are you going to keep ignoring me, or should I guess what’s going on in that head of yours?

"I don’t want to talk to you," I huff, folding my arms and turning toward the window.

"Ouch. Cold." She clicks her tongue. "What’d I do?"

I take a slow breath, watching the city smear past in streaks of neon and shadow.

"What did you do?" I echo, my voice tight. "You threw me to the wolves."

Aria laughs — actually laughs — like I just gave her a compliment.

"I seriously have no idea what you are talking about. Also, I don’t think we are coming from the place wolves can be."

I whip back around. "You left me alone with him."

"Who?"

Aria’s smirk deepens as she glances at me out of the corner of her eye, the streetlight catching in the sharp angle of her cheekbone.

"Who?" she asks again, feigning innocence so badly it’s almost an art form.

I glare. "Don’t play dumb. You know."

She tilts her head, as if weighing her options. "The handsome stranger?"

"He is cute," I blurt out, then pause. "...Yeah. But he is not a stranger

She laughs again — softer this time, but with that same maddening look in her eyes.

Staring into her eyes, I say, "You knew him and that makes you a liar."

"Alright, alright. You got me," she responds, raising her arm as if she’s surrendering and trying to avoid becoming further caught in the act of being found guilty.

My mouth drops open. "You—"

"Relax," she says, waving her arm in the air as if it is a flag of truce. "I didn’t sell you to a cult."

I stare at the side of her head like I might set it on fire with my mind. "Why didn’t you tell me we were coming to the park so you could set me up on a date?"

"Um, technically..." she lifts one hand off the wheel again to gesture, "it was just a way for him to talk to you."

I roll my eye. "That is a date."

"Which you then made happen yourself. Very enthusiastically, might I add."

"ARIA."

She laughs harder. "Okay, okay. I set you up. Happy? I’m sorry. But I didn’t really think you were going to—"

"Throw up on him?"

"—kiss him," she finishes, smirking back at me.

I choked on my spit. "We did not—"

"—kiss," Aria finishes, her smirk widening into something devilish, like she just won a game I didn’t even know we were playing.

My face burns. "We absolutely did not! I—there was no—what are you even talking about?"

She glances at me again in the mirror, eyebrow arching slowly. Her eyes flick—not to my face—but to my mouth.

Then she hums.

"Interesting," she says quietly.

"What do you mean?" I blurt out.

She nods her head towards my image in the mirror. "Your lip gloss is gone."

My stomach drops.

I press my lips together, suddenly hyper-aware of how sensitive they feel. How swollen. How warm. Like they’ve been touched too recently to pretend otherwise.

"I ate," I say weakly.

Aria makes a sound that is somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. "You ate his mouth?"

"ARIA."

She grins wider. "OH MY GOD! YOU totally KISSED."

Turning my face away from her and feeling embarrassed heat flood my cheeks, "It was, like, quick."

"Quick?" she repeats. "Isa, you look like you forgot how to blink."

I open my mouth to argue, then shut it again because—damn —I really did forget how to blink. For a sec. Or maybe longer.

We stop at a red light. The car jerks to a stop. Aria finally turns around again and is looking directly at me fully, with one arm hanging over the steering wheel, as her facial expression softens just a little.

"So," she says, quieter now. "What happened back there? When I and the other tall dumbo left to give you guys some space."

I cross my arms even tighter. "I’m not telling anything to people who are such good actors."

She gasps. "Excuse you. I am an excellent actress."

"That’s exactly the problem."

"Isa," she whines. "Come on."

I hesitate.

No way will I actually say it. Saying it would make it real. It will be even harder to ignore, or blame on stress, or coincidence, or my brain just getting overloaded from too much food and rides.

But she is my best friend, and my chest feels like it’s going to burst if I keep this in.

"He said..." I start, then stop and swallow hard. "He said I was his."

Aria goes quiet.