Playing Pretend Got Gayer 15

Playing Pretend Just Got a Lot Gayer: Chapter 15

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Noah's P.O.V.

Cody and I are once again piling mounds of food onto our plates. Lately I feel like that's all we've been doing. We eat, we sleep, and we pretend we're gay. Okay, so maybe the last one is a little out of the ordinary.

I guess I'm just feeling a little bored. Normally I like doing the same things over and over again, but that's when I'm at home with various siblings coming and going as they please, while always trying to ruin my days. I'm starting to miss them… Kind of.

I guess I just miss the uncertainty of how my days will go and having to outsmart them to get my way.

Now my only obstacle is pretending I'm gay, which I can't help but feel should be harder than it is, but of course it's not.

This type of obstacle requires no brain work and is just making me question my sexuality. On the plus side, at least I'm getting a little action…From a guy…Who I think I like…Brilliant.

"Noah, you okay?" Cody asks me as we make our way to the table.

"Super." I say fighting to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

Cody rolls his eyes as he sits down beside me. "Thinking about Heather again?" He asks before shoving food in his mouth.

"No. Just bored."

I ignored the odd look Cody gave me; I know me being bored is out of character, I don't need him to make it obvious.

"You're the one who suggested food-"

"Because I knew you'd be hungry-"

"And how are you bored with all of the things that are going on?"

"I just need something to challenge myself mentally."

"So get a Rubiks Cube." Cody says with a smile on his face.

"Too easy." I say just to annoy him.

My plan backfires as he smiles back at me. "You have to twist it around before you start."

"God, what would I do without you?" I ask as I take a bite of my sandwich.

"Not Rubiks Cubes, that's for sure."

I roll my eyes and feel myself smile against my own will. Maybe my mental challenge will be to analyze my feelings for Cody. It would either be incredibly easy or impossibly difficult, of course to analyze my feelings for him I have to admit that I feel something for him. Hmmm, perhaps I'll just stay in my state of self denial a little longer.

Cody sits his chin on my shoulder as he whines "Are you done eating yet? You're so slow."

Sometimes it amazes me how fast he can eat considering that his mouth is running the whole time.

"For you I'll be done." I say as I turn to capture his lips. Seeing as we're in the middle of the resort at feeding time, I'd say it's a good bet that someone's watching us.

I feel his arms wrap around my neck as a simple kiss becomes a makeout session. God I love this boy… Wait love?

I break the kiss and stare at Cody who's looking at me like I have two heads, but I really don't care at the moment. Love is serious. Love traps you with someone forever. I don't know if I want to love Cody.

I'm just about to tell Cody I need to use the bathroom, A.K.A. evaluate my feelings, when I hear Justin screaming.

"Everyone please gather around! I have something to share that I think everyone will want to hear!"

Suddenly my eyes go wide, this can't be good. The look on Cody's face is no better; we both know this has to include us, more specifically me.

"Come on." He says as he pulls me by my arm to the circle that's forming around Justin.

"Like, what's going on Justin?" Katie asks from her spot in between DJ and Sadie.

"Are you asking me out?" Sadie asks.

Justin visibly cringed at Sadie's question. Cody and I smirked. "No Sadie, I am not."

"Oh."

"Anyway…" Justin said trailing off and pulling out a magazine that I immediately recognized as my own. "Does anyone know what this is?"

"Garbage!" Courtney screamed.

"Hot!" Duncan screamed before getting slapped by Courtney.

"A porn magazine?" LaShawna states although it sounds like a question.

"Thank you LaShawna. That's exactly what it is. Can anyone guess where I got it from?"

"A store?" Geoff asked.

"Good guess, but no."

"The garbage can?" Courtney screamed. She was ignored.

"Did you have a subscription?" Owen asked.

"Nope."

"Can you get to the point man?" DJ asked looking away from the magazine.

"Or at least share." Duncan muttered before being smacked again.

"Of course, but where I got this might surprise you."

At this point I'm holding back a glare. I've already put things together. Heather was helping Justin. I put my key on my bed side table and she took it when I wasn't looking and then gave it to Justin. God, when did I get so naïve?

"You see I found this in Noah's room, funny that a gay man would have a magazine full of naked women."

Everybody turned to stare at me. I was about to defend myself when Duncan spoke up.

"How do we know you got it from his room?" And Duncan to the rescue, but I'm sure he'll make me regret it later.

"How would you even get into his room?" Trent asked curiously.

"I had some help from Heather."

"It's mine." Cody says out of no where.

Suddenly all eyes are on him.

"You keep straight porn in your boyfriend's room?" Justin asks amused.

"I gave it to him after we started dating so that he could hide it. I didn't want to look at it while we were dating… It felt like cheating."

At that there were 'aww's' and at that moment I was truly overwhelmed by Cody's acting skills and his ability to improvise.

I kissed him in front of everybody.

"Any other questions? Or maybe you'd like to discuss the other items you found in my room; my Shakespeare collection perhaps?" I ask sarcastically.

Justin scowled knowing that he'd lost. I can feel Cody smirk beside me. We won this round.

"I have something we can discuss." Chris says walking up to join our circle. My right eyebrow shot up, I have a bad feeling about this.

"First off I want to commend you and Cody on your acting skills; if you were better looking you two could get out of the reality T.V. business and onto real T.V. shows."

Cody and I both scowl, although it's obvious that being called ugly should be the least of our worries at the present moment.

"You see after you brought it to my attention that you would only keep your relationship a secret if you got compensation I did a little research- well actually I didn't care until the big dogs said the money would come out of my salary, but I digress- I did a little research. Did you two know that there are cameras all over this resort?"

Crap.

"Wait, there are cameras?"

"Not now- I'm talking to Noah and Cody. Did you two know that?" Chris waits for an answer but neither of us is willing to provide one. "I'll take that as a no."

"You know it was actually fun to watch you two trick everyone here into thinking you're together."

"You mean they're not?" Beth asks.

"No they aren't Beth, but to lessen the pain, I've created a short video! Chef, bring it in!"

"I don't get paid enough for this…" Chef muttered as he wheeled in a huge T.V.

The T.V. started playing clips ranging from our first kiss in the hallway in front of Eva to us discussing our plans and even some shots of us making out.

I put my head in my hands. Suddenly I want today to go back to being boring. After the video was over Chris stepped in front of the T.V.

"Wasn't that fun? Well I guess I'll leave you to discuss this with your peer group. Oh, and Noah," I raise my head to look at him. "I wouldn't expect compensation money anytime soon."

I turn to look at the faces staring at me. I suppose it's time to face the music, well, I had a good run. I'm sure Eva will only break one of my arms.


"What the hell know-it-all?" Eva asks stepping forward.

"I'm pretty sure the video explains everything." I say ready to accept my fate.

"All except how you got that I liked you." Eva says looking at me like I'm an idiot, and to be honest I'm starting to think that's what I'm becoming; not that I'd ever say that out loud.

"Zeke told me you did; you mean you don't?" I ask.

"No! I'll hang out with you, but I'd never date a nerd like you." Eva says defensively. "But if a girl like me ever likes you, then you should consider yourself blessed." She says getting into my face.

"Back she-douser." I say feeling relief flood through my body.

"Wait- so then why did Zeke say you liked Noah?" Sadie asked.

"Good question." I say as we all turn toward the home schooled boy.

"Eh! I know what I heard dog! Eva and Izzy were all like talking 'bout it in junk ya know."

"Somebody please tell white boy that he ain't gangster." LaShawna asked.

"What are you talking about? I don't like Noah, and Izzy and I definitely never talked about him."

"First of all my name is Kaleidoscope, learn it!" She screams at all of us. "Second, you did that thing where you eavesdrop on us and don't understand what we mean, didn't you?" Izzy asks Zeke.

"No I heard it yo!"

"What exactly did you hear Zeke?" I have a feeling I'm going to want to kill him after this.

"Kaleidoscope was all like speak it straight Eva, but Eva was like no goes, and-"

"Can we get a translator?" Duncan asks annoyed.

"I believe I can be of assistance!" Harold says stepping forward. "I think he's saying that Kaleidoscope was telling Eva to start-"

"Can we just watch the tape? This is getting old." Courtney asks.

"What tape?" Bridgette asks.

"The tape on the VCR that's clearly labeled 'Zeke eavesdrops on Eva's crush'."

"Who uses VCRs anymore anyway?" Harold mumbles.

Courtney glares at Harold before sliding the tape into the V.C.R.

(On tape)

"I don't get why you just don't tell him you like him. It'd be sooo romantic!" Izzy squeals from her place hanging upside down on Eva's couch.

"It would not be romantic! And you'd better not tell him either!"

"Jeez I won't! But you should totally talk to Noah about it; he'd understand."

"Maybe you're right."

"Well duh!" Izzy said before doing a back flip off of the couch and leaving the room.

(Tape over)

"See yo! I told you!"

"I wasn't talking about liking Noah! Izzy wanted me to talk to him about, well-"

"Liking you Zekey!" Izzy squealed.

Eva gasped and looked at Izzy like she was going to kill her.

"Oh, wait, that was a secret wasn't it? My bad!"

"Wait- so Eva liked Zeke and not me?" I ask trying to clarify things.

"Yeppers!"

"God Zeke- you're such an idiot!"

"You're the one who believed him." Duncan pointed out.

"Agghhh!" I turn to see Cody's reaction only to realize he's no longer standing next to me. "Where's Cody?"

"He left during the first video." Tyler says nonchalantly.

I roll my eyes. "That would've been nice to know." I say angrily. "Which way did he go?"

"That way dude." Tyler says pointing toward the beach that was usually left ignored in favor of the pool.

With that I take off for the beach.

Zeke's P.O.V.

"So you like me?" I ask Eva.

Instead of an answer I receive a punch in the arm that sends me to the floor. Eva then took off for the hotel.

"Hey come back shorty! I like 'em feisty!" I scream before getting up to run after her.

Noah's P.O.V.

As I arrive on the beach I see Cody tossing rocks into the water. I walk over to him and sit beside him.

"Hey."

"Hey." Cody replies tossing another rock. "How'd things go with Eva?"

"Turns out Zeke was wrong; she liked him."

"Oh."

"I should have known better than to believe homeschool. He's not exactly what I'd call a reliable resource."

Cody doesn't even smile. "Noah, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For all of this. This whole pretend dating thing was my idea and I shouldn't have ever suggested it. It was stupid. I should have known that it would fall apart like this." Cody says staring at the sand below him.

I sigh. "It's not your fault. I kissed you that day in the hallway, not the other way around. I never gave you a choice in all of this. Even if we hadn't started to fake date you would've been involved whether you liked it or not."

"I didn't do this all out of revenge." My eyes widen. "I wanted to know if you'd go along with it. I-I wanted to know if you were gay. Ever since the awake-a-thon people have been saying that you are, and I wanted to know."

It's like being hit in the gut. I never thought he'd be telling me this. Even if I had thought he'd tell me this, I would never have thought it'd hurt this much.

"I'm sorry Noah."

"It's okay. If you have the opportunity to figure something out then you should."

We sit in silence for a few minutes before Cody speaks again. "You're my best friend."

I look at him wanting him to continue speaking.

"When we first got to the island we became friends. I liked you even though you were a total jerk and pretty much useless as far as the challenges went. After the awake-a-thon I freaked and so did you. You got voted out before I could work up the guts to talk to you about it. And when we got here, well, what was the point? We'd both made friends and it didn't matter." Cody took a breath before speaking again. "When we started fake dating I realized how much I'd missed you. I don't have to act around you. I can be me and it doesn't matter because nothing impresses you and I have nothing to lose around you. I can be a geek and play video games and you don't care and you'll play them with me. And I can be an asshole because I know no matter what I do you'll always be a bigger one and I can say whatever I want because you'll always have a comeback. You make me happy even when you look at me like I'm the lamest person in the world. Even though this whole thing backfired on us I'm glad it happened, because you're the best friend I've ever had; including people from back home."

I take in all of what he just said before I speak. "You impress me."

"What?"

"I agree with everything you said about me except that nothing impresses me."

"How do I impress you?" He asks as though I just told him some preposterous lie.

I sigh. I hate to stroke his ego. "How don't you? When I first met you, you lived for pleasing other people. Then all of a sudden we're fake dating and you're a totally different person. You're confident, quick on your feet, smart, funny, and you go between being this innocent little boy to being an asshole of epic proportions. Every time I think I've got you figured out, you turn around and do something I'd have never thought of." I look at him and smile for the first time since we started this meeting. "And I hope that you take all of this in stride because the last thing I need is for you to go and get a bigger ego."

He smirks at me. "I'm the one with the ego?"

I smirk back in reply. This in turn leads to Cody pushing me down in the sand and for a few minutes we roll back and forth trying to pin one another. In the end, he's stuck underneath me.

"You're lucky I didn't pin you underwater." I say looking at the tide that's making it's way up the beach.

"You're lucky I'm playing clean this time." He says referring to our last wrestling match.

"Like you ever play clean."

"True." He says before faking me out with his leg and using his upper body to flip our positions.

"Can't you ever just let me win?" I say giving up.

"As soon as you start letting me win at video games." He says before collapsing on top of me.

I kiss him.

It's a quick peck on the lips. The kind you give to someone you're kissing for the first time and are scared to see their reaction. I wait for his response.

"You kissed me."

"You beat me at wrestling."

"Why?"

"Because you cheat."

"I mean why'd you kiss me?"

I take a deep breath from underneath him. "You make me have bisexual tendencies." I say in a nonchalant way despite the fact that my heart is ready to pound out of my chest as I'm sure he's aware of.

He leans down and kisses me. "Ditto."