The Fill - In Boyfriend
Episode 4

“But he broke up with you in the parking lot before he actually did.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Ten more steps and we will reach the group, so I cannot explain to him that I have treated Bradley badly. The first thing I told him after not seeing him for two weeks was that my friends were going to die. That's because he looks so amazing. But I should have said that. I shouldn't worry about what my friend will think. However, it was hard not to do so, when I spent two months answering questions about his whereabouts, two months telling me everything about him. All because of Jules. I shouldn't have let him approach me the way I did.

Claire noticed me first and her eyes seemed to sparkle with relief when she saw my date. We were the closest, so he was the one who always stood up for me. Gia! Hearing his cry, everyone turned around.

Jules' views are priceless. It was a satisfied smile followed by a slight jaw. And for once, Laney had no face of pity. I smiled broadly.

"Everyone, it's Bradley."

He raised his hand in a small wave and I don't know if it was funny or unintentional, but when he said "It's nice to meet you all," his voice was low and raucous.

Claire widened her eyes at me like a way-to-go-Gia was written in it.

Jules got her inner braggart back quickly as she looked at him from top to bottom. I held my breath, waiting for her to say she did not resemble her picture at all or at all like the man I used to date. Instead he said, "I'm surprised you want to come to a high school prom."

He stared straight into my eyes and tucked his arm into my back, hooking me around the waist. “That's important for Gia.” With words he pulled me to his side. My back is tingling with touch. My first instinct was to withdraw, but it wasn't my reaction to Bradley. I'll lean on him. I'll breathe happily. I make myself do both.

Jules grinned. “Is that the theme of your relationship? ‘Importance Gia’? ” He really does air quotation.

Garrett, Jules' date, laughed but then stopped quickly when one of the other men hit him on the back.

"No" said my date before I could answer. “But maybe it should be.”

With this, they all laughed. I was too busy glaring at Jules to laugh.

“We will dance,” says my date. And when he took me to the dance floor, I realized that I didn't know his real name. Is that actually the grin when we walk to the gym? So when the man-whose name-me-not-knows embraces me, I lean my forehead against his chest and whisper, "I'm sorry."

SECTION 3

What are you apologizing for? bradley asked.

I don't even know your real name.

She had a little laugh that I could feel through her chest. Then he bent down so that his breath tickled my ear as he said, "My name is Bradley."

I looked up with a breath. "Thank you?"

He shakes no. “I am a method actor. I have to be someone. "

"Are you an actor?" That wouldn't surprise me. He's obviously very good at it.

He looked up, thinking. "You didn't tell me about me. Did my? ”

He looked over my shoulder, towards where my friends were still standing. “Good friend you there.”

“They are mostly good. Jules just kept trying to get me out. "

"Why?"

"I don't have an idea. I think he thought I was the alpha of our group and there was only room for one person without resorting to cannibalism. "

"I'll take your weird wolf analogy and assume you mean he wants to be the leader of your group."

I shrugged and looked across the room as Jules hooked her arm to Claire's arm and said something to her. “That's the only thing I can think of. He's the main reason I need you here tonight. He thinks I'm lying. I don't want to give him any ammunition. He's found enough without me giving him some on a silver platter. "

He raised his eyebrows — he likes to do that, I've learned. “So, if he knows you're lying. . . ? ”

"Yes. I've understood. That's what I'm doing now and never have I done before. But he thinks I am. And if I had come in here without you, I would have left already. "

“You can't believe that your other friends are like you enough not to let him do that?”

"They like me. But for two months he worked on this. He really thought he had something on me. He thought I was hiding something. I need it tonight. "

“So, if you're really alpha, why don't you kick it out?”

I often think about that question. The main answer is that I really didn't think I was in control, as Jules thought. But the other answer, which I admit only on my darkest nights, is that I worry that if I make everyone vote, they will vote for it. I worry that no matter how much faith I show on the outside, deep down people don't like me. And maybe they were right not to do it. But I'm not gonna tell him that. He's seen enough weakness tonight. Because I'm only the eighth crime.

"What?"

“I sometimes refer to Jules as the bad guy. But that's the problem. . . . I guess I don't want to be that girl. People who need to get someone out of the group. I hope we can get it done, sign a peace treaty, find a neutral ground, I don't know. " And apart from other reasons I'm afraid of causing trouble, this reason is also true. I just want us all to get along.

You like analogies, don't you?

“Yes, I do. Those words are strong. ”

He tilted his head as if interested in that answer. “So, I still don't understand. If they've seen his pictures, why don't they believe he exists? ”

I laughed without humor. “Because their number is not enough. But that does not mean we are often together to take pictures. We have .. .. have. . long distance relationship. So, Jules thought I was asking some guy off the street to pose with me. "

She laughs. I don't know why he thinks that way.

My cheeks turned red and I looked down at the ground. "Yes. Yeah." yeah." It's sad that I have to bring a fake date tonight. A date that I wouldn't have taken with me if my real boyfriend hadn't broken up with me.