Requested by Dancer22404

The lovely Dancer22404 was very kind in letting me use a pic for her imagine. :)

~~~

"Abby, come on! Come to homecoming with me?" I shook my head. Take the hint, Jack, go away.

"I told you, Jack. I don't want to go." I told my friend. "Besides, I'm already dating someone else."

Please, for the sake of my sanity and my workload, please don't ask--

Jack looked surprised and a bit...annoyed. "Who?"

Dang it.

I shook my head, my eyes catching sight of Ben Cook, one of the boys on the tech theater crew and someone I had had a crush on for a little bit. But that was in eighth grade, four years ago.

"I'm dating Ben Cook." I said automatically.

Jack looked shocked. "Wait, what? The tech guy? He's so.....not your type."

I shrugged. "Well, you thought wrong."

The bell conveniently rang at that moment, and I hurried over to Ben, giving him a quick kiss before rushing off to class. I didn't turn around to see Ben's reaction, so hopefully Jack didn't suspect my lie. Honestly, Jack had been pestering me to date him for the past year. I didn't care if I broke Jack's heart, he was a bit of a jerk anyway.

~~~

After class, as I was walking to my locker, Ben spotted me and pushed his way through the crowds to get to me.

"Hey! Uh, Abby!" he called.

I looked at him. "Yeah?"

"What was that all about?" he asked, a little shyly.

I raised an eyebrow. "What was what all about?"

"Ya know....the kiss?" he prompted.

I mentally smacked myself. I had forgotten all about that fake cover up story I made up.

"Oh, right. Did you want me to condense the story?"

Ben shook his head. "I've got time. Tell the whole story."

I sighed. "Fine."

~~~

"So now I need to act like your boyfriend until this whole thing blows over, which I might add, may be never?" Ben asked.

I nodded my head with a tired smile. "I should've just told Jack to eff off."

"Hey." Ben said, nudging me with a bright smile. "This might actually be fun."

I smiled back. "All right. I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Ben nodded, and I turned to leave, but then turned back around and kissed Ben again. This time, not so rushed.

~~~

As soon as I got home, I notice a text from an unknown number.

Hey, if u want, I can get us tickets to Twelfth Night at school in a week
This is Ben, btw

I mentally facepalmed for forgetting to ask my own "boyfriend" for his number, then smiled, and texted back a response.

How'd u get my number?
And sure, I'll come to Twelfth Night with u

I got a reply immediately.

Oh, good
I already got the tickets and it'd seem a bit weird if I had gotten two tickets for myself
I got ur number by asking around

I laughed as I put my phone away. It'd be nice to spend some time with a boy. Get out of the house for a bit. But my relationship with Ben might be something I wasn't so sure about. It would be interesting to see how things turned out. I bet you $500 there'd be talk about it tomorrow at school. And it'll be all over social media too. Ugh, I hate high schoolers.

~~~

Sure enough, there was talk circulating every way I turned. As soon as I walked in the school, everybody nearest me turned in my direction. I chuckled and waved nervously at them, and hurried past them as fast as I could, making a beeline for my locker.

Ben knocked on my locker door before pushing it back so he could see me. He had a cheerful smile on his face, but I could tell that he was a bit uncomfortable with all the newfound attention. I couldn't blame him, I was a bit uncomfortable with it too. Being an introvert who usually went unnoticed didn't prepare me for all this attention. I DIDN'T PAY A GODDAM FEE FOR MY SUPPLIES AND PROGRAMS TO HAVE PEOPLE STARING AT ME.

"All these people." Ben muttered, a look of troubled thoughtfulness on his face.

"Agreed." I replied. "We're going to be the talk of the town for the next few months. Maybe until next year." Ben grimaced. "Sorry." I apologized for reminding him.

"S'okay. We'll figure something out." His grimace disappeared and a real, actually-happy smile took its place. "Shall we?" he asked in a British accent (10/10 by the way), holding out his arm. I grinned, and looped my arm through his, replying in a British accent as well.

"We shall."

Ben shut my locker and we were on our way to first period (we had the same schedule, thank goodness).

~~~

"Hey, nerd!" Jack taunted Ben a few weeks later as I make my way to lunch. "Why you stealing my girl?"

Ben looked slightly annoyed and a bit frightened. "I didn't do anything, Jack. I'm just a nerd, like you said."

"Oh, so you're trying to get smart with me?"

Well, it doesn't take much effort to do that.  I thought.

I ran up to Jack. "Shove off, Jack! It's nothing big."

Jack scowled. "So ever since Ben came into your life, you've replaced me with him?" he snarled, pointing an accusatory finger in Ben's face. 

I frowned. "Jack, Ben hasn't replaced you. He hasn't replaced anyone! You're jealous, Jack. Get over it." I snapped back. I grabbed Ben's hand and dragged him to the lunch room, not caring what everyone saw or thought.

"Thanks for saving me out there, Abby." Ben thanked me as we sat down.

I smiled, still shaken. Ben looked at me like I had grown a third eye. "Are you okay? You look a little shook."

I nodded, but leaned my head on the table. "Totally fine."

"You don't seem fine." was all Ben said before tapping me on the shoulder to get me to lift my head up. He pulled me into a hug, and I felt like crying and kissing him at the same time. This whole thing was new to me. (Probably Ben too.) I wasn't used to doing this. I was used to being a complete fangirl and being weird without anyone judging me because I was such a background character.

What has gotten into me? We're only doing this for Jack's jealous sake.

Or are you? a voice replied.

Shut up. I told it. No one asked you.

Do you really love Ben?

That struck a chord in me. There was a fine line between real and make-believe. It had only been a few weeks, but what Jack had done and caused Ben and I to do, made the line blur a little.

~~~

It had been about 3 months since Ben and I started "dating". Jack bothered us once or twice, but then stopped when he found it boring. I thought it had all died down, but then out of the blue, Jack just went up to me one day, and decided to stir up some trouble again. Thank goodness that this time, it was at the end of the day when everybody was leaving.

"Jack, just stop. This isn't going to get you anywhere." I told him through gritted teeth.

"What, 'cause Ben replaced me, and you don't have time for me anymore?" Jack taunted.

I frowned. "I never had any time for you to begin with. So shove off, Jack. Find someone else."

Jack glared at me, and opened his mouth to say something, but I just shook my head and walked off. But before I could get anywhere, Jack grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

"No!" I shouted. "Leave me alone!"

Jack only smirked.

"Hey!" a voice called a moment later. "You heard her. Leave her be."

Ben stepped out in front of the crowd, glaring at Jack, who still had his hand on my wrist. I yanked it out of his grasp, massaging where it hurt most.

"Oh yeah? What're you gonna do about it?" he taunted.

"Give it a rest, Jack. We've been trying to tell you this from square 1." Ben calmly stated. I moved away from Jack and towards Ben, who pulled me into a safe embrace.

"Ya know, for a boy who has had more experience with props and set and all that, you have a lot more experience with girls than I thought." Jack said.

A few of the students chuckled. I only glared at Jack. He shook his head and stalked off. I turned back to Ben, who had a concerned expression on his face.

"Are you hurt? Did Jack do anything to you? How are you feeling?" he asked all at once.

"Whoa, one question at a time. Just my wrist but it'll heal because it's a bruise, you came just in time so thank goodness, and I feel like I could read the Harry Potter books and watch all the movies in one day." I replied, chuckling.

Ben looked at me nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Erm, Abby, did you want to turn this into a real relationship?" he asked quietly. "Like, turn this fake thing into a not-fake thing? I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, it's just that we've gotten pretty close these past few months, and I thought--"

"Of course, Ben. I'd love to make our relationship real." I replied, cutting him off.

"I just don't know why I just asked you that, you'd obviously say no...I mean, I am a nerd, after all, and you don't--"

I rolled my eyes and cut him off with a kiss. He seemed surprised at first, but then responded by wrapping his arms around my waist.

When we pulled away, Ben had a goofy grin on his face. He pressed a kiss to my forehead, and took my hand, walking us out of the building.

"I love you, Abbyi." Ben stated, looking at nothing in particular. "I mean it."

I smiled and leaned my head on his shoulder as we walked. "I love you too, Ben."

That took longer than expected. Thank you so much for being patient with me!

Hope you enjoyed! Tell me if anything needs to be changed (or fixed. It's 12:11 rn, there's bound to be some errors.)! :)