Ok. She’s right. Hearing her say it out loud makes me question my sanity, but I honestly think it could work. Only then will Ryan get the idea that he needs to drop Jennifer.
Sky gets up and starts to walk toward the stairs. I can’t lose her now, she’s the only one that I would venture with into something like this and hey, if the ‘M’ word were ever to grace my doorstep Sky would be a likely candidate.
“Wait up, listen to me, Sky. It’s just a white lie.”
She stops with one foot on the first stair. Yes. So you’re saying there’s a chance.
“A white lie? That’s a pretty big fucking white lie!” Sky protests.
I continue my case. “It’s the only way! We’ve got to make a move in this chess game that’s so crazy, Jennifer won’t see it coming. This is it!”
“Lucas,” she says. “You’re talking about lying on a such a large scale. We’d have to lie to…” She pulls out her hand and counts on her fingers for good measure. “Our friends. Our professors. Random people at school. My parents. Everyone! You’re completely nuts!”
I rush over to her and take her hands in mine. “I know. But like I said, this is a liberal arts college, and we’re putting on a piece of performance art, in a way. Think of this as the ultimate role in a play — we’d have to be deceptive. But which is better: us lying to people for a few months, or our friend completely ruining his life by getting on a train that is headed straight for a wreck! And it’s a white lie, because at the end of the day, we’d know it’s just you and me. It’s not like we’d be lying to each other. We’d just be hiding something from the world at large for a little while, for a good cause.”
Skylar sighs. I think I might be seeing the wheels in her eyes considering my idea, but she shakes her head. “I see what you’re saying, but I can’t do it. I was looking forward to just enjoying the last couple of terms of senior year and taking it easy, not worrying about a relationship before I start my gig with the Peace Corps after graduation. And now what—I’d have to be…in a relationship…with you?” She ends her question with a serious eyeroll.
“It wouldn’t be a real relationship. It’d be a fake one. It would be theatrical, and we would incept little bits of wisdom into Ryan constantly when we’re together at my apartment. It would be fun.”
She takes a deep breath and peers at me through her big glasses. “I’m sorry, Luke. I just can’t. Maybe you can find someone else.”
Skylar pauses—I can tell she’s struggling with the idea—then heads off. She’s halfway up the steps when I yell out to her, “There is no one else, Skylar.”
She stops and her head spins around. “What do you mean?”
I meet her in the middle of the stairs. “I mean there is no one else I could do this with. No one else I would trust enough to go through this crazy, months-long role play with. If you don’t want to do it, I understand. But there’s no one else. You know there’s not.”
She tips her head to the side. “You do realize this is absolutely batshit insane, right?”
“It is. But I heard you stayed in character for a few consecutive weeks last year to prepare for a role. This would be like playing a role…but in real life.”
“Who told you that?”
“Farnsworth.”
“Ugh. He tried to get my number. I had to do the whole Rita Hayworth thing just to play dumb.”
I lift my eyebrows. “Sky, you always have been special in wanting to help others. I mean, that’s what you’re doing after you graduate, right? So how is this different? You’re helping two people from making the biggest mistake in their lives. Ryan doesn’t deserve this doom and gloom. I mean from what you told me you overheard this is a catastrophic event that’s about to happen! Think about the butterfly effect. We’re saving their future kids from getting screwed and getting raised in a loveless marriage! This could be the most important thing we ever do.”
Her eyes dart back and forth for a few moments, and my chest wells up with hope. Holy fuck, she might actually be considering this.
A twinkle comes over her clear blue eyes and she returns my gaze. “If I’m going to do this, and seriously Lucas, this is a big IF right now; we’re going to have to plan this incredibly well. This plan seems pretty half-assed right now.”
“Well I did just come up with it like ten minutes ago.”
Skylar flashes a goofy grin, which warms my heart. My shoulders sink, the tension dropping from them.
Hey, if I’m going to be crazy, I need someone to be crazy with. And it couldn’t be anyone else other than Sky.
“Yes I know it’s fully insane,” I say. “But it’s for a good cause. I’ll come over after dinner tonight and we’ll work out the details.”
“I didn’t say yes,” she says with an exasperating tone.
“Come on, please? Don’t say no. I won’t be able to hear it if you do.” I smile, shining my pearly whites at her. Sky does another of her cutest eyerolls.
I think I may have her so I continue with my charm. Best to sell past the close. “So you’re in?”
She runs her hand over my forearm over my coat, and looks me in the eye. “I’m freaking in. Let’s do it.” But what’s funny is that the reluctance isn’t there. I don’t dwell on that now, I’ll save that for later.
“Fuck yes, Sky. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you…”
I hug her tightly, and electricity courses through me. Suddenly, I realize there are a whole lot of aspects of this plan which I have not considered.
“You want to plan at my place?” she asks when we pull back from our hug.
“Well we’re not doing the planning at my house, obviously. He’ll hear us. Or worse, Jennifer will. She’s probably got the damn place bugged.”
“Let’s go to my place and plan. Tomorrow afternoon?”
“It’s a date.”
Skylar lives in a residential house off campus, a two-block walk from my place. It’s a big, red, old 1800s building.
It’s not ‘certified’ campus housing. Instead, six or so students get together, pool their money, and rent the whole thing for a year, then pass it down to the next group the following year.
After I knock on the door a big, stocky guy with glasses, a beard, and black hair answers.
“Well hello, Lucas.” Roger says my name with a slightly sassy Spanish accent, just like Sky likes to do. “Here to see Sky?”
“Yes. Nice to see you again, Roger.”
The three of us got really drunk together one night during spring term a year ago and bonded. He’s a good guy and has got a good memory.
“Sky’s waiting upstairs for you,” he says, then waggles his eyebrows. “You’re not wasting any time moving in on her now that Federico is out of the picture, are you?”
Roger also dates the president of my fraternity, and it’s common knowledge that he likes to have his nose in the campus’s dating gossip.
“We’re just studying for this Spanish thing,” I make up on the fly. I’m going to need to hone in my deception skills if Sky and I are going to make this thing work. There are a lot of people we have to convince that this thing between me and Sky is really happening.