Angela knew that she had known Lottie for a long time, but that they had never specifically spoken to each other. They were partnered in chemistry during a semester in 7th grade. No more than that.
She wondered if she had known her before or after she lived for a year with her mother. Because it was a turning point in Angela's life. She had returned for her first year of high school completely changed. And apparently several people hadn't recognized her. Maybe Lottie too must have believed that she was new.
Either way, it had been the worst year of her life. And she was happy to go back to her father's. Now she was a senior in high school, and Lottie's girlfriend.
The first morning of their fake relationship, Angela had gotten ready as usual. And the she had gone downstairs to go to the kitchen and eat quickly.
"Good morning everyone." Paul exclaimed as he walked down the stairs.
Angela lifted her head and chuckled. "It's just me daddy. Timothy is still sleeping."
He shrugged and opened the fridge to get a bottle of juice. He sat across from his daughter on the counter and poured himself.
"I'll go get the newspaper." He announced as he got up, leaving his glass half full.
The blonde raised a dubious eyebrow and looked up from her phone continuing to eat her toast. "Print media is useless these days. We have phones for that."
Paul ignored her and shook his head as he opened the door after slipping on his slippers to walk out of the house in his bathrobe. He walked over and picked up the newspapers that were lying a bit further from the doorstep.
He bent down to catch it hearing at the same time the noise of a car, when he got up with the paper in hand a black BMW was parked in front of the house. He frowned in confusion.
The back car door opened, and a tall girl stepped out. She had on a white Ralph Lauren polo shirt, and a sweater with only the sleeves tied around her neck.
She walked down the aisle and stopped in front of Paul with an awkward smile on her face. "Hi Mr.Montgomery, I'm here for Angela."
He patted her chest with the newspaper. "What's your name ?"
"Charlotte Matthews." She responded by holding out her hand.
He recognized the name of one of his associates and smiled. Despite the fact that Mr. Matthews never mentioned having a child, which is a shame. Paul loved talking about his daughter, especially when she was helping him out or just keeping him company when he was having his Fourth of July annual barbecue.
"Well, I'm Paul Montgomery. But you can just call me Paul." He said shaking her hand. "All my daughter's friends are my friends, wanna come inside for a sec ?"
"Huh sure." She agreed.
He motioned her to follow him and took her by both shoulders aside from the fact that he was a little shorter than her.
They entered the house and from the kitchen, Angela opened her mouth wide dropping the toast from her hand. "What is she doing here ?"
"I ran into your friend while taking my newspaper." He smiled, shaking her a little and Lottie gave her a little embarrassed wave.
"Yeah, she's gonna drop me off at school." Said Angela giving her a glare.
She swallowed slowly, avoiding her gaze.
He finally let go of Lottie and tossed the newspaper on the counter before clapping his hands together. "I'm going to go get ready for work. Have a nice day my angel."
"Have a good day dad." She turned to the man and smiled at him.
"Goodbye Charlotte." He said, slapping her back hard almost causing her to choke.
He walked towards the bathroom which was downstairs. Mainly because he was too lazy to go to the one upstairs.
Angela chuckled before putting her dishes in the sink and grabbing her bag. "Why are you dressed like you're going to the country club ?"
The blonde had to admit that Lottie was cute like that. She's always standing awkwardly, she'd noticed that as soon as the girl had come to see her the week before with her sports bag in hand.
"I wanted to make a good first impression."
"So sweet of you." She rolled her eyes as she grabbed her keys before taking Lottie's hand to walk out of the house. "Let's go."
----------
Lottie thought she had lied to her so she could scare her away.
She didn't know why she still thought dating Angela was easy. Even falsely.
Because it wasn't.
She'd spent the car ride explaining to her how to put on her collar properly and buttoning up the buttons Lottie was undoing. And complaining about how she should never have introduced herself to her father because now he wouldn't stop asking her about her.
She wondered how in the halls she could look so bubbly and sweet and actually be a grumpy little blond monster.
"Do you prefer this one ? Or this one ?" She showed her lip balms, one strawberry and one raspberry.
Lottie frowned, it's still a fruit right ?
"Is there a difference ?" She asked taking one in her hand to squint as she took a closer look.
"Just answer the question Matthews." Angela sighed as she snatched the lip balm from her hands.
She didn't understand why the smallest girl made such a big deal out of it, she found her beautiful in any way.
"This one." She pointed at the strawberry one.
"This is the one I put on yesterday, I need a change." She retorted, rolling her eyes.
"Then I chose the other one." Lottie replied in disbelief.
"So you think the raspberry one doesn't suit me ?" She raised an eyebrow with an offended expression.
"You said you wanted a change, so put the other-"
"You know what ? I'll put the lemon one." She groaned before getting out of the car when she saw that they had arrived in the school parking lot.
The driver chuckled at Lottie's desperate look.
She sighed and grabbed Angela's bag and her own before rushing out to catch up with her.
She finally arrived at her side and followed her closely to her locker. She opened it and the door, hid Lottie's face. She started applying her lip balm.
The taller girl put her hand on the door and tilted her head to see her. "The lemon one is the perfect choice."
"Are kidding me ? This one is the watermelon one." She glared at her before rolling her eyes.
Lottie huffed and went to roll her eyes but Angela slammed her locker door to get her attention. "Don't roll your eyes at me."
"You do it to me all the time !" She replied, raising her voice.
"I can do it. You can't." Angela snapped as she put her books in Lottie's arms. "Let's go now."
"Don't give me orders, I do what I want to do." She grumbled as she followed her through the hallways.
Angela chuckled, turning her head back slightly towards her. "Oh yeah ? You look very convincing carrying all my stuff and following me around like that."
"You-"
"Hey guys !" Jackie exclaimed as she stopped in front of the two.
Jackie was one of Lottie's teammates, incidentally the most popular and pretty girl in high school. Which may sound cliché but is true. She was Shauna's best friend, another player. And Jeff's girlfriend. An asshole that Angela didn't particularly like.
The blonde froze in place and Lottie who was trying to follow her bumped into her causing the books to fall.
"Fuck me." Lottie cursed in a low voice and started picking up the books.
"Hi Jackie." Angela smiled gently. "What's up ?"
"I heard about you and Lottie." She said playfully. "To be honest, we didn't believe her when she first told us."
"Yes I was surprised to hear it too." Angela mumbled to herself as she glared at her, still kneeling on the floor.
"What ?"
"Nothing !" She lifted her chin to Jackie with a nervous giggle. "I was saying how lucky I was to be with her. She's my dream girl."
Lottie snored from the floor and Angela kicked her to silence her. Jackie raise a curious eyebrow and the blonde gave her another smile.
She finally got up with all the books in her hands and stood next to Angela with a big smile on her face. "See Jackie, I wasn't lying."
"Yeah, I can see that." She said dubiously, moving her eyes from side to side between the two girls. "You managed to hide your relationship well during these three weeks."
Angela refrained from screaming in surprise and looked at Lottie with wide eyes. She had never informed her that she had told everyone that they had been secretly together for three weeks.
Lottia shrugged silently before leaning down to press her lips to her cheeks in a barely kiss.
The blonde felt her stomach drop at the warm feeling it had brought her and the heat quickly invaded her ears. She wasn't used to physical touch. Like really not.
"So cute." Jackie shook her head with a smile. "Well I have to go, we have French Lottie are you coming ?"
"Yeah I'll just walk Angela to her class and i'll join you after." She responded by pointing her thumb behind her.
She shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
As soon as she got far enough, the blonde slapped Lottie's arm as she started walking away.
"W-wait." Lottie hissed in pain as she followed her.
----------
Lunch was another thing, Lottie had learned how complicated Angela's tastes were.
No matter what she offered her to eat, either she didn't like it, or she didn't like the texture in her mouth, or it was too salty or too sweet, or too sour. She had ended up eating salt and vinegar crisps which literally made Lottie lose her mind.
"Tomatoes ?" She offered hoping to find at least one thing the girl liked.
"Only in soup and without any accompaniment." She replied dryly, continuing to eat her crisps.
"And you don't want milk ?" Lottie asked with a sigh.
"Do you know where that came from ? There's no way I'm drinking cow's milk." Angela responded with a disgusted face as she pulled away from Lottie as if she was contagious with a disease.
"I give up. You're too complex." She groaned as she bit into her apple.
"Do you at least know where this apple comes from ? It could be stuffed with pesticides or chemical additives." She said raising her eyebrows like it was obvious.
Lottie felt frustration rise at the condescending tone in her voice when she was literally eating the most disgusting flavor of crips. "You know what Angela-"
"Hello, lovebirds." Taissa said as she sat across from the two girls with a smirk on her face.
Angela tensed up. She had forgotten that she should deal with being in Taissa's presence now. She didn't like Taissa. She was almost afraid of her to be honest.
She was a teammate of Lottie, Van's girlfriend runs for Vanessa. The two were the couple who gossiped all the time. And Angela had very bad memories of those two at middle school.
"Hey Tai." Lottie smiled as she slowly swallowed the last bit of apple she had taken.
"Taissa." She gave a quick smile as she crushed the package and put it in Lottie's hand.
Lottie frowned in confusion, and gasped in realization before heading for the nearest trash can.
"So, I heard some things and I think you should know that-" She leaned over, putting her elbows on the table.
Her hands were sweaty. She found it hard to breathe at the sight of Taissa's vicious eyes on her. But she kept a stern expression. For Lotty.
"-if you dare mess with Lottie again, you're going to have to deal with me. And then my brother. Is that what you want ?"
"No. Of course not." She responded by shaking her head nervously.
"Cool." She said in an almost whisper as Lottie came back to sit beside her.
Her eyes fell on her and she raised a menacing eyebrow. "Did you at least wash your hands ?"
"Why would I wash my hands ?" She asked back, confused.
"A trash can is so dirty, you approached it closely and maybe you even touched it by throwing something in it. And you came back as if nothing had happened ? Lottie a minimum of cleanliness would be appreciated." She said crossing her arms as Lottie rubbed the back of her neck.
"Come on, let's go." She sighed as she stood up.
And Lottie quickly got up after her.
"And don't touch my books with your dirty hands." She spat, violently grabbing her books. "Say goodbye to Taissa."
"Bye Tai." She finally said waving her hand at her.
----------
"Don't come near me !" Angela cried out, threatening her with a bottle of perfume. "I can smell your sweat from here !"
Lottie was watching her, standing there, in the school parking lot, her bag in her hand, a tired expression on her face.
"How are you going to get in the car then ?" She asked in a monotonous tone, pointing to the driver waiting for them with an amused smile.
"I'm going to sit in front, there's no way I'm staying close to you !" She exclaimed, protecting her nose with her hand.
Misty and the coach passed by and looked at Lottie with confused expressions.
She took a step forward and Angela screamed as she moved further away.
"Don't !"
"I was about to take your backpack." She exclaimed, watching Laura Lee pass also with a lost expression too. "Lower your voice."
Angela seemed to think for a moment and held out her bag hesitantly. Whimpering in fear with Lottie's every step.
Then she grabbed her bag and her wrist. She smirked before quickly grabbing her and putting her over her shoulder.
"Lottie let go off me !" She slapped her fists against her back and waved her feet in the air.
She chuckled as she walked towards the car.
Shauna and Jackie passed by and started laughing seeing Angela struggling with flushed cheeks.
"She's kidnapping me ! Help ! Mph-" She screamed as Lottie put her hand over her mouth and stuck her head in the car.
She fastened her seatbelt quickly and sat down next to her with a sigh of relief.
"Hi Alfred." She smiled at the driver. "You can go, we're ready."
Angela kept her arms crossed and continued to sulk for part of the ride.
Lottie smiled and whispered something in Alfred's ear. He nodded, and a few seconds later. Fantasy by Mariah Carey was starting to play loudly in the car.
"You're not going to get me with this." She shrugged and looked out the windows.
She held out for about 15 seconds before she started singing excitedly as the driver hummed.
When they finally arrived in front of her house. She unbuckled her belt before rubbing Lottie's cheek with her sleeve.
She groaned but stopped immediately when she felt a soft pair of lips land on that cheek.
"See you tomorrow Matthews." Angela whispered before storming out of the car before waving at Alfred.
Lottie watched her walk home through the window from afar with flushed cheeks and a silly smile on her face.
Alfred flicked his cap and shook his head amused before restarting the car.