Chapter 6 Skylar's Pov

I shouldn’t have said yes to the plan!

This was the thought that kept orbiting around my mind like a satellite the second the door to my dorm room shut behind me and the weight of what I had agreed to minutes ago crashed down on my chest like a freaking grand piano. 

I stood there frozen, my fingers still wrapped around the knob, staring into the dim room like it was suddenly unfamiliar.

Fake dating Ryans Maddox.

My brother’s best friend.

The boy I should have stayed ten zip codes away from.

Fucking unbelievable!

Still, it had been very much clear that we had both agreed to the outrageous deal. That we had just made the most crazy decision.

Let’s do it.” I had told Ryans with anger in my heart as I thought about my face that had been clumsily photoshopped onto a girl screaming at a cat on Caleb and Tara’s shared burner account.

His brows had lifted as he asked, “Do what?”

“Fake date.” I had said again. Why did I not think about ridiculous it was right then and there was crazy. Adrenaline mixed with anger and impulsiveness was a crazy bitch. 

He had looked at me for a long moment, as if he was searching my face to see if I was joking before asking, “Seriously?”

It was as if he knew how I was going to react after ward and wanted me to have a rethink. But foolish me did not do that. 

Instead, I had nodded as my lips twisted into something bitter. Then I said without thinking about it, “Let’s give them something to talk about. Something they’ll choke on.”

A slow smile had spread across his face but it wasn’t a playful one. It was fierce and it felt like he was about to make a vow to me as he said, “Alright, Skylar Hayes. Let’s mess up their algorithm.”

Then he offered his pinky like a middle-school dare and instead of running away like a sane person would do, I had linked mine with his as the tiniest smile tugged at my lips while we fully made the deal official!

So yeah, it was official that Ryans and I were faking dating. It was unbelievable…still very much unbelievable to me but it was fucking real. So fucking real. 

Oh my God! I now thought as I dropped my bag on the floor with a thud and groaned into the silence. My heart was doing this weird galloping thing in my chest, and my brain was spinning like a damn carousel.

Fake dating Ryans Maddox.

Just thinking it again and again made me want to scream into a pillow. Which I did, by the way. I dove onto my bed and muffled a shriek into my comforter. It was the kind of scream you let out when you realized you’d accidentally texted your crush instead of your best friend—but worse. Way worse. Because there was no best friend to scream with. Just me. Just this echoing pit of chaos in my head that was driving me crazy. 

I turned over and stared at the ceiling, willing myself to calm down.

But nothing helped. Not the breeze from the slightly cracked window. Not the comfort of my squishy pillows. Not the faint scent of lavender from the candle I had forgotten to blow out the night before. Nothing could slow the frantic pulse in my neck. Absolutely nothing. 

How the hell had I ended up here? I asked as myself as my heart thudded erratically in my chest. 

Deciding that being like this would only drive me crazy, I dragged myself off the bed and powered on my laptop. 

Design, I thought to myself. Yes, design. That was what I needed right now. Something to pull me out of this spiral. Something to focus on that wasn’t the smug, annoyingly perfect smirk of Ryans Maddox as he waved me goodbye after we became a fake couple. It was what I needed and designing could give me that. 

I opened Illustrator and stared at the blank artboard.

The cursor blinked and I blinked back.

After a second, I moved my mouse and drew a rectangle. Added a shadow. Rotated. 

Then I deleted it when it didn't make sense to me. 

I tried again but nothing clicked.

My brain was too loud. Too loud to design.

So after few more minutes of trying, I shut my laptop.

“Alright, try to watch a movie,” I told myself exasperatedly. “See if that works.”

So I did. I opened N*****x and started The Proposal.

Ryan Reynolds made me laugh for the first five minutes. Then I caught myself picturing Ryans—not Reynolds—grinning at me with that maddening dimple, and I threw my remote across the bed with a loud groan.

Ugh.

I was going crazy and It was ridiculous. Really ridiculous.

I tucked my knees to my chest and stared out the window. It was quiet outside. A couple of students passed by below, laughing. A group of girls walked by, heads bent over their phones, probably talking about some guy who had bought one of them flowers or given her his hoodie.

I couldn't relate to that because I didn’t have a best friend to squeal about stuff like that with. 

Before Caleb, I hadn’t needed anyone else. It had just been Ethan and me, and that weird but kind of perfect sibling friendship that felt like enough. Then Caleb came in and… filled the empty spaces. Or so I had thought. He became my go-to. My boyfriend, my comfort zone, my sounding board.

I became obsessed with him because he was all I had. I clung so tightly to something that was already cracking, desperate not to lose the only connection I’d built outside my brother.

And then he shattered me with Tara, the cheerleader.

Now he was gone. And Ethan… well, Ethan was trying his best but he could never completely fill the void that Caleb had left no matter how he tried. 

And now I had gone and thrown myself into a fake relationship with Ryans.

I groaned again and pressed my fingers to my temples.

“How the hell are we supposed to pull this off?” I muttered to myself. “Walk around campus holding hands? Smile at each other like we’re in love? Kiss? Oh God, are we going to have to kiss?”

My cheeks flushed just thinking about it. I pictured Ryans come close to me with that confident look in his eyes. As my cheeks got even hotter, I shook my head and buried my face in my pillow.

No. No, no, no, I told myself quickly while trying to calm the hell down. This was strict freely a performance. A one-act play to get back at Caleb and show him and Tara that she didn’t win.

I just needed to survive a few weeks of pretending.

Ought to be easy, right?

This I said to myself while I closed my eyes and tried to talk myself into sleep.

It didn’t really work.

But eventually, the exhaustion from overthinking took over, and I drifted off sometime after 2 AM.

***

When I woke up the next morning, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck made of bad decisions.

My 9 AM graphic design class was already cursed just for existing that early in the day. I had my bath, slapped on some lip balm, wrestled my curls into a bun that didn’t make me look homeless, and headed out in an oversized hoodie and leggings. My eyes were still half-closed as I climbed the stairs to Huxley Hall.

The classroom was already filling up when I slid into my usual seat in the back row.

I barely got my laptop open when—

“Skyyyylaaaar!”

Oh. My. God.

I stiffened as I recognised the husky voice that has just called my name. 

As I turned around, I said to myself, “No, please no. Please tell me I imagined that.”

But no, the universe obviously hated me because in walked Ryans Maddox. Six foot two and looking smug as hell as he held an iced coffee the size of my GPA dreams and drew every single pair of eyes in the room to him.

The class fell silent. Like movie-scene silent as Ryans strutted in like he was starring in some kind of campus rom-com and I was the girl he’d been dying to see all morning. He stopped at my desk and placed the coffee down gently, like it was some sacred offering.

My name was written across the cup in bold black Sharpie with a freaking heart beside it.

What the hell?!

“Morning, babe,” he said in a voice that was smooth and confident. “Didn’t want you falling asleep during class so I bought this for you.”

I swallowed and looked around. Then swallowed even more as I saw how people were staring and phones were clicking.

Somebody gasped out loud and I wanted to crawl into the floor and never resurface.

Forcing myself to be calm, I glanced at the cup like it was about to explode. I noted that Ryan’d even gotten the order right. Iced vanilla with extra caramel drizzle. Ugh. How he had knew what coffee to get me, I thought as I kept staring at the coffee cup. 

The worst part of it all was that I loved what I was seeing right now. 

“Ryans,” I finally looked up at him through my lashes and whispered, “What. Are. You. Doing?”

“Being your doting boyfriend,” he said, not even pretending to be innocent.

Before ai could say anything else, the professor walked in and everyone started to turn away, whispering and buzzing and probably sending our photo to their group chats with captions like ‘when did this happen?!’ and ‘Skylar bagged a THUNDER?!’

Oh God!

As soon as class officially started, I whispered again, “Outside. Now.”

Ryans flashed a smile in response and said sweetly, “Was hoping you’d say that.”

When I pulled him out into the hallway, I slammed the door shut behind us.

Then I spun around. “Are you trying to get me murdered by gossip?”

He laughed. “You’re welcome for the coffee.”

I swallowed and then stuttered, “Ryans, that was… that was a lot. We didn’t even talk about how we’re doing this yet. You can’t just crash my class like we’re in 10 Things I Hate About You!”

“I thought we were aiming for Oscar-level commitment,” he said with an attitude that showed that he was completely unbothered.

“That was not oscar level commitment. That was Broadway, Maddox! You basically proposed in front of the class!”

He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Well, it worked. People are already talking. Caleb and Tara will hear about it by lunchtime. Trust me, I know how fast this campus grapevine works.”

I pressed my back against the wall and let out a long breath. “This is going to spiral.”

“It’s supposed to,” he said in a voice that was softer now. “Look, I get it. It’s weird. But the more real we make this look, the faster it gets under their skin. You wanted to shake them, right?”

I didn't say anything at first. I just glanced at him.

His face wasn’t teasing anymore. It was just… serious as doing this meant the world to him. 

“I don’t want to shake myself in the process,” I finally admitted in a soft voice. 

Something flickered in his brown eyes in response. “Then let’s set the rules, Sky. No weird stuff. No pushing too far. If anything makes you uncomfortable, we stop. Deal?”

I bit my lips for a second and then nodded. “Deal. But maybe… tone down the grand gestures. Just a little?”

He held up his hands like he was sorry. “No more iced coffee declarations. Got it.”

“Good.”

He smirked. “Unless you want me to start sending flowers to your dorm.”

I glared at him in a mocking manner. “Ryans!”

“Okay, okay,” he laughed. “Just saying that I want to make a damn good fake boyfriend.”

I shook my head even as I was trying to hide my smile. Then I took a sip of the coffee. The coffee was perfect, annoyingly so.

He watched me with that unreadable expression of his. The kind that made you wonder what he was thinking and what he wasn’t saying.

We stayed like that for several moments—just standing in the hallway and pretending this was all for show, pretending none of it meant anything.

And yet, my heart was beating way too fast for something that wasn’t real.