A Reliable (Fake) Girlfriend

The next morning, I took a quick shower. When I got down for breakfast, I realized that I should ask my father to borrow his old laptop. That way, I can type the document at my university at any time.

To my surprise, my father quickly agreed, taking his old piece of hardware out of his room and handing it to me. It was a black laptop that was bulky as hell, and I felt it as heavy as a 6-pound bowling ball as I held it in my hands.

I put the laptop in my bag before I started eating my breakfast. After eating, I waved my parents goodbye as I walked early to my university.

Arriving there, the atmosphere was filled with silence. I looked at my phone to check the clock, which indicates 6:48 AM.

Well, it’s obvious that people haven't come here yet. Well, since there’s more than one hour before the class started, I should go to the cafeteria to work on my assignment.

Going to the cafeteria, I was surprised to see her, typing on a small laptop colored in white. With her in sight, I decided to greet her with a smile. She greeted me back and asked for my homework progress.

I put my backpack down below the table before sitting next to her. Unzipping my bag, I took my laptop and booted it on. However, as my laptop was booting on, she was shocked.

“Oh my God, Keith. That laptop is a fossil! How come you are bringing this to univ?”

“Well, it’s my father’s, so…”

“I see… Well, at least it still works and boots fine, ha-ha.” She chuckled.

As I opened the document application, I realized that her sense of distance is somewhat broken. She leaned her body close to me and her head was hovering near my shoulder.

I shook myself, thinking that I shouldn't have any other thoughts about her. After all, I don't want to make her uncomfortable. While I was looking at how close she was, her face looked frustrated as she looked at my document.

“Keith, are you really calling this an essay? Look at this mess. Why are you using the Arial font with size 16? Didn’t you hear the requirements from the professor?”

She shook her head and exhaled her breath.

“Haah! You are so hopeless. Here, mention the Commodore Dance…”

While she explained things thoroughly, I shifted my attention to focus on her guidance. Pouring all my concentration into the document, I didn't realize that time would flow faster than I could expect.

After we had been discussing for a while, I looked at the notification bar, only to be shocked by the small text displaying 7:57 AM. We packed our things in a hurry and scurried our way to our class.

On the lunch break, I saw her again in the cafeteria. After ordering our food, we took a seat and continued working on our assignment.

With our table filled with our food and laptops, people didn’t wish to occupy the seats near us, leaving us pretty much encapsulated in the crowded cafeteria.

However, as we were busy discussing the assignment, Carlos came in to join us.

“Hey! Keith! Jessica! What are you two doin’?”

“And so… You should… Oh, hi… Carlos. We are making our history assignment right now. So yeah, we are busy.”

“Ah, that! I just copy-pasted a piece of an unpopular article somewhere and reword everything and boom! Done.”

What?!? Why didn't I think of that? I should have… No… It would be rude to do so now, especially when she is helping me right now. I also think that she would despise…

“Well, whatever floats your boat.” She shrugged. “So, why are you here? Please don’t distract Keith with your basketball talk. He needs to focus, or otherwise he won't finish his assignment.”

“Ah, I guess Keith really forgot about that. Sure, I won’t disturb you any longer.”

Huh, what is it? What’s I’m forgetting…? Hmm…

Suddenly, I remembered that he told me to matchmake him if I made progress with her. But the problem is… I am not in that kind of relationship with her…

Ahh… This is going to drive me nuts!

Sigh… Well, I guess I could talk to her about it. I just hope she won’t mind it.

I leaned toward her and whispered in her ear.

“Jessica, can you introduce Carlos to your friends? I felt bad for Carlos. He must feel left out as his best friend already has a girlfriend.”

She turned around and whispered back.

“Sure, I’ll introduce him to my friends later on. Looks like your friend is a desperate guy looking for love. Ha-ha.”

“Thanks Jess.”

Jessica looked at Carlos.

“Carlos, I’ll introduce you to my friends later, but can you please stop bothering us now? We need to focus on our assignments.”

“Alright, I’ll take my leave. See you later!” Carlos waved before leaving.

With Carlos’s leave, we started working on our essay once more. Time passed, and the lunch break was over. We waved each other goodbyes and went to class.

At five when I practiced basketball again, my mind was weighted toward the essay I have yet to finish. As I made mistakes here and there, I realized that I should pay attention to the task at hand. I’m practicing basketball right now, so I should not think about anything else.

Time flies, and basketball practice has come to an end. Without delay, I started to escort her home before I went home by myself.

I finished my shower and dinner quickly, and continued to work with her on the phone.

And this is how I spent another three days. Well, except that Carlos only dropped to say hi and left quickly, everything was the same.

On Friday’s night, we managed to finish our assignments. She finished first at noon, and I had to catch up with her as she helped me on the phone.

“Finally, it’s finished!” I exhaled a deep breath out of fatigue.

“See? What did I tell you? You can do it if you try, Keith.”

No, I wouldn’t be able to do this without her.

“Jessica, I wouldn’t be able to finish this without you, thank you so much!”

“That’s okay. I’m glad that I could repay you somewhat.”

“And well, thank you for your company all these nights. Even if it was for a while, I’m glad I could have a voice call with you…”

Before I could finish my sentence, she interjected.

“Keith, why do you act like someone who will part ways for a long time? Oh my gosh. I’m not going anywhere, you know? It’s not like we can’t call each other at night anymore.”

“Huh? Jessica, I thought you would mind about it…”

“Nah, I won’t mind. Besides, it actually helps because I don’t have to type anymore after I hold a brush for a few hours. It’s more convenient if we just have a call instead. Well, except if you are against it, of course.”

“No, there’s no way I would be against it. Thank you, Jess.”

“Come on, Keith, it’s nothing…”

We kept talking and laughing under the starry night, just if the hellish assignment we faced this week was just a fleeting memory.

Since that night, nightly calls from her seem just like a daily occurrence. She always asked in text first if I would be bothered if she called, and I always told her that I wouldn’t mind it. We talked, laughed as we expanded our voices to each other under the gaze of the moon.