Free A Fabrication of the Truth by Katie Kaleski

to have to work on that.”
    Dalton lay his head on my shoulder, and I took his hand in mine. I had to show him at least I was there for him. We sat like that and continued talking about nothing important, like our classes and living with our grandparents – all the while his hand so warm in mine, sending tingles through my body that I tried desperately to ignore. I leaned my head on his, and I never felt so comfortable with another person before. After a while, he said he probably should be going, and he got to his feet with his hand still in mine, pulling me up to standing. We were nose to nose. I closed my eyes for a second, breathing in minty-apples – an odd, but wonderful scent for a sixteen-year-old boy. He took my other hand and looked down at me, and I looked up into his dark brown eyes and my stomach did a flip-flop as a small smile crept across his face. He squeezed my fingers and then let go. “See you tomorrow, Lexie.”
     

Chapter Nine
    At lunch, Caroline threw herself down in the seat in front of me. She blew her hair up out of her face and plopped her bag onto the table.
    “You don’t have lunch this period,” I said.
    “Minor details,” she said, eyeballing my lunch tray. I knew at least half of my food would be surrendered to her. I didn’t mind, though. One, because she was my friend and we always ate each other’s food, and two, because the cafeteria was filled with an awful stench of something that had burnt. A burger catastrophe, perhaps. I usually ate burgers for lunch, but none were available that day, so I ate what was on special – some sort of rice and meat casserole. Combined with that stank, I willingly pushed my tray toward my friend.
    “Just minor,” I said as she picked up my spork and dug in.
    “There’s a sub in my physics class,” she said with a mouth full of food. She claimed her mother was a terrible cook, so she could pretty much eat anything because it tasted better than what her mom made.
    “They still take attendance.”
    “Like I said…”
    “Minor details.”
    “You’re catching on, but really I wanted to ask you something. A very cool opportunity has come your way.” She pointed the spork at me and gave a slight nod.
    “Oh no, you didn’t meet a prince from Nigeria online, did you?”
    “No,” she said, laughing. “You know how I did that car dealership commercial?”
    “Yeah.”
    “They want me to do another commercial, this time for their ‘Hey It’s Winter, Buy a Car’ Savings Event.”
    “That’s great,” I said as a tray across the cafeteria crashed to the floor. I looked up with pretty much everyone else in the crowded cafeteria – only I didn’t snicker and point or holler like many others.
    “It’s about me and my best friend. She’s picking out a new car, and I told her grandpa had some good deals for her.” Caroline looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Ha, that’s Dane. He’s in my history class. Going to have to give him crap about that later.”
    “Sounds amazing.”
    “Dane?”
    “Ha, ha.”
    “But seriously, they asked if I knew anybody.”
    “Who needed a car?”
    “No, who wanted to be in the commercial.”
    “Oh, okay. Don’t they have talent agents for stuff like that?” I asked, taking the spork from Caroline and trying a bite of what I thought was goulash. It was awful. The school followed healthy dietary guidelines, therefore making all the food taste like butt. Yet, they still served burgers – my lunchtime saving grace. Well, normally.
    “They don’t want to have to pay the actors too much, and when I got the role, I just answered an ad in the paper. I didn’t go through my agent. You gonna finish that?”
    I gave Caroline back the spork. “And what does this all have to do with me?”
    “You’re the friend for the commercial.”
    “Me?”
    “Yes, you. I showed them a picture from my phone, and they about flipped. They think you’re perfect, and probably kind of hot.”
    “I don’t know.