All throughout my classes, I contemplated whether or not I should go through with Jeremy's dumb experiment.

     I mean, it was a no-win situation—if I pretended to be a heterosexual and date Jeremy to make my parents happy, I'd have to break Claire's heart and mine; and if I stayed with Claire, I was pretty sure Jeremy would be very eager to rat me out to my parents and ruin my entire life, since I wasn't very keen on going out with him.

     Damn it, why was my life so shitty?

     After class, I told Claire all about Jeremy's crazy idea as I sat on the driver's seat and waited for the owner of the SUV that was blocking my way. I couldn't tell if she was fuming mad or just plain sarcastic in her texts.

     Her last text said, nevermind, alexa. it's fine. drive safely. xx

     And to add fuel to the fire, Jeremy showed up in my house unannounced, invited himself over for dinner, and told my parents that he and I were starting to "get to know each other".

     I wanted to bang his head on the table when he said that.

     He continued to show up at my place, at exactly six thirty p.m., and left at nine o'clock, for two whole weeks. It was hell all over again, honestly.

     I told Claire every bit of the events in my house, but her short replies made me nervous and scared. I didn't want to lose her because of that meddling idiot, Jeremy.

     But thankfully though, she reassured me that everything was fine between us and she told me that she was kind of busy with her new shift at The Gap, and hearing her say that we're still okay and that she still loved me, well, it made me want to smile so big and do a hundred cartwheels inside my bedroom.

     Claire told me to go with the flow, but warned me about Jeremy. She became pretty jealous when I told her about him coming over all the time, but she calmed down a bit and said, "Baby, you go do what you gotta do, okay? As long as he keeps his hands to himself, I'll spare him. If he tries anything to take advantage of you, kick him in the balls. Hard. I love you, baby girl, we'll see each other again soon, I promise."

     It had been so long since we talked about each other. I couldn't help but blusgh so hard after that, I felt like I was having a fever.