Best Served Fake

thirty-three // swimming carnival

When Kai saw me, his face lit up. I saw the spark of recognition in his eyes, the slow, unfurling smile.

It had been a week since the questions game, and somehow, having a date on our impending official romance had made it easier to be around Kai. I no longer felt the pressure of wondering if it was the moment to make things official. Instead, Kai and I could just be, and as long as we were being together, no one would question it when July 23rd rolled around.

I laughed when I saw him. Be, Valerie. Swimming carnival day was known for colourful costumes, and it was immediately evident that Isabelle had been a consultant and executor of Kai's. Red stick-on gems accentuated his high cheekbones, and some sort of spray-on red hair colour had been liberally applied onto his hair. It didn't blend particularly well with his jet-black hair; it looked more like a dusting of red powder sitting atop the strands. He was wearing a red t-shirt and plain black board shorts that were clearly all the effort he'd intended to put into his costume, but it was complimented by an Izzy-style set of glittery red fairy wings strapped to his back, and he was carrying some sort of fairy wand that seems to double as a water pistol to shoot passersby.

"Nice sparkles, Mariposa," I said when I reached him, flicking the fairy wing with a snort.

"Her wings are pink, actually," Kai corrected, with the air of someone who didn't mind it being public knowledge that he was an expert on all things Barbie. "I'm clearly Ruby the Red Fairy from Rainbow Magic."

"Either way, you look very pretty."

"So do you, but you don't need the sparkles for that."

I grinned, and hoped that the casual expression hid the flutter in stomach, like Kai's fairy wings flapping in time with my heartbeat. "Your shameless hussy is showing."

"I think the wings and glitter add to my sex appeal. Thoughts?"

"I want you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby," I quoted. When he grinned, I pinched his wing. "And yes, you should definitely pull out this ensemble next time you want to impress a girl. I see wings and sparkles and think, wow, that looks like a good time."

"You clearly had a very different experience of watching Tinkerbell than I did."

I tweaked his wing affectionately, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders in a casual hug. He had waited for me on a patch of grass near the corner of the pool. The Carnival was busy enough that most people were too distracted with their own friends to pay us any attention, but there were enough eyes on us that a casual hug and obvious flirting was a good idea. And, if I was honest with myself, it was easy to keep up the act. Flirting with Kai seemed to be my natural state around him; I wouldn't even know what our friendship would look like without the flirting. I wondered if we'd still be like this—flirty, joking—when this was all over.

"You going in for any events today?" I asked.

"100 metre butterfly," said Kai. He pointed to his back. "Izzy thinks she's funny."

"The fairy wings could be an unfair advantage," I told him solemnly. "So could the glitter actually. You might blind the opposition with your sparkles."

"You're right. I'm sparkly because I'm so cutthroat and competitive. Not because I don't know how to say no to my sister."

"To your credit, she's hard to say no to."

Kai grinned. "You should see what she has in store for Will. He's going to hate it."

"He could just say no."

"He won't," said Kai. "He's never been able to say no to her either. You going in for anything today?"

"Yeah. I think I'll do freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and novelties." At Kai's curious look, I shrugged. "I like swimming."