Boyfriend for Christmas

Six

"Here." Ally slammed the six page stapled essay down on the table in front of Rory. "Six pages. All of the information is there. You'll get an A. Trust me."

Rory raised his eyebrows.

"Are you okay?" He asked carefully.

Allison laughed maniacally.

"Of course I'm okay." She said sitting down hard, "ouch..."

"Really?" Rory asked, his voice slightly higher than usual, "because... you don't... you don't seem fine."

"What gave it away?" She asked, mocking  his tone from their last session.

"Just... intuition." He decided finally.

"Well, you're intuition is incorrect because I have never been better!" She said, her voice sounding more and more like a psychopath's.

"Mhmm..." Rory bit his lip, "And you're shirt is on inside out."

"I know." Ally said quickly. 

She looked down at her shirt suspiciously. Oh. It really was on inside out.

"I know." She said again.

"Alright... I'm just not going to ask..." He decided.

"It's best not to." She agreed.

"Sooo this essay..." Rory picked up the papers and studied them, "Six pages. Wow."

"It's guaranteed to blow your professor's mind." Allison promised, "And it's all yours. Under one condition."

"And that condition is what?" Rory asked, looking perplexed, but slightly scared.

"You pretend to be Logan for Christmas." She blurted.

"Logan." Rory repeated, "Logan...? Lerman? Logan Paul?"

"Logan Carson. My boyfriend." Allison explained.

"Um hold on." Rory leaned back in his seat, "I thought you were engaged."

"We were supposed to be!" Allison yelled and a kid at a nearby table shushed her.

"and..?" Rory asked quietly.

"And..." Allison tried to think of an excuse, but failed. "And he's gay."

Rory tried to hold back a laugh, but it came out as a snort.

"Aw man..." He grinned, "That is just... I mean that's..."

Ally glared at him through her progressively tear filling eyes and he stopped laughing.

"That's horrible. I'm sorry." He finished.

"Thank you." Allison stated, swallowing a sob.

"So you want me to pretend to be your boyfriend in exchange for this so called 'perfect' essay?" He asked.

"Yes." She answered.

"Tempting." He said, "But cheating isn't really up my alley."

"It's not cheating!" Ally protested, "It's just helping. I'm your tutor and I'm helping you."

Rory breathed deeply.

"I'm not really into lying either." He said.

"Ugh. Roryyyy..." She groaned, "if you knew my mother, you would feel differently."

"Don't you have anyone that's maybe a little better suited for the part?" He asked, setting the essay down, "I mean, we met yesterday. Your professors probably know you better than I do.