Seven #2
"You poor boy, what happened?" she asked, her voice heavy with concern.
Her husband now stood right next to us, his hands on his hips as he shook his head.
He had left his position by the front door and finally decided to join the rest of us.
Javier side-eyed his father, but he shook it off so quickly that I almost didn’t notice it.
I wouldn’t have noticed it at all if I wasn’t so focused on him.
"Oh, nothing really. Just an accident," I lied with the best smile I could conjure up.
They were all looking at me in disbelief, clearly I was a shitty liar. Thankfully, they didn't press me for more information on it.
"Do your parents know about what happened?" Javier's father asked, his voice deep. "Should we call them and let them know you’re here?"
Javier shifted uncomfortably next to me. He looked between me and his parents sheepishly. "Uh, his parents are..."
Javier gave me a look, one that I could tell was him asking for approval. I wasn’t planning on telling the truth, I was going to make up some excuse and save myself the uncomfortableness. Unfortunately, Javier had put me on the spot, so I said what I thought was best
"You can call them but I’m not sure how great the cell reception is six feet under…" I joked lamely.
I regretted it when I was met with their wide eyes and dropped jaws.
Bad joke, bad time. It took them a beat to conjure up their useless apologies, the same ones that everyone gave me.
I did not want nor need theirs or anyone else's apologies.
It wasn't anyone else's fault that both of my parents had passed before my first birthday.
They asked me a few more questions that I merely shrugged to.
They eventually left Javier and I alone for the night, but not before ensuring me that their home was always welcome to me whenever I needed.
They also said that they were always available to talk if I ever wanted to.
I looked distressed and in need of help, otherwise they wouldn’t have repeated themselves as many times as they did.
It was sweet of them, but I couldn’t see myself ever coming to their son's home again.
Javier took me up to his room—which was huge, by the way. He took some blankets out of his closet and dropped them on the couch that was in the corner of his room and facing his flat screen tv.
"You sleep in the bed, I'll take the couch," he said as he laid down.
I would have protested and insisted that I take the couch, but I was genuinely too tired to do so. I mumbled a sincere ‘thanks’ before laying down and falling asleep surprisingly fast.
Normally it took me a lot of twisting and turning along with a couple of shots before I would fall asleep. It must have been because of the intensity of the past couple of hours that sent me to sleep so quickly. Not to mention, his bed was incredibly soft. It felt like sleeping on a pile of clouds.
While I did fall asleep pretty quickly, the sleep did not last long. I was up again in under two hours, sweaty and panting.
I didn’t have anything to help me sleep, but I was craving it.
I was not at my house, I was at Javier's. Practically a stranger. I was not going to steal anything from his parent’s liquor cabinets because I was better than that.
Not to mention they had so much money that they probably had alarm systems set up everywhere in their home. Oh, and I was not a thief.
"You up?" asked the groggy voice of Javier.
"Yeah," I muttered as I rubbed my eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Javier sat up with a big yawn. "Can I come sit next to you?"
I didn’t know if it was because I was extremely tired or if I genuinely wanted his company, but I didn’t mind if he came next to me or not.
"It's your bed," I replied. Who was I to tell him no to being in his own bed?
The better question was why was I in his bed?
His house was large, surely they had, like, three spare bedrooms. Alright, three was an exaggeration, but still.
They had at least one, so they could have put me in there with no problem.
I couldn't deny that his bed was comfortable as shit, though, so no complaints on my part.
Next thing I knew, Javier was lying down right beside me.
It was the craziest thing to me. I, Elias Richardson, was sleeping in Javier Cortez's house. My rival, my enemy. The guy I was supposed to hate and who was supposed to hate me. The guy who should have laughed when he found me walking alone at night, not stop and take me home.
Who knew he had that much kindness in his heart? It wasn’t like I made it easy for him to be so caring toward me. He didn't even know me, so he probably just felt bad for me. I hated that because I did not want anyone's pity.
As if on cue, he said, "I honestly thought you were going to beat me this year."
I scoffed. "Sure you did."
"I'm serious," he insisted. "I was shocked when they called my name and not yours. You made a good campaign."
I rolled my eyes even though it was too dark for him to see it. "The entire school knew that you were going to win just like you do every year. It was stupid of me to think I could even come close."
Javier didn't reply, his head cocked up toward the ceiling.
It was back to silence between us, the only sound the faint creaking of the bed anytime one of us would shift.
I noticed how close he was lying to me. If I moved my hand two more inches, our hands would be touching.
If I rolled over I would be on top of him.
For some inexplicable reason, I wanted to reach my hand out and touch his.
When I realized what I was doing I retracted my hand.
"Why did you want me to stay here?" I asked him, sitting up and folded my legs into a pretzel position.
He sat up as well and faced me. It was dark in the room, but I could see him a little better since we were directly facing each other.
"I didn't want you to stay here,” Javier stated.
"So why am I here?"
"I don't know."
I pulled to cover closer to me. “Alright. Well, why am I in your room and not the guest room?”
His fingers brushed against mine. “Honest answer?”
I nodded once.
“I wanted you close.”
I couldn’t be more grateful than in that moment for the dark. It kept him from seeing the pure shock and confusion on my face that was caused by his confession. I kept my mouth shut because I had no clue what words were going to come out of it if I didn’t.
We silently laid next to each other in the dark.
I watched as his arm moved up to his forehead and to scratch it.
He was like a silhouette next to me. I couldn't see the faces that he was making, but I could see his body parts.
I could see his hand that was still right next to mine, and his fingers that occasionally brushed against mine with no intention of moving.
We sat there for what felt like an hour, neither of making any move to speak.
At that moment, I forgot about everything else in my life.
I forgot about my siblings, my parents, my mistakes, my losses, everything.
At that moment I did not hate Javier. I didn't have many words to explain the feelings I felt, but it was not a bad feeling. I could say that it felt safe.
I spent the entire night falling in and out of sleep.
As terrible as it sounded, it was some of the most decent sleep I had in a while.
Morning came quicker than I thought it would.
I woke up to the smell of fresh bacon and waffles cooking downstairs.
Javier was no longer next to me, so I could only assume he was already chowing down on the food.
When I made my way down the stairs, I was greeted by him and his mother.
Instead of eating the food, he was helping her cook it.
They were already finished by the time I showed up, and his mom insisted that I eat her breakfast. I politely declined multiple times because I did not want to intrude, but she would not let up.
"Where are you going to go?" Javier asked before taking the last bite of his bacon.
I had finished eating my breakfast and he was just about done with his, but we did not speak the entire meal.
That meant that we hadn’t had a conversation since the night before.
I was glad that none of his siblings or his parents had decided to join us because there was a weird tension between us that I couldn’t explain.
One that I feared might have been noticeable to others if they watched.
"Home,” I stated.
Javier raised an eyebrow at me. "How will you get there?"
"I’ve got legs, I can walk," I said. Javier looked somewhat opposed to the idea but had no reason to be because I was very used to walking long distances.
"I can drive you," he offered.
The last thing I needed was another favor from him.
He had already let me sleep in his home and in his bed, so that was something I was forever going to be in debt to him for.
He had also given me rides on his motorcycle, more favors that I could not repay.
As nice of it was for him to offer again, I didn’t want that.
I was still supposed to hate him, after all.
I placed my fork and knife on the now empty plate. "I'm okay, thanks."
"It's not that short of a walk," said Javier. He stood up and picked up his plate and then mine. As he walked toward the sink with the plates, he said, "It's no big deal for me to bring you."
"I've walked farther. Listen, I don't need you to be my knight in shining armor." I didn’t mean to be rude, but sometimes I couldn’t help it. “Thanks for helping me out, seriously, but I don’t need anything else from you.”
His never-ending helpfulness irked me. I could continue figuring things out on my own just like I had been doing for pretty much my entire life.
This was the guy who continuously made me feel inferior.
The guy who was constantly trying to be better than me—and succeeding at it.
It was the guy who everyone loved because he was hot, smart, bilingual, and arrogant, not because of anything that actually mattered.
He was the last person that I wanted to be in debt to.
I did not need his kindness.
The loud clunk of the plates clashing against each other in the sink rang through the house. Javier turned around, his eyebrows knitted together and his jaw clenched. "Fine, then walk."
"I will." I smiled condescendingly with my arms folded.
"Don't get another black eye on the way home," Javier snipped.
My head jerked backward at the harshness of his words, but I quickly regained my composure. With that, I got up and walked out of the front door, not bothering to utter another word before doing so.
He didn't try to stop me. I would never admit it out loud, but I was hoping that he would.