Thirteen #2
Javier and I not being friends didn't change the fact that we needed to work together in order to win the competition. I had read the packet Mrs. Montgomery had given us and it told exactly how the competition would work.
We were partners but we wouldn't be able to help each other, at least not for the first round.
Basically, when it was our team's turn to answer a question, only one of us could do so.
So, if it was my turn to answer the question, that meant that Javier couldn't help me at all and vice versa.
We had to trust that we both had enough independent knowledge to get us enough points.
That's why it was so crucial to study together, to ensure that we both knew the answers on our own.
My legs had taken me back to my friends who were standing in front of the boys’ bathroom. They had watched my entire interaction with my rival like it was a movie.
“I wasn’t close enough to read your lips,” Bella said with a half-frown. “What happened?”
I rubbed the top of my head. “He’s an ass, like usual. He was the one who wanted me to join this dumb fuck competition, yet he can’t even be bothered to work together.”
“He doesn’t want to do it with you all of a sudden?” Ricky asked.
I shrugged. “He’s acting differently and I can’t explain why.”
“Well, if you guys don’t work together your chances of winning are gonna be pretty slim,” Bella said honestly. “Don’t let him cause your loss, Eli.”
"I'm going to go talk to him." I mumbled to my friends.
“Actually?” Kailey’s voice raised an octave out of surprise.
"If we're going to win the competition then we need to study. The first round is this Friday." My head faced down the hallway toward Javier. He was back with his group, not paying any attention to me. His unusual disinterest created a gross feeling in my chest.
Kailey smiled at me with pride. "I’m proud of you for putting your differences aside and wanting to work together with him."
I offered her a small smile before turning and marching my way over to Javier. Two more people had appeared next to my rival and his friends. It made sense, they were people magnets. They watched as I approached their group.
Their conversation had ceased and everyone was looking at me except for Javier himself. I cleared my throat and that was what finally got his attention. I folded my arms impatiently.
"I don't give a shit whether you want to or not, but we need to prepare for this competition together. The competition that you wanted me to do, remember?" I told him sternly as I pointed an accusatory finger at him.
The awkwardness and stares between the table was uncomfortable, but I tried not to let it get to me.
Javier’s face was expressionless, I couldn’t figure what was going on inside of his head if my life depended on it.
His girlfriend was still wishing that I was anywhere but next to them, her glare showed me that.
I noticed her sliding her arm in front of Javier like she was guarding him. Like she was guarding him from me .
"Don't you have somewhere better to be?" Poppy asked me condescendingly. I hadn’t noticed her standing beside Diane. She was among the list of people who didn’t like me, but the feeling was mutual.
It was only then that I realized there were more people around Javier than I had counted. It had to be exhausting attracting so many people. I had a few close friends and that was more than enough for me. Javier and his girlfriend seemed to be friends with the entire school.
"Guess what Poppy," I said with fake enthusiasm, staring at her like a cartoon character asking their child audience how many apples were on the screen. "I wasn't talking to you!"
She replied by giving me the fakest smile she could conjure up.
"It’s not that I want you to do it, I just want to be eligible to enter. Just so happens that you must join for that to happen," Javier explained with a yawn.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, whatever. Either way, it would be better if we worked together. Neither of us are going to enjoy being around each other, but if that’s what has to happen, I will suck it up."
Silence fell between us yet again. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and swayed back and forth subconsciously, beginning to regret walking up to him in front of his pretentious friends.
I regretted it more when I heard snickering from a couple of said friends. That was when I realized everyone around me was trying to contain their laughter, all besides my rival. I wanted to bury my head into the sand. It was like they were all in on some joke and I was the punchline.
I hadn't even said anything embarrassing, so why was I blushing so badly? There was nothing embarrassing about me telling him what I wanted—what we needed to do. I had never cared this much in the past about what my irrelevant classmates thought of me. Why was I starting now?
That's when I felt an arm go around my shoulder. It was Bella, she was looking at the group with disdain, but her focus was mainly on Javier.
"My friend wants an answer," Bella said, her eye contact strong and intimidating. My chest felt a bit lighter.
"Elias, you do know that we aren't friends, right? You've made sure of that,” he said coldly. I parted my lips to speak but quickly pressed them together. I was at a loss for words. He then added, "But fine. Come over after school."
Diane’s eyes narrowed and she let out a soft scoff, but she didn't protest it. I wanted to respond with something snarky, but I settled for a simple nod. There was no need to be rude because deep down I knew he was right. I was expecting him to accept with open arms, but why would he? Being nice to me made him a decent person, it didn’t make us friends.
I couldn’t understand why I kept forgetting that.
***
"Do you want a snack?"
I took a second to process the question. "What do you have?"
I went straight to Javier’s house after school let out.
I was the reason that I was in this situation, yet I found myself ready to leave.
I should have left it alone when he said we didn't need to prepare for the competition together.
He was being short with me the entire night and it made me feel like shit.
I hated it so much that it made me want to go home to the demons I called siblings and the devil that was my aunt.
"Chips, fruit, cookies,” Javier listed as he searched through his pantry. "Literally whatever you want."
"Do you have Oreos?"
Javier glanced at me before reaching for the top shelf. He pulled out a whole pack of the unopened chocolate creme filled cookies and then handed the pack to me and motioned for me to follow him.
I followed him through the house and to his room.
We passed two boys who couldn’t be older than twelve years old wrestling on the couch and Gabriela egging the young children on.
Gabriela waved at me with a smile that reached her eyes.
I waved back, finding her happiness to see me unusual. She barely knew me.
Javier so obviously did not want to do this with me. His demeanor was cold and sort of closed off, it was like he was forcing himself to only talk to me when absolutely necessary. It was completely different from the way he normally acted around me.
I tracked his change back to the party a couple of nights ago. Unfortunately for me, my memory of the night was so foggy that I couldn’t link any events of the night to what was causing him to act that way.
He sat down at the desk in the corner of his room while I stood idly in the middle of it.
I didn’t know where to sit. I didn't want to sit on his bed because it was on the other side of the room, and I didn't feel that it was appropriate. The couch in his room had a bunch of clothes and pillows on it so I couldn’t sit there either.
I stood there for a few seconds before he turned to me with his brows furrowed. "What are you doing?"
"Where am I supposed to sit?"
Javier shrugged. "I don't care, sit anywhere."
"Yeah, well there isn't anywhere to sit.
Unless there's an invisible chair right here.” I pointed at the empty spot in front of me.
When Javier gave me a blank stare I stepped forward and crouched as if I was sitting in a chair.
Seeing as there was no chair in that spot, my butt hit the floor pretty hard.
I ignored the pain. “No invisible chair.”
Javier rolled his eyes, but I could’ve sworn I saw him hold in a chuckle. “I should let you stay on the floor.”
He then stood up and went to his closet. I heard the sound of rummaging before he came out with a red bean bag chair and threw it next to his desk chair. Without a word or even a glance in my direction, he took his seat again.
I took my seat in the chair which was more comfortable than I thought it was going to be. I opened the packet of cookies and took out a few, the sugar giving me some much-needed brain power.
"I created a slideshow about the Industrial Revolution for us to study," Javier told me, his focus on his laptop.
The first round of the competition was about the Industrial Revolution. Just a bunch of stupid shit about stupid people who invented stupid items. It was stupid, but at least it was an easy topic. I couldn’t complain.
He clicked through the slideshow presentation on his laptop and read the questions aloud. As we went through it, instead of us studying together it began to feel like he was quizzing me. I realized that he was doing it purposefully.
"Hey," I said, cutting Javier off mid-sentence while he was reading a question off of the slideshow. "We're supposed to be studying together."
"Yeah, we are,” he calmly replied.
"No. You're making me answer questions while you click through the presentation," I corrected him.
He nodded sharply, affirming my statement. "Yes, exactly."
I stuffed another Oreo into my mouth. It was my eighth one. "So you're saying that only I need to prepare?"
"I didn’t say it, you did."