Fourteen
Eli
I had just finished telling Kailey every detail about my evening at Javier's house after she wouldn’t quit badgering me about it. We were waiting for the student council meeting to start, so I had time to kill.
"Oh my God, so does this mean that you guys are friends?" Kailey asked way too loudly.
I shushed her. Javier was in the same room as we were, just on the opposite side. He had already mentioned to me that my friends and I could be loud at times. I didn't need Kailey to prove his point further or let him know that we were talking about him
"No, it doesn't mean that we're friends. Why do you want us to be friends so badly?" I asked with an eye roll.
Before she could answer, Mr. Rowe entered the room. Everyone in the room immediately began to quiet down as he walked toward his desk. Our club leader could be pretty strict at times so us students were quick to listen to him.
People were constantly interrupting me at the worst times. If our teacher would have waited ten more seconds before coming into the classroom, Kailey could have answered me. Whatever, it just meant that I had to remember to ask her again.
Though, over the past couple months I had started to realize that I was forgetting a lot more than usual.
I mean, it wasn’t anything drastic. It was small errors like losing my phone even though I had it a few minutes before and forgetting things that I wanted to say to people.
I was also forgetting parts of conversations that had happened not that long ago.
It was okay, though, because I ended up remembering eventually, I just had to think really hard about it.
Honestly, I had no idea what was said during the meeting. The truth was that now that I wasn’t the class president, I did not have a lot of want to be in the student council. I had stuck it out for three full years in hope that the next year would be my year to win. Clearly that year never came.
Student council was a bit of a bore. If you weren’t class president or at least one of the class officers then there was not much point in participating in it.
Everyone else was just background characters that showed up to meetings and maybe a few events.
It was just a bunch of straight-A, overachiever kids coming together and making the most insufferable group possible.
But that was just my opinion. Most people would say otherwise. Many of my club mates—mostly the irrelevant ones whose names I never bothered to learn—thought that it was meaningful even while not being president or secretary.
I was only at the meeting because I had committed to it and I wouldn’t bail on Kailey. She would be mad if I dropped out just because I didn’t get what I wanted. I was glad I had her to keep me grounded because I did want to finish my time in this club.
My eyes were wandering around the room and they kept matching with Javier’s.
I wasn’t doing it on purpose and I didn’t think that he was either, it just kept happening.
I kept meeting Diane’s eyes, too. She didn’t seem as pissed at me as last time, but her stare wasn’t letting up.
I couldn’t quite figure out the look that she was giving me.
After Mr. Rowe finished explaining whatever the hell he was talking about, he announced for me to stay after once again.
I already knew what he wanted to talk about.
He was going to try and let me down easy.
He needed to tell me that I couldn't go on the trip, though I already knew that was the case.
I was contemplating slipping out of the classroom with everyone else when the meeting ended to avoid the conversation.
Despite not wanting to, I waited for everyone else to clear the room before I went up to Mr. Rowe. I was bracing myself for his words.
"I just need a little more information from you so that you’re all good to go," Mr. Rowe said with a smile. "I’m really glad you’re coming, kid."
He was glad I was coming?
"What?" I asked, the confusion clear both in the tone of my voice and on my face.
"The trip," he clarified, his focus on the pen and paper in front of him. He held the pen in his hand, ready to write stuff down.
“Huh?”
"The student council trip, Elias. Once the situation was explained, we were able to make an exception for you. You were only a couple of days past the deadline to pay, so it was fine."
I looked at him, dumbfounded. "I paid for…the club trip?"
Mr. Rowe looked up from his desk, his brows furrowed with concern. "Are you okay?"
I ignored his question. "I can go on the trip?"
Mr. Rowe nodded slowly.
“But…why?”
“I’ll repeat myself again then,” the man mumbled to himself. “The Cortez’s spoke to us and explained that they would be the ones paying your bill. Did they not talk to you about it?”
I had to refrain from letting my jaw drop.
Javier’s parents paid for my entire trip.
I had not the slightest clue why they would do so.
Their son and I weren’t friends, we weren’t even acquaintances, we were enemies.
Who pays for someone that their child is constantly butting heads with?
Some wouldn’t even do that for their kid’s best friend.
They wouldn't have done that randomly, either. Javier would have had to ask them to do such a thing, but he wouldn't do that. Sure, he had done a few nice things for me over the past month, but paying for my entire trip was something I couldn't imagine.
I couldn’t assume that he got his parents to pay for my trip. If I asked him and he didn't do it, I think I'd die from the embarrassment of believing that he was able to make something like that happen for me.
Mr. Rowe let me leave after that. Once I made it home, I went straight into my room to tell my friends about what I had been told at the club meeting.
They were so focused on the fact that I was confirmed to attend that they didn’t hear me say that Mr. and Mrs. Cortez put down money for me to be able to go.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to reiterate it to them because my brother came into the room. His presence was an interruption.
Easton didn’t even spare me a glance before he climbed to the top bunk and laid on top of the duvet. Once one of my siblings entered the room, I knew it was time to hang up the phone. They didn’t want to hear my friends and I’s conversations.
He had been in the front room with my sister and Benji before coming to the bedroom.
Benji seemed to be at our house more often than not ever since the party.
He was also talking to me more than he normally did, which was a bit odd.
He would strike up conversations before, but never as often as he had been the past couple of days. Maybe something happened at the party?
"That Cortez dude paid for your trip?" Easton asked abruptly.
Oh, he must have heard the end of my conversation with my friends. I didn't think he was listening to me, he was normally either too high to do so or simply didn't care enough. I was enjoying us pretending as if the other didn't exist, but he of course had to ruin that with his question.
"I think so," I mumbled as I pulled the blankets up to my chest. I was snuggled tight.
He hummed. "You’re lucky. Me and Em have always wanted to go on a school trip. Hell, we’ve always wanted to go on any trip.”
"Wow,” I said dryly. “Same.”
I heard the bed creak as Easton moved on top of it. He leaned his head over the side of the bed and downward to see me on the bottom bunk. I didn’t dare look up, but I felt his eyes watching me. He was waiting on me to say something else. Unfortunately for Easton, I had nothing else to say.
"Must I spell everything out for you?" Easton grumbled in frustration. When he was met with my dull look, he rolled his eyes. "Ask him to pay for me and Emerson."
"Pay for you two to what?"
"For us to go on the nerd trip, dumbass,” he insulted, a vein poking out of his forehead because of how hard he was glaring.
Him wanting me to ask Javier to pay for them both was bizarre. It was insane that they had paid for me , I couldn't possibly ask him and his parents to do anything like that for Easton and Emerson.
Besides, I didn't want to ask. Even if I was sure that they would agree, I wasn’t going to do it. I was finally getting to have a nice time away from my siblings. Why would I want them to come along?
I scoffed. "Have you lost your mind?"
My brother returned the scoff with a much more aggressive one. "We want to have nice experiences just like you're going to get.”
"I'm not asking his parents to pay for you,” I said sternly. "The fact that they paid for me is a miracle, I can’t ask them to do that again. And it’s going to cost even more for you guys since you aren’t in the student council. I won’t ask that of them.’
Easton didn't like my answer. His jaw was tight and his eyes were narrowed, I expected him to jump at me. When he inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, my brows furrowed in surprise. He didn’t snap at me like I completely expected him to.
Where did emotionally aware Easton come from?
My brother climbed down the ladder as he spoke calmly to me. "Elias, listen. I know we've had our ups and downs and that I can sometimes be cruel—"
"Sometimes?"
He sighed, crouching by the side of my bed.
I caught a huge whiff of the smell of weed radiating off of his clothes.
"Yes, sometimes. But listen, it would be great for all three of us to go on a trip. We’ve been stuck in this stank-ass house since the day dad died.
Plus, I’m sure Macy will be overjoyed that we’ll be out of her house for a week. Would you please just ask him?"
I should have told Easton to fuck off right then and there. He and Emerson had been nothing but mean and hateful toward me since basically forever. I couldn't understand what made him think that I would want to do something nice for him.