Chapter 6
EVERETT
H is name was Carpenter. At least his last name was. I had no idea what his first name was.
And no one liked him.
I don’t know why, but I always made sure to keep a wide berth. If one or two people hate you, maybe there is something going on and it is situational. But if everyone hates you? Then it is probably you.
With this guy? It was definitely him.
“No—Everett, listen! I just wanted to know how you did it! I’m not turning you in or anything!”
I continued walking, checking my phone to see where my next round was as I responded to him. “I didn’t do it, man! You can’t just be accusing people of cheating like that.”
“But—!” He paused as I sharply turned into another hallway, but he still didn’t take the very obvious hint and ran after me. “Why else were you going out with that one judge?”
“It can be hard to believe, I know, but people sometimes go out because they like each other. Speech isn’t someone’s life . Melanie is cute and only a grade above me, but I don’t need to explain myself to you,” I explained, stopping to fill up my water bottle.
“She judged you in the Prairie tournament’s final round,” the kid said, leaning against the wall.
“I know that.” I rolled my eyes.
“And you didn’t say anything to anyone?”
“We dated after that tournament.”
“No. Chris told me he saw you guys at an Applebee’s a few days before the tournament.”
“One”—I filled up my water bottle—“I would never take a date to an Applebee’s . That’s just tacky. And two”—I turned—“I have a round to get to. So, I would let this go and focus on your own speech. Oh, and you have mustard on the side of your mouth!” I called out, walking away.
I saw him out of the corner of my eye wiping his mouth with the edge of his suit, leaving a horrible yellow stain. I was thankful he left me alone, because, if I’m being honest, I kinda lied to him.
And by kinda, I mean completely.
He was absolutely correct; I had gone out on a date with a judge before a competitive tournament. Not willingly though! I had no clue she was going to be judging me, and when she was sitting in the judge’s chair...I just chose not to say anything.
I didn’t like getting accused of being a cheater or anything like that.
I didn’t date her just to get a good place at a tournament; I did actually think she was cute.
Keeping my mouth shut and not reporting it was the only morally questionable thing I did, but that was just being smart, is what I would say.
Only a fool would ruin an opportunity like that.
And no harm done! It was a small district speech tournament; I wasn’t stealing someone’s kidneys to sell on the black market or anything like that. People really need to chill with speech. I mean, it was never that serious.
Speaking of crazy speech kids.
“No way. Jahnvi Patel in the same round as me? Always a joy to have you eye-rolling at me from the back of the room,” I said, looking behind me when I heard her heels.
Her eyes widened for a second, then rolled as if to prove my point. “By the way,” she started, bending down to set her water bottle and purse down, “Mason was caught skipping again. Coach was running around for hours trying to find him. He was vaping in the bathroom.”
“Is that why the bathroom was smelling like watermelons? Reminds me of the neighborhood pool when we were like nine. Remember?” The memory made me smile.
Even Jahnvi succumbed to a small smile. “My mom would cut us slices, and I’d always let the juice dribble all over me and I was all sticky. You’d eat them so perfectly though.”
“I told you to tilt your head back, but you never listened.”
“You kept splashing me, so I was pissed at you! In what world would I have taken your advice?”
“I only did it ’cause you got so upset,” I told her, both of us laughing now. She looked up at me, her small jhumkas dangling from her ears.
I felt my smile twitch a little.
You see, when Jahnvi wasn’t throwing insults my way or frowning, she was actually pretty. Very pretty. I’d always thought so, even when I was young. But not pretty like Melanie was.
Jahnvi was beautiful.
It was something about her eyes—the way they were always filled with so much emotion that they almost sparkled. Sparkled isn’t the right word. Glowed, maybe? I’m not sure, but her eyes were just so nice.
The rest of her was equally as nice.
A gorgeous face, a gorgeous body, gorgeous hair; I could go on and on. So, it raised an important question: How come she’d never had a boyfriend?
I’d actually never even seen her with a guy before.
The only guys she ever talked to were friends with her friends, and the guy or two who had expressed interest in her were chased away in minutes.
Literally—I timed it. She turned poor old Peter S.
away inside of five minutes after she knew he liked her by calling him someone, as I recall, who “looks like he’d be into Bigfoot erotica. ”
It just didn’t make sense.
I’d seen the rate at which she ripped through romance books, and I’d seen her expression when reading them too. She’d be barefoot on her porch (her parents have one of those cool swings) during the summers, smiling to herself idiotically while flipping the pages.
I’d never asked her about the whole boyfriend thing, of course.
Her eyes slowly hardened, and her smile had turned into a frown as soon as it had come. “Don’t distract me! Mason is supposed to be your responsibility; he’s in your group that you’re in charge of. Yet I was the one who was lecturing him today.”
“You should’ve told me, Jahnvi, I didn’t even know. I just came out of my other round, and—”
“You don’t get it. It’s not my job to tell you.” She shook her head, heading toward the door. “You should’ve known he was planning on it for a while now, and you should’ve had this conversation long ago. You could at least pretend to take speech seriously.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but she was gone before I could defend myself.
Defend myself from what, exactly? That I was supposed to yell at a kid for secretly skipping when I had no clue he was going to or no way of catching him? Jahnvi was just yelling at me to yell at me, as always.
I sighed, entering the room behind her. The warm feeling I’d felt about her vanished as I watched her take a seat. She crossed her legs, tucked her flyaway hairs behind her ears, and cracked her neck while not forgetting to shoot me a glare.
I cracked my knuckles, exhaling out of my nose.
Flowers, Everett. You just need her to show you how to get flowers. Then she’ll graduate, and you’ll have your restaurant and never need to see her again.