I scratched my forehead. "What is it?"
His head tilted slightly. "You're really cute, you know that?"
I offered a sheepish shrug to which he laughed. He leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips, the bear weirdly squished between us as he did. Afterward, he picked up the bear again and held it in front of him.
"What should we name you?" Javi asked the bear. He gave it a moment of thought. "You choose, Eli. Should we name her Everest or Fallon?"
"It's your teddy bear, but I like Fallon."
He pouted dramatically. "But I like Everest more."
I suppressed a silly grin. "I like Everest too."
His eyes flickered to the bear and then back to mine. He squinted at it and nodded sharply. "Her name is Fallon Everest."
“First and middle name?”
“Nope, both are her first name. Cool bears have two names as their first name.”
He sat Fallon Everest down next to us so that he could grab a box hidden behind his bed. It was my birthday present, one that I did not realize he was getting for me. He apologized for it being late and said that the delivery service had been slacking all holiday season. I didn’t mind, I was still surprised that he had gotten me another gift at all.
Javier bought me my own helmet to wear on his motorcycle. It was a nice sleek black helmet that looked almost identical to his. He assured me that we could ride his bike whenever I wanted to, no questions asked.
He had no idea just how grateful I was for the meaning that went into the things he picked out for me. They were always so personalized, and it made me feel so special.
He made me feel special.
***
School started up two weeks after that and then we were right back into the normal routine. We were officially in the home stretch of our senior year of high school and it was unbelievable. Everything mattered now, at least that was what everyone kept saying. It was all about to be over, so we needed to make the most of the time we had left.
It was also acceptance and rejection letter season. Students were seen crying in the hallways as they opened their phones and read the ‘We regret to inform you…’ emails that colleges would send. Others jumped with joy and excitement because they received the opposite email, wasting no time to brag to everyone about every college that accepted them.
I had applied to a few in and out of state colleges. I had no real desire to go anywhere specific, I just wanted to be away from the toxicity of my family. I was not worried about getting into colleges since I had already been accepted into a couple. My only concern was whether the extra scholarships I applied for would give me the money. I wouldn’t know that for another couple of months, though.
Today was the third round of the academic competition—the round that would determine if we made it to finals. Javier and I had already completed the third round of it and were waiting anxiously for the results. This round was chemistry. It was difficult, to say the least, but chemistry in general was difficult so that was not surprising.
The way the competition was set up this time was different from the rest. Unlike the other times, this time we were encouraged to work together. It sounded like an advantage at first, but the judges knew what they were doing.
See, the challenge of it was to see which duos could work through their disagreements the best. They put a bunch of straight-A students in one room and had them solve chemistry problems with partners, it was a recipe for disaster. If there was a disagreement on how to solve a question then one of you had to suck up your pride and go with the other way, even though you believed it was the wrong way. If you dwelled on which way was right for too long, then you hurt your team.
I was nervous at first. Neither me nor Javi liked to believe we were wrong, and I did not want that to be the cause of our failure. There were fifty questions and they weren't simple in the slightest, but they were doable.
What I failed to realize was just how far my rival and I had grown from the beginning of the school year. We were not the same two guys that hated each other's guts and would rather die than admit defeat. No, now we were two men that respected the other enough to work with instead of against each other.
It would have worked in our favor if we both would have been more well versed in chemistry. It was safe to say that we were struggling. My eyes scanned the room to make sure it wasn't just us that was having a difficult time, and it was safe to say that we weren't. One group looked like they were on the verge of tears at the sight of the problems. Though that was the minority, not the majority.
We were currently sitting on a bench in the lobby while we waited for the results. I, as always, hated the feeling of not knowing. I usually had little faith that we did better than everyone else, but the fact that Javier was just as doubtful as I was had concerned me.
"Where's all your optimism?" I pushed his shoulder playfully. "Normally you'd be talking about how we blew everyone out of the water right now."
His eyes were resting as he lightly shrugged. "I don't think we got first, but I wouldn't say we got last."
My eyes narrowed as I tried to analyze him. I leaned over and put the back of my hand on his forehead. "You feeling okay?"
That's when he opened his eyes to roll them boredly. Javi pulled my hand off of his head and gave a ‘hmph.’ "I'm fine, just not all that confident this time."
"Why not?"
