Justin side-eyed Javier before looking at me. “I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry about what happened with Benji.’
Benji, I hadn't thought about him since that treacherous night. When he came up to me with a weak apology for making me uncomfortable, I flipped. I raised my voice and caught the attention of Easton, and that was how that situation ended with my brother and his best friend fighting.
In the midst of all the other terrible shit going on in my life, Benji was the last thing on my mind. Now that I was thinking about him again, I wondered how my sister was doing. Finding out your boyfriend used you as a placeholder because he couldn’t have your brother had to sting. The vile words that spewed outof Benji’s mouth that night disgusted me, and I felt bad for Emerson.
Javi’s jaw tightened. "How do you know about that?"
“He’s my cousin.”
My eyebrows raised as Javier scoffed. “Since when?”
“Since we were born,” Justin deadpanned. “I’ve never liked him even back when we were kids. When I lived in Arizona I didn’t have to deal with him, but then I moved here again and now I see him all the damn time.”
My hands landed on my hips. “You knew about him liking Easton?”
He scoffed. “Easton is all that dude talks about. I thought him using your sister in place of Easton was kinda fucked up, but I really got concerned when he started messing with you.”
“And you didn’t warn me?”
“I tried, but you told me we’d talk later. We never did.”
I could feel a headache brewing in the back of my head. "I can’t believe you wanted to look out for me. You can’t go a day without insulting me like it pays your rent.”
Justin punched me in the shoulder and I held back a wince. “You’re just easily insultable. No hard feelings, right fuckwad?”
This guy was just as weird as his cousin. Though in a way, Justin and I’s relationship felt more like the brotherly ones I saw between others than the relationship I had with Easton.
“Sure, asshole. Go be with your new girlfriend.”
Justin gave Javi a snarky look. “Thanks for finally letting her go.”
With a proud grin he left us standing there. Javi had a scowl on his face as he watched Justin walk away.
“He’s annoying,” Javi muttered.
Someone finally understood how I felt about Justin, and it only took the entire year.
I let the thoughts of both Benji and Justin vanish as we met up with the others. They watched me walk toward them like they had seen a ghost, obviously not expecting me to show up. They underestimated my determination to attend the trip.
The hour passed by quickly. We spent the time listening to Bella and Paxton's story about them mistaking a random lady in the store for one of our teachers from the year before. Paxton had an entire conversation with her, yapping about how he missed being in her class because the work was easy. That was when the woman finally told him she did not work at a school. She did, however, share the love of science with him. They ended up bonding over that and Bella had to endure fifteen minutes of Paxton talking about biology with a random woman.
When it was time to get on the plane, I felt the nerves hit me. I was more excited than afraid, but the intensity of it all made me shake a bit. Or maybe that was the tremors that still lingered. I couldn't tell.
We were told that we could sit anywhere in the back of the plane because those were the seats the school purchased for us. We were one of the firsts on the plane and Javi told me we should pick the seat as close to the middle of the plane that we could get. He had his reasons for it. If the plane fell, he believed we would have a better chance of survival if we were in the middle. Was that proven to be true? I didn't know and neither did he, but it eased his mind.
I snagged the window seat and opened the shade while Javier sat in the middle. I leaned my head against the window and exhaled.
"You okay?" Javi asked.
I nodded, my eyes still looking through the window. "Are you going to ask me that the entire trip?"
"Probably."
I knew Javi was nervous, but I hadn’t realized just how much. He couldn't sit still once the plane started moving, readjusting himself constantly and rambling about nonsense. I listened to him and gave my input even though I knew Javier wasn't looking for a conversation, he was trying to talk to keep his mind off of things. When we got closer to take off, I made sure to shut the window shade. Javier was not going to want to watch us leave the ground.
Javi leaned into my ear. "You can open it if you want to."
"It’s okay. If I didn't like planes, then I wouldn't want to be able to see out of the window."
