That was exactly how I felt, pathetic. I was too old to be crying in the middle of a park all because I lost. I wasn’t liked enough by my classmates to be elected as class president. Maybe it was my fault. I always had an attitude with people and never made much of an effort to change that. People just pissed me off too easily. Though, I wasn’t rude to absolutely everyone. Therewerepeople who liked me, just not enough of them.
I thought that since I was the little brother of a well-liked football player and cheerleader that that would make a difference, but I honestly did not know why I thought that because it had never worked for me before.
Maybe I was simply unlikeable.
"Alex, look!" screamed a young, high-pitched voice. "I told you he was sad."
I slowly raised my head and looked at the child in front of me. It was a small girl, she looked about six or seven. Her curly pigtails bounced as she moved closer to me. She was cute, but I couldn't help but be annoyed that the child was pointing while loudly speaking about me.
"Are you okay, mister?" the girl asked softly.
I sniffed before nodding at the kid and forcing a smile. Anything to get the gremlin to go away.
I heard footsteps before I laid my eyes on the guy. He was an average guy, maybe an inch taller than me with his brown hair cut in a taper fade and a smooth, freckled face. Once he reached us, he grabbed the child's hand, letting out a tired sigh. "Goodness. Millie, you cannot run up to people like this."
"But he’s so sad."
He gave me a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry about her."
I shook my head slightly, silently assuring him that it was okay. He turned around and began to walk away, but after two steps he stopped himself. He looked at me for a moment before whispering something to the child. Whatever he had said to her made her walk away, I assumed he told her to go play. The guy then sat down on the empty swing next to me.
I turned my head away from him and stared at my foot as I dragged it around in the sand. I didn't know what he was sitting there for. Out of all the places this dude could have chosen, he chose next to me. I was already embarrassed enough as it was, and I just wanted to be alone.
He clearly did not know what to say. After a long moment of silence, he spoke. "Do you want to talk about it?"
I continued to drag my foot on the ground. I did not answer.
The brown-haired boy took a deep breath. "They say it helps to talk to a stranger."
I gave a noncommittal shrug.
"Okay," he said cautiously. "What's your name?"
I wanted to tell him to go find someone else to bother, but I didn’t have the energy. I also didn’t want to be rude to him. It was clear that he meant no harm and was trying to be helpful.
"Elias,” I mumbled, still not facing him.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Alex." When I didn't respond, he continued, "You go to the school up the street, right?”
I finally turned my head and met his eyes, though his hair was long enough that it was starting to cover them. He was smiling at me, his attempt to comfort me. I wanted to know how he knew what school I went to. Did he go there as well? Was he one of the kids in the crowd that watched me run out of the building?
"Yeah. How’d you know?”
He kicked his legs back and forth, moving the swing a bit. “I recognized you. I graduated from there last year and recognized you. Easton and Emerson’s brother, right?”
I rolled my eyes. It was beginning to seem like everyone knew me only as Easton and Emerson’s little brother. I turned my attention back to my foot on the ground, ignoring Alex’s question. We sat in silence, and I thought that he would have gotten up and left me alone eventually, but he never moved.
"I'm sorry," he suddenly apologized. "I was trying to take your mind off of whatever happened because that's what people do for me when I'm upset and it works every time but I must not be doing it right because it isn't working for you… and I really just wanted to help you because you probably don’t deserve to be in the park crying by yourself, but I'm clearly doing a shitty job at it so I'll leave you alone if that's what you really need."
Once Alex caught his breath after spewing out all those words, he stood up from the swing and began to walk away.
"That was one long-ass run on sentence," I blurted, a tiny smile forming.
Alex stopped and then turned around, chuckling sheepishly. "Yeah, it's a bad habit I’m trying to break."
"You aren't doing a shitty job, I'm just being a jerk," I muttered. "I'm being over emotional, like usual, and I’m taking it out on people who don’t deserve it.”
Alex hummed a response. He glanced at the little girl that was now happily sliding down the big red slide. "We're about to go meet my—uh, friend at the pizza place not far from here. You should come."
