He hummed in response, meanwhile I was growing frustrated. His stupid eyes weren’t meeting mine and it was making me want to yell. I wanted him to look at me the way he had been just a few days ago—scratch that, the way he had been since we first met. I wanted to feel the intensity of his gaze, but he wasn’t giving that to me.
"Did I do something wrong?" I blurted accidentally.
Javier’s eyes met mine. He wasfinallylooking at me, but not in the way I wanted him to. He wasn’t looking at me with the usual smugness and smirk, the mannerisms that showed me he noticed me enough to treat me that way. No, right now he had a blank expression on his face. His eyes didn’t have the usual glint to them and he wasn’t as focused as usual.
"No?" his statement came out as a question. "What could you have done?"
"Well, I don’t know. You're acting weird."
Javier scoffed as he averted his eyes from me. "I’m not acting any differently than I normally do."
I watched as his eyes focused on something behind me. Out of curiosity, I turned around. It was his girlfriend standing by a locker with her eyes narrowed and arms folded. Her anger was directed toward me, I got that much when she sized me up. Ah, just another person obsessed with me.
My shoulders slumped. "Okay.”
There was no reason for me to be upset. Javier and I were not friends in any way, shape, or form, so I shouldn’t have been upset by the slight change in his attitude. He probably wasn’t even acting strangely, I was simply reading too much into it. Or maybe he was just having a bad day.
The only reason we had to be around each other was for the competition. The first round of Thinkfast was coming up and we needed to practice together to better our chances of winning. The idea of studying with Javier suddenly didn’t sound so unappealing to me.
I cleared my throat. "So, I was thinking that we should probably meet up and study together."
Javier immediately shook his head. "That isn't necessary."
"It is necessary, do you want to lose? I don’t think you do,”
"If we lose it'll be your fault, not mine," Javier said smugly.
I was left dumbfounded as he walked off. He was gone before I even got the chance to think of something to retort. The one time I try to be nice to the guy and he blows me off? That was just a reminder of exactly what our relationship was.
Javier and I not being friends didn't change the fact that we needed to work together in order to win the competition. I had read the packet Mrs. Montgomery had given us and it told exactly how the competition would work.
We were partners but we wouldn't be able to help each other, at least not for the first round. Basically, when it was ourteam's turn to answer a question, only one of us could do so. So, if it was my turn to answer the question, that meant that Javier couldn't help me at all and vice versa. We had to trust that we both had enough independent knowledge to get us enough points. That's why it was so crucial to study together, to ensure that we both knew the answers on our own.
My legs had taken me back to my friends who were standing in front of the boys’ bathroom. They had watched my entire interaction with my rival like it was a movie.
“I wasn’t close enough to read your lips,” Bella said with a half-frown. “What happened?”
I rubbed the top of my head. “He’s an ass, like usual. He was the one who wanted me to join this dumb fuck competition, yet he can’t even be bothered to work together.”
“He doesn’t want to do it with you all of a sudden?” Ricky asked.
I shrugged. “He’s acting differently and I can’t explain why.”
“Well, if you guys don’t work together your chances of winning are gonna be pretty slim,” Bella said honestly. “Don’t let him cause your loss, Eli.”
"I'm going to go talk to him." I mumbled to my friends.
“Actually?” Kailey’s voice raised an octave out of surprise.
"If we're going to win the competition then we need to study. The first round is this Friday." My head faced down the hallway toward Javier. He was back with his group, not paying any attention to me. His unusual disinterest created a gross feeling in my chest.
Kailey smiled at me with pride. "I’m proud of you for putting your differences aside and wanting to work together with him."
I offered her a small smile before turning and marching my way over to Javier. Two more people had appeared next to my rival and his friends. It made sense, they were people magnets. They watched as I approached their group.
Their conversation had ceased and everyone was looking at me except for Javier himself. I cleared my throat and that was what finally got his attention. I folded my arms impatiently.
"I don't give a shit whether you want to or not, but we need to prepare for this competition together. The competition thatyouwanted me to do, remember?" I told him sternly as I pointed an accusatory finger at him.
