I hesitated at first, not wanting to do such a demeaning thing such as have my rival spoon feed me like a baby being fed by his mommy. But not only was Javier persistent, he also had a certain demeanor to him that made me feel inclined to listen to him. If he wanted me to do something, then something inside of me I wanted to comply. No matter how much my mind screamed ‘Don’t listen to him!’ and ‘You hate Javier!’ my body wanted to do as he said.
Sort of like an obedient dog. Ew.
So I opened my mouth before my better judgment could kick in and watched as he slid the spoon in. Once I closed my lips around the spoon he slowly pulled it out. I tried to focus on the taste of the new flavor in my mouth, but all I could think about was the smirk on my rival's face and the fuzzy feeling in my chest.
After a few seconds he grew impatient of waiting. "So?"
I shrugged.
"Good or bad?"
I looked at the ground, defeated. I hated to admit that it was not as bad as I had made it out to be, that Javi was right. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
"It's alright," I mumbled.
"Just alright?"
I nodded once and eyed the cup of ice cream in front of him.
"Well, that's better than you hating it." He let out a breath of air as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “You thought that you hated Mint Chocolate Chip when you had never even tried it. You didn't even give it a chance, you just assumed that you didn't like it."
I scooped another spoonful of my ice cream. "Your point?"
"You should step out of your comfort zone more often," he said simply.
“I like my little box,” I said quietly, my attention focused on my cup. “Keeps things familiar and easy.”
“Familiarity is good, but change can be good too.”
“Not the wrong kind of change.” The wrong kind of change could make things worse than before. Change meant relearning which could easily create unnecessary stress.
He nodded. “Yes but shutting out all change stops you from finding something good. Am I right or am I right?”
“Wrong,” I said sweetly.
Javier wore a playful smirk. “You think you’re so funny.”
We both chuckled simultaneously. I had to admit that Javier could be a nice person to be around in some moments. When I wasn’t so caught up in my own issues, it was easy to see why everyone adored him. It was easy to see that I was beginning to feel some of those same feelings.
Sixteen
Eli
The crowd erupted with cheers as the fans in the stands stood up and pumped their fits in excitement. Others yelled at the tops of their lungs, saying things like, 'That's right, boys!' and 'Hell yeah!’
Football was the highlight of the year for the adults of our small town in Texas. It was such a big deal that they would tailgate the games regardless of whether or not they had children playing for the team. Originally, I was under the impression that people only tailgated college football games. I was wrong. The citizens of this town had nothing better to do with their lives than to get overly excited over high school football.
My friends and I decided to go to the game that Friday. We didn’t go to every football game because we found that we had a better time hanging at each other's houses over watching boys run into each other with full force. However, we needed to change the routine every now and again.
Justin came along too. I wasn't thrilled about it and I wasn't doing a great job at hiding it. "Why did he have to come?"
I spoke to Ricky while we made our way toward the bleachers. Kailey, Bella, and Justin were having their own conversation ahead of us.
"Who, Justin?" Ricky asked as if he didn’t already know the answer to his question.
"Yeah, I kinda thought he would have found other people to harass by now. I don’t like him."
Ricky glanced at me before focusing his gaze on the grass as we walked. He hesitated before speaking carefully. "No offense, but if we isolated ourselves from every person that you don’t like, we'd have no other friends."
