What Diane did next shocked me and the people around us. She picked up a red solo cup off the table—one that I was pretty sure was not hers— and threw it on Javier. Whatever was in the cup was clear so it didn’t stain, but it still completely soaked Javi’s costume. Diane shouted some more before storming off.
Justin took off after Diane. I hadn't even realized Justin had been with us.
Javier looked pissed. I watched as he stomped down a hallway to I assume find a bathroom. I felt compelled to go after him. Part of it was because I wanted to be nosy, but I also felt like Javier probably needed a friend right then. I may not have had been his friend, but I didn’t see Paxton anywhere so I was the closest he could get.
"Hey." I nudged Ricky. "I'll be back, okay?"
Ricky eyed me. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just really have to do something, but I'll meet back up with you."
He nodded unsurely but I didn't give him the chance to say anything else before I walked off.
I pushed through the crowd of people once again. Limbs were flying everywhere from dancing drunk people and I had to dodge them like I was in an action movie. Once past the mob, I opened one door that I thought led to a bathroom but it instead was a closet. I then opened another door, but it was a bedroom. My eyes fell on the bed occupied by two naked bodies going at it and my eyes went wide. I slammed the door shut and made a mental note to bleach my eyes when I got home.
There was only one door left to open so it had to be the one that I was looking for. Lo and behold, it was.
Javier was dabbing at his red shirt with a wet paper towel. All it was doing was making the wet spot worse, but he was too irritated to notice.
One emotion that I very rarely saw from Javi was anger. He was either being overly confident and cocky or very charming and sweet. The only time I had seen him pissed was that morning at his house, the morning I insisted that I walk home because I didn't need his help. Back then he was slightly angry, but he was fully angry now.
He jumped when I swung open the bathroom door. It took him a minute to register who was standing before him, and he went back to cleaning his shirt without a word. Cleaning his shirt very aggressively, I might add.
"Rough times?" I tried to joke.
He didn't laugh.
I took a small step forward. "Are you okay?"
"It isn’t really the best time right now, if you couldn't tell," he said through gritted teeth.
"Oh."
Javier turned the knob to shut off the sink water and tossed the paper towel into the trash. He shook his head as his fingers pressed against the bridge of his nose.
My rival's eyes met mine with fire behind him. "What do you need?"
"Nothing, I just..." I trailed off before pausing. "It looked like you and Diane had a pretty bad argument."
"So you came to be nosy?"
"No, I came to make sure you’re okay."
He rolled his eyes before trying to exit the bathroom. He attempted to push past me. He severed his body to try and go around me to make it to the door, but I took a step to the side and pushed his chest back. The push wasn’t aggressive, but it was firm.
"Move," he grumbled with a dead stare. If this were any other circumstance I would have taken that to heart, but I could see how ticked off he was.
I folded my arms with a huff. "Are you not going to tell me what happened?"
Javier replied by grabbing me by my shoulders and pulling me away from the door and I resisted by widening my stance to stand my ground. It was moments like these where I wished I was a star quarterback like my brother because it would have been a lot easier to hold my own.
That was a lie, I would never wish to play football.
I was starting to lose, so I grabbed onto the door frame to keep me in place. I let out a laugh on accident. I knew Javier was angry but keeping him from escaping felt like a game to me. I didn’t dare look at him as I concentrated on not being forced out of my spot. That was when I heard a faint chuckle from him.
His hand trailed down to my waist, it was accidental. I wasn't too ticklish of a person, but when his hand pushed against the spot above my waist and below my rib cage, I busted out into laughter that I couldn’t hold back. It was a ticklish spot for me. My amusement was contagious; Javier was laughing too. I was laughing so hard that my ribs were starting to hurt while Javi was practically falling to the floor. We laughed like children giggling at fart jokes. It was the first time I had laughed like that in a while.
After a minute we had caught our breaths, and we were left standing in front of each other with smiles on our faces.
