“Ayo!” Justin called from behind us with Javier. "Do you like corndogs?"
Suddenly Benji wasn’t so close to me anymore as he shook his head at Justin. I let out a small breath of relief, the suffocating feeling vanished.
"Who doesn't like corndogs?" Justin asked with utter disbelief.
"Me," I replied blandly.
Justin slapped a hand on Benji’s shoulder. “Well, good thing Benny Boy does. Let’s wait in the long line together and grab some.”
“Don’t call me that,” Benji said dryly. “But fine. Eli, come with us.”
My eyes landed on Javier’s. He was already looking my way with a hint of worry behind his eyes. Now that I thought about it, he had been watching me since he interrupted Benji and I.
I fidgeted with the hem of my hoodie. “I’m good. Javi and I will find a table.”
Benji didn’t seem all that happy with my answer, but he didn’t have a chance to protest before Justin yanked his arm and dragged him again.
Javier and I followed the two, but we kept our distance. The back of his fingers brushed against mine as we walked shoulder-to-shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked after a beat.
I put on a smile. “Yeah.”
“What was Benji doing?”
I sucked in a breath. “Just talking about the twins and stuff.”
Javi’s hand gripped my shoulder, causing us to stop in our tracks. People around us had to maneuver around us because we were standing in the middle of the walkway. “You tell me if some weird shit happens.”
“It’s Benji, I know him. Nothing—”
“Elias,” he warned. “You’ll tell me. Yes?”
My heart fluttered in my chest. “Yes.”
Twenty-two
Eli
"Javier called me ‘amor’ yesterday.”
"Really?” Ricky raised a brow. When I nodded, he asked, “Are we happy about that?"
Weirdly, yeah. I was happy about it. I found myself constantly thinking about and wanting to be around the guy I had convinced myself to hate for over three whole years. I never thought that he and I would ever get to such a point where I could confidently say he didn’t irk me to my core. I was seeing firsthand why everyone loved the golden boy.
However, I had a dilemma. It was easy for me to focus on proving that I was smarter than someone I hated because the dislike for them drove me to work harder. It’s hard to be unapologetically better than someone that you genuinely like. What if this caused me to lose focus on everything that I had worked so hard for? I wanted the new relationship that we had, but I still wanted to win. That never changed. So, I’d just have to balance it.
"Yes," my voice was barely above a whisper. It was as if speaking too loudly would have gotten me reprimanded. "Everyone loves him for a reason."
“I like him too and I haven’t spent nearly as much time with him as you have,” Ricky said with an encouraging smile. “Youtwo went through all of these years of unnecessary hate when you could have been friends a long time ago.”
I scoffed. “It’s that stupid charm of his that wins everyone over.”
The charm that made everyone else like Javier was working on me too. His charm was another one of his great qualities that made people believe that he was perfect. He did it with ease, and that was what drove me to convincing myself to hate him in the beginning. It made me angry how easily he got people to adore him, just like it made me angry how easily he did well in school.
I wouldn’t lie and say that those things did not still annoy me, but the fondness of Javi outweighed the annoyance of him being effortlessly good at everything.
“You should invite him to hang out with us, and his friend Paxton too. If he’s friends with you then he should be friends with me. Gotta make sure he’s the right fit.” Ricky punched me lightly in the shoulder with a smirk.
