Lie Like You Mean It

The next few weeks, I was eating alone, which honestly didn’t bother me. I just popped in my ear buds and listened to some loud music. Too bad Christmas Break wasn’t for another two or three weeks. School was seriously cutting into my game time. Besides, Cody wasn’t really laying off, even after Zero pretty much threatened him at the house that day.

I was always sure to make Zero’s substitute nicotine drinks because if I didn’t, he’d be angrier than usual. And I sure as hell didn’t want that. But other than that – things have been normal. With the exception of Zero’s occasional nagging me to tell him he was special. Although I’ll give him some credit – he wasn’t doing it as often anymore. But it was still weird and awkward to do that. I wasn’t sure if Zero used that against me to confuse me or if he actually enjoyed the falsified statement. I wished he wasn’t so hard to read.

Friday at lunch wasn’t any different from the past few weeks. I got my lunch, sat down, put in my headphones and let the shouts and screams of the death metal take the audacious noise of the cafeteria.
Okay, scratch that. I thought as Cody approached me. I mean, the kid just doesn’t give up does he? It was really getting fucking annoying. Now I knew how speaking a different language than the person talking to you is like. It was frustrating for me. At first I kind of felt sorry for him, but now all my sympathy has dried up and now I was just really pissy towards him.

“What?” I hissed, yanking out my only source of sanity from my ears. I missed my death metal already.

“You wanna hang out tomorrow?” He asked, as if he were innocent.

“No. I want nothing to do with you. Leave. Me. Alone.” I growled. I was starting to take on a lot of Zero’s traits, wasn’t I? That put me in an even worse mood.

“C’mon, I can still show you how much I like you.” He said, as I got up to leave. As I assumed, he followed me out the double doors of the cafeteria.

“I’ve already told you; I’m not interested!” I hissed to him. God, where was that fucking smoker when you needed him? Cody was still pursuing me through the halls as I tried to go somewhere he couldn’t follow.
This was what sucked about having a stalker of the same gender – they can follow you into the bathroom. Too bad he wasn’t a girl. But he sure as hell held a grudge like one.

So escape wasn’t an option, unless of course I left school, which I didn’t want to do because then I’d have to listen to Mom lecture me about everything that happens to young boys when they’re out in an unfamiliar town alone. I mean, I’m glad she cares about me, but sometimes she took it to an extreme. But I guess she and Dad both knew that I wasn’t very strong and I look like an easy target to boot so that was why they worried so much about me being out by myself. That and I was their only child and Mom couldn’t have any more kids. Not because she was old, but because her pregnancy with me was so high risk that they had to give her a hysterectomy after I was born.

“But Nicolas I-”

“Shut up before I shank you.” I hissed venomously. Although, I actually had no idea how to go about shanking someone; but I supposed I could learn if need be. That’s what the internet if for after all, isn’t it?
He was getting extremely close to hitting my breaking point now. Honestly, he should have sensed that since I was usually pretty mellow with my whole whatever happens, happens perspective. I was pretty sure I made it obvious that I didn’t want anything to do with him.

Then I saw my answer. The library. Cody would have to keep his mouth shut in there – wouldn’t he? I was proud or myself for finding a solution on such short notice.

“Why are we going here?” He asked, blatantly confused. I rolled my eyes and walked right into the library, the idiotic stalker-kid behind me following me right on in.

I saw a huge pile of opened books sprawled out over one of the tables, but no one behind them. I decided to pay that spectacle a visit first. Papers were strewn over them and I stared in disbelief at the name written at the top. Zero Wilkes. The thought of Zero actually doing homework was so utterly bizarre that it seemed impossible. I shuffled through the papers until I found a report card.

While we’re on the subject of shock here, I might as well add that I nearly had a heart attack when I observed the grades on it. He was taking two AP classes both of which he had a ninety-seven and ninety-five in. I searched for his class ranking, almost thinking I couldn’t get anymore shocked than I was. He was ranked number one in grades in our class.

Thinking he was as smart as this was practically impossible for me. I mean, he went around acting like a thug all the time. He smoked and he had terrible habits, he was irritable and he didn’t get along with anyone except for his sister. As for me, well, he just tolerated me; at least that’s what I thought. He seemed to have a certain kind of tolerance for me that he didn’t have for anyone else. That was fine with me; at least I wouldn’t have to deal with the full wrath of his temper.

But amidst all of this – I had a newfound respect for him. I always wondered why he was never eating lunch in the cafeteria and this was the reason. He was in here, studying. I sure as hell couldn’t dedicate myself to studying and good grades like this.

“You! What the fuck do you think you’re doing!?” I jumped at Zero’s harsh whisper. I saw him approaching me with a furious look on his face. I cringed and waited for him to deal out his punishment on me. “Didn’t I make myself clear at the house that I didn’t wanna see your fucking face again?” He brushed past me and was now glaring at Cody – who I’d forgotten was even in here with me.

“B-but Nicolas he-”

“He doesn’t fucking need you. So Fuck. Off.” He growled at the boy. Sometimes I wished I was as menacing as Zero was right now. But I guess that had a height requirement that I didn’t reach.

“I-I was just-” Cody was looking even more terrified and I was thoroughly enjoying it.

“I don’t care what ‘you were just-’. You’re the asshole who attacked him in the first place. Can’t you fucking see he doesn’t wanna be anywhere near your dumb ass?”

“I-I’ll see you a-around Nic-”

“No you won’t.” Zero hissed. “You need to quit fucking with Nicolas. Or I swear to God, I’ll fuck you up.”
Whoa… I never imagined that I’d hear Zero sticking up for me in any way shape or form. Maybe his hatred for Cody outweighed the hatred he had for me. That and maybe he found him just as impossibly irritating as I did.

At that, Cody scurried away, defeated. I was surprised that no librarians had come to check out what was going on. But then again, Zero did try to keep his voice down a bit.
I looked around awkwardly, wondering if I should leave or stay as Zero took his seat behind the mound of books.

“Sit.” He ordered as I started walking away from the table. I did as I was told; taking the seat next to him so he didn’t have to be too loud in the library. He kept his eyes on the books in front of him, frequently writing down what I surmised to be notes. “Why the fuck don’t you just threaten him?” The words were menacing, but the tone in his voice made it sound like an honest question.

“Well, I told him I’d shank him earlier.” At that, Zero just let out a little laugh, which kind of surprised me. It wasn’t exactly usual for us to have such an easy conversation.

“Hell, you’re ballsy enough to fight with me; I don’t see you having a problem telling that kid off.” He whispered, scribbling something down again. The sound of pencil on paper was boisterously loud in contrast to the silence of the library.

“With you it’s different. I don’t know why, but you’re not all that scary to me. Not including that time you almost beat the shit out of me.” He glared down at the notebook in front of him.

“I don’t know if it’s because you’re short or something but I can’t picture myself hurting you.” He said that as if it were no big deal. To me, it was a huge deal. It meant that we might just be finally getting along. That and I now knew that he wouldn’t physically hurt me. Verbally maybe, but not physically. I silently thanked my shortness for that.

“At first I thought you were mad at me because I was looking at your papers.” I whispered, attempting to change the awkward subject.

“Fuck no.” He didn’t meet my eyes because he was too concentrated on the books. “That kid pisses me off always dogging after you.”

“Whoa… are you jealous?” He asked in disbelief.

“No, I just can’t stand people who don’t understand when they’ve gone too far.” I laughed at that. He was a walking contradiction. While I agreed that Cody was certainly taking this his stalking too far, Zero was also taking the whole ‘you’re special’ tirade too far. Although, Zero’s flaw greatly paled in comparison to Cody’s stalking.

“What?” He asked, adding another sentence to whatever he was writing.

“Well, you’re the same way. You always have me telling you you’re special. And you don’t understand that you’ve taken the joke too far.”

“Hey! Don’t give me that shit!” He sounded a little angry now what with his voice rising slightly and all. I really didn’t want any conflict at the moment.

“Okay, okay. Let’s just let this go.” I tried. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, revealing his hazel eyes.

“Fine, I’ll let it go if you tell me I’m special.”

I rolled my eyes at that. I really should plan out how I go about conversing with him. His incessant use of making me tell him he was special was strangely exasperating. But it could have been because it was something I wasn’t used to telling anyone.

“Umm… you… you’re special…” I whispered back, hiding my face behind the short veil of hair I had. I was getting used to saying it, but it was still pretty weird to me.

“That’s what I like to hear.” He said with a smirk on his face. At least it looked like a smirk through the layer of hair separating us.

“Why do you like hearing that?” I asked cautiously.

“I don’t know.” He sounded sincere. “I just do.” I sighed. It was the epitome of a Zero answer; self-centered but with a seriousness that was all his own.

“Help me put these books back?” Zero asked, standing up. It was strange that he asked for my help with anything. He just seemed like the kind of person that wouldn’t ask for anyone’s help – especially not mine. But I nodded and complied. The entire conversation was uncharacteristically easy for us.
Later I just figured it was because it was because we were both talking about something we hated just as much as the other and that something was Cody.