I Don't Like Your Boyfriend

I reached the point where there was no more denying that I felt something towards Antonio. Maybe I didn’t know what it was… okay, it had something to do with the way he looked at me, smiled at me and talked to me. Yeah, it had a lot to do with those things. Did I want to like him? Maybe a little but a huge part of me still loves Sterling.

Nine months couldn’t be erased with just being with someone for two weeks. No, nine months is a lot of things to erase and Antonio couldn’t just erase them. He could block them for a while but he wasn’t able to complete get them out of my head.

“You’re thinking about me.” Antonio interrupted my thoughts.

I frowned and shook my head.

“Then who were you thinking about?”

“No one. I was thinking about the hip pop dance thing on Thursday.”

“Lora and I have that done.”

“Whoopee for you and Lora but Luke and I don’t really dance hip pop.”

“You move nice.” He smiled.

“Do you always flirt with your girlfriend’s best friend?”

He chuckled. “Only when they’re adorable.”

“I’m adorable?” I asked.

He nods. “And very sexy.”

I laughed really hard. “I’m not.” I have never categorized myself as ’sexy’ or ’hot’.

“But you are. Especially when you’re dancing like a fool.”

The door opened again and we both looked and saw my aunt. She had boxes and Antonio walked over and helped her.

Antonio then had to deliver the flowers and I was left alone in the front of the store. I heard the door bell again and I saw Havel and Cruella walk inside.

“Where’s my mom?”

“In the back.”

Havel moved a little to the side and made a face.

“They’re flowers, Havel.”

“Can you just go get her? I need money.”

I didn’t move from my spot. “She doesn’t hav--”

“I said go get her!” Havel snapped. “Cruella and I are going to the mall and I need like three hun--”

“Are you insane? She doesn’t have that kind of money.”

“Can you mind your own business?” Cruella snapped at me.

I glared to her. “Family is my business but it isn’t yours.”

Cruella glared at me as though she wanted me to burst into flames. My aunt walked up to the front and looked back and forth between Cruella and I.

“Play nice girls.”

“Moooooooom,” Havel said in her sweet voice, “can I have money?”

I rolled my eyes. I walked out to the back of the shop and took one of the clippers and walked around. I couldn’t just bare to see how Havel would whine and bitch about getting what she wanted.

Havel was spoiled. I remembered we used to be close and how we used to climb trees. Havel, Coraline and I used to call ourselves the three musketeers. We chased each other, played games and had many sleepovers. We were best friends. Then, after the death of my family she was already distant from me. I moved in with them and that’s when it got worse. I got ‘all of the attention’ and she said I stole her parents from her.

The next morning I didn’t feel any better.

I was nervous as hell. Lora would want an explanation of what happened the day before. How was I going to tell her I had feelings for her boyfriend? Sterling picked me up in the morning so I didn’t have to face Antonio. Sterling and I spent the entire morning talking and kissing.

“How are your parents?” I asked.

He nods. “All right.”

“What is it that’s keeping you so busy?” I asked.

He shrugs. “Events, nothing important.”

“Oh… Sterling?” I said slowly, not sure how to approach the subject without making it seem like I was snooping.

“Yeah?” He asked.

I took his hands in mine. I looked into his eyes and backed out.

“What are you doing Sunday?” I smiled.

“Nothing.”

“So, wanna go watch a movie?”

“I’d love to.” He pecked my lips but I turned it into something much deeper.

I didn’t care if the teachers passed by and gave us disapproving looks. I didn’t care if people stared and neither did he. He kissed me back with an intensity that filled me whole. I love Sterling, I really do. Is the heart capable of loving two people?

We pulled away from the kiss just as Lora and Luke arrived. Lora didn’t seemed bothered by anything and she didn’t ask me to stop aside and have a talk with her which meant there was nothing to fear. Lora liked to deal with things fast and if she didn’t ask me to go talk to her then the danger passed.

The school bus arrived and Antonio got off. He looked at our direction and for a quick second we locked eyes and he gave me my smile and I turned away and faced Sterling who had been texting.

I did get a glimpse of the name: CRUELLA.

Why would he be texting Cruella?

Unless…

No. Sterling loves me and he has showed me that countless times before. I mean, so I’ve only met his parents once. That didn’t mean anything. I understood that I wasn’t at his level and that his parents would only make me feel bad but the one time I met them they seemed very nice.

What could Sterling be hiding?

“Hey!” Antonio’s voice woke me from my dark thoughts.

Sterling’s arm went around me. He always did that when Antonio was around.

“Hey, baby.” Lora said and gave Antonio a very big and sloppy kiss.

Even Luke was bothered by it and he cleared his throat. “I am right here, sis, I don’t need to know what you can do.”

Lora giggled. “Did anyone do the Government homework?”

“I did.” I said and everyone turned to me like I just said something incredible. “What? So, I did my homework, whoopee doo.” I waved my hands.

“It’s just… you never do your homework.” Luke smiled. “I’m proud of you.”

“I’m proud of you.” I mocked. “I’m smart… I just play dumb to take you guard down. I’m smart as that guy in the wheelchair.”

“What’s his name?” Luke asked.

“Uh… I want to say Steven--”

“Stephen Hawking.” Luke said and I mumbled the name.

“We all know you’re smart, babe.” Sterling pecked my cheek.

“Better recognize.” I pouted and then smirked.

“What?” Sterling asked.

“I just remembered a funny joke. Anyway, Luke are we ready for our hip pop routine?”

“No.”

“I know.” I exhaled lazily.

“Why don’t Lora and I give you a few tips?” Antonio suggested.

Lora looked at Antonio and then to us. “Yeah, we’d love to help. It’s the one thing I’m better at than Luke.”

Everyone laughed. Government was boring as ever. In Anatomy Antonio and I were assigned to identify a bunch of bones and put them in order as if it were a skeleton but not all parts were there.

I took the femur and put it down. Femur was always the easiest. Antonio and I concentrated on our work for the first half of the class. Eventually we got stuck.

“Is this a radius or… the other thing?” Antonio asked me as he held out two very alike bones.

I shook my head and bit my bottom lip.

“No idea.”

“I thought you were smart.”

“Yeah, well… I lied.” I murmured. “Has uh… Lora said anything to you?” I whispered to him and looked to the front of the room. She was done because Luke was her partner.

He shook his head. “Should she?”

“She us dance very close yesterday.”

“I told her she shouldn’t be jealous of anything. We were just dancing.”

“Right.”

He smirked and leaned forward. “Unless it meant something a lot more to you like how it did to me.”

“What are you babbling about?” I muttered as I took one of the bones and recognized it from the book and it did it was a radius bone I set it down.

“Yesterday you admitted you feel something towards me.”

“And I also told you nothing could happen because you are tainted. In other words a scarlet letter.”

“You’re not denying you have feelings for me. That gives me much more hope.”

“It’s not like it’s strong enough to make me break up with Sterling.”

“Sterling.” Antonio growled. “I don’t like your boyfriend, Ed. He seems too…”

“Out of my league?”

“No, no one is out of your league.” He smiled at me. Why did he have to have such a cute smile? And those eyes that sparkled when he looked at me.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t like my boyfriend. He is still my boyfriend.”

He rolled his eyes. “Psh, yeah, I know that.”