I Don't Like Your Boyfriend

Monday came too soon for me. It meant I had to face Antonio, whose calls I was avoiding all night the night before. He sent me texts and then called me. I didn’t want to answer him. I didn’t want to face him, I would fall under his spell again. His spell being his lips. All night I thought about those lips and I groaned very loudly when I couldn’t catch any sleep. I woke up Monday morning wondering how I even fell asleep. Ever happen that to you? You think you can’t sleep at night and then suddenly you wake up and you wonder how the hell you fell asleep?

Yeah, it never happened to me until then. I got up and got dressed for school. I checked my bag that I had everything and went downstairs and had breakfast. Havel and I, for the first time in years, didn’t argue. My aunt was surprised and so was my uncle. I told them we just resolved our issues. I heard a honk outside and knew it was Sterling.

“Gotta go,” I said as I finished drinking my orange juice.

“Remember to go to the flower shop,” my aunt called out.

“Yeah!” I said back as I opened the front door and expected Sterling, but it was Antonio. He had a car. It was an old Nissan. I chuckled as I saw that it was a bit… used. I walked up to him and looked at the car in awe. “What is that piece of junk?” I joked.

Antonio feigned a hurt gasp. “This is Helen, how dare you insult her?”

“You named your car?” I laughed.

“Duh!” Antonio said. “I wasn’t calling you like crazy yesterday to tell you and take you out, but…”

“I was busy with homework,” I lied quickly.

“Right,” Antonio said like he didn’t believe me. “Wanna a ride to school?”

Just on time Sterling pulled up behind Antonio. I cursed under my breath. I saw the angry look in Sterling’s eyes. He got out of his car. I went to Sterling as he glared at Antonio.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Sterling asked.

“He just came to show me his car,” I said as I tried to push him away.

Sterling never looked so pissed off before. “I’m warning you, Wessington, stay away from my girl.”

“Why don’t you let her decide what she wants? She has a brain, you know,” Antonio shot back.

“Antonio!” I hissed irritated. “Sterling, let’s go, please let’s just go.”

Sterling relaxed and got back inside of the car. I looked at Antonio and shook my head. He shouldn’t have provoked him. I got inside of the passenger seat. Sterling drove away. It was a silent ride.

“What did I say, Eddy? I don’t want you near him!” Sterling growled.

“He’s my friend, Sterling,” I shot back.

“Why can’t you see that he likes you?” Sterling said as he glanced at me.

“I do see it, but I’m not going to respond to it, why are you so jealous?”

“Because I’ve seen the way you look at him, too,” he said and I didn’t know what to say to that.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I don’t look at Antonio in any way.”

“Yes, you do, when you see him with Lora and when he talks to you… you’re… different,” he said.

“Have I not shown you how much I love you, Sterling? Don’t doubt me because you’ll only push me away,” I told him.

“Just tell me you don’t have any feelings for him,” he said.

“I don’t,” I said at once. “I don’t have any feelings for Antonio.”

I was a liar.

Sterling smiled. “I believe you. I’m so sorry. I just love you so much, Eddy. You’re a blessing in my life.”

He took my hand and placed a kiss on it. I smiled and took my hand back when he dropped it. He parked the car in the school parking lot. He and I walked hand in hand into the school. Luke was reading a book and Lora was texting. I smiled. My friends. Lora… I made out with her boyfriend. Luke, I gave him false hope. Suddenly, I felt like the worst friend in the world. I felt like the worse girlfriend in the world.

I lied to my boyfriend. When Antonio came, Sterling ignored him. Lora squealed happily and placed his arms around him. I looked away after that and leaned my head against Sterling’s shoulder.

“What are you doing after school?” I asked him.

“Uh, I have to go home for some family stuff,” he said.

“What do you do?” I asked.

“It’s just business things,” he said.

I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t believe him. I had to believe him because he believed in me.

“Cool, I have to go to the flower shop,” I said.

The school bell rang. Luke, Lora, and I went to our Government class. I turned in the homework that I missed. The class went by kind of slow. As the teacher gave the lesson, a paper hit my desk. I looked to my right and saw Luke looking up to the front. It was from him. I opened the note.

Why did Sterling look like he wanted to kill Antonio?

He noticed? Of course he did, Luke was very observant, even when you think he wasn’t. I wrote back.

Idk, I didn’t notice. I’ll ask Sterling.

Luke looked at the note and then looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I mouthed an ‘I don’t know’ and pretended to be looking at the overhead. At the end of the class, we headed to Anatomy.

“I know you know, you always know,” Luke said.

“Know what?” Lora asked.

“Nothing!” I said quickly and laughed. “How about them Lakers, huh?”

Lora raised an eyebrow and it looked exactly the way Luke did it. It was weird, but I got used to it.

“Fine, have your secrets, it doesn’t matter that we’ve been friends since diapers and that we tell each other everything,” Lora said.

“It’s nothing worth mentioning, Lora, I promise,” And the pile of lies just got bigger and bigger.

Lora was convinced, but Luke wasn’t. We walked into Anatomy and I sat back in the island counters with Antonio. He smiled at me.

“Your boyfriend wanted to murder me,” Antonio whispered as Mr. Sanyo taught us about the Nervous System.

I smiled at his comment. “Yeah, he was totally planning where to bury you.”

“Do you think it’s possible for someone to fall in love in just one week?” Antonio asked.

I met his eyes and I saw a sparkle in them. “I don’t know.”

“How long did it take you to realize you loved Sterling?” Antonio asked.

I tapped my pencil on my notebook. “A couple of weeks after talking to him.”

“How was your first kiss?”

“Why are you asking?” I asked.

“I just want to know,” he said innocently.

“It was during a project we were doing for Marine Biology at my house, he leaned in and I leaned in and we kissed,” I said.

“Did you feel anything?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes. “No, and that’s why I said yes when he asked me out because I felt nothing when he and I kissed.”

“No need for the heavy sarcasm,” Antonio said.

I smiled and shook my head.

“Ms. Torch, since you just LOVE to talk, why don’t you tell us what does the central nervous consist of?”

As usual the whole class turned around in their seats to see me sweat. Quickly I glanced at Luke who was ‘casually’ tapping his temple and stretching his back.

“Uh…” I said. “The… brain…?”

“Is that an answer or a question?” Mr. Sanyo asked.

“Answer?” I said unsure.

The class laughed. Mr. Sanyo smiled. “Detention, after school with Mr. Wessington.”

I smiled. It was Antonio’s fault I got detention in the first place.

The rest of the school date went pretty uneventful. After school Sterling left, I didn’t tell him I had detention with Antonio because he would make a bid deal out of it. Antonio and I entered Mr. Sanyo’s class. He was on his desk grading something. He looked up at us.

“Ah, the duo troublemakers,” he said.

“Psh, Mr. Sanyo, you know I make your life exciting,” I smiled.

He shook his head. “You’re a headache, Torch.”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “What will we be doing?”

“Scraping gum off the bottom of the desks,” he said as he opened a drawer and took out two scrapers. “I want them gum-free.”

Antonio his and I took mine. Detention was only for an hour. When we were done it was four. I had already called my aunt to tell her we were going to be late. Antonio was going to give me a ride. We walked side by side towards the school parking lot. Antonio took my hand and lanced our fingers.

I laughed. “What are you doing?” I took my hand back and looked around to make sure no one saw that.

“Come on, Eddy, why are you fighting this?” he gestured between us.

“Us? All we did was kiss, Antonio. I didn’t… let’s just forget it happened, okay?” I pleaded with my eyes.

We reached his car and I thought he was going to open the door for me, but he only trapped my against the car with his body and brought down his lips to mine. I slowly fell into the kiss. He cupped my cheek and his other hand remained on my hip. I moaned just a bit when our tongues touched each other. He won dominance and explored my mouth. We pulled out for air.

“How am I supposed to forget that? You’re amazing, Eddy. I want you to be mine,” he took a strand of my hair and placed it behind my ear. He kissed me again. This boy was a wizard, I just couldn’t stop and tell him no. His lips were magical. “I love you, Edalene.”