A City of Fools

“Good form, Eli!”

Eli smiled, before continuing with the routine. When she and the girls were done, they tossed their pom-poms on the black asphalt that made up the track around the football field and sat down. Eli stretched slowly, not wanting her muscles to cramp up, before reaching for her bottle of water. The girls around her were chatting about the new routine, the first game that was in five days.

“I'm so excited,” Lauren said, pushing her blue bangs out of her face and sitting down next to Eli. Normally a student at Dulaney wouldn't have been able to get away with blue bangs but Lauren was blessed with a smile to charm the faculty out of anything...and with a mother who was on the school board. She threw an arm around her best friend's shoulder. “You okay, love?”

Eli nodded, taking another drink of her water. It was the first day of her senior year and she should've been excited, but she was too worried about how her younger brother, Gabriel, was dealing with his first day as a freshman. She hadn't seen him since lunch and was unable to drive him home due to practice.

“Gabe's fine,” she told her. “You know he's just excited to be in high school.”

“I know,” Eli said, but she wasn't sure she really agreed. High school was difficult enough without being branded as the gay little brother of the head cheerleader. Not that she blamed him, not that she was unhappy with his life choices, quite the opposite—she thought the world of him because of his strength. Gabriel was the type of guy to just be himself without regard to other's opinions. Eli wished she had that sort of natural self confidence; instead hers was made up from the girls she surrounded herself with that she would hardly call friends. Well, with the exception of Lauren who had been her best friend since third grade.

“Are you worried about his...you know? Boy-liking?” Lauren asked.

Eli laughed, loud and unexpected, and she shook her head, red curls falling from the long braid and into her face. “You couldn't have termed that any better, Ren,” she said, running a hand over her face.

Lauren smiled, shrugging. “Because you know no one is going to care.”

Eli glanced towards the football players who were running out onto the field. A couple of them sent her winks, some sent waves, and she just rolled her eyes before looking back at her friend. “Are you sure about that?”

“They're idiots, Eli. They've been smacked in the head with the pigskin a few too many times to have any good judgment,” Lauren told her. “Besides. Gabe doesn't care about their opinions—why should you?”

Eli sighed. “You're right.”

Lauren hugged her friend tightly before glancing back out at the players. “Which one are you gonna date this year?”

“None,” Eli said. “It's senior year. I have to focus on getting into NYU.”

Lauren nodded, slowly. “I don't believe you.”

Eli laughed, a small blush staining her cheeks. “I'm not really looking for a boyfriend right now, Ren. Just let me get through football season and maybe we'll talk, okay?”

“I'm thinking Jack,” Lauren said, glancing over at the football field. Jack Barakat might have gone to Dulaney his whole life, but something over the summer happened. He had...blossomed. He was...hot. Not that he wasn't before, Lauren would argue, but summer was kind to him. He had gotten taller, his cheekbones more defined, and he must've been working out due to the muscles he now sported. Lauren may not have paid much attention to him before but, that morning, Jack had opened the door for her, smiled, and Lauren was gone. During the day, she found out he had joined the team and she couldn't have been happier

Eli smiled—any guy who made Lauren smile was good in her book. “Just make sure he's not an asshole first, okay? Most football players are.”

“Yet that's all you date. And besides, Jack is new on the team. I'm sure he's not...like the rest of them. He doesn't even hang out with them outside of practice,” Lauren said.

Eli sighed, rolling her eyes. “Only to get my parents off my back. You know how they feel about Gabe... It's just one thing to get them off his back. If they're happy with something I'm doing, they overlook what he does.”

“It's still shitty.”

“I know. I don't understand how they can just disregard their own son because he's...you know,” she said, sending a weary glance towards the other cheerleaders. She trusted them, sure, about as much as she trusted anyone else in the building. Gabe might not have minded people knowing about him but Eli knew better—she knew the people in Dulaney would rip him apart if they were given the chance. It wasn't even the homosexuality—it was the fact that he was...different. That was the problem; nothing else.

Lauren shrugged, glancing back at the field where Jack was throwing the ball. “Because they don't understand. That's why. They think they did something wrong.”

Eli sighed. “It's what makes Gabe happy and that's what matters—that's all that should matter to them,” she said. She looked over at her friend, who was preoccupied. Eli laughed and shoved her arm, shaking her out of her daydream. “Too busy drooling over Jack to pay attention to me?”

Lauren's eyes widened as she looked at her friend. “What?”

Eli laughed. “C'mon, practice is over,” she said, standing up and grabbing her pom-poms. She shoved them into her over-sized purse and untying her shirt from around her waist. She had tied it up before practice to help keep herself from getting too hot—it didn't exactly work. She threw her bag over her shoulder and reached a hand towards Lauren, pulling her up off of the asphault.

“Thanks, bro,” Lauren mumbled, brushing the dirt off of her backside. She looked back onto the field, catching the eye of a certain football player, and she smiled shyly. She picked up her own bag before linking her arm with that of her best friend as they walked down the track.

Eli smiled at her friend's behavior, not used to her showing such interest in a guy, and didn't pay attention to where she was walking. Her right shoulder slammed into someone else, her bag slipping down her arm and onto the floor. “Shit,” she mumbled, leaning down to pick it up. She apologized quickly to the man she had run into and brushed her hair out of his eyes.

“I know you are,” he muttered, sending a not-so-happy glare her way, before he walked in the other direction.

Eli sighed, watching the boy walk away. “Fucking Alex Gaskarth,” she mumbled, frowning automatically. It wasn't that she didn't like him, it was that...she had found no reason to like him. He was quiet and usually stuck to himself, with the exception of his two friends Jack and Rian, which confused her the most. Jack was now the popular guy and it was only the first day of their senior year; where did that leave Alex? Alex with the messed up hair, the tattoo he should've hidden from the school but never did, the jeans that were too tight, and the constant scarf around his neck and beanie on his head, even in the heat.

Alex Gaskarth didn't talk to anyone. Well, besides Jack and Rian. But they hardly counted. He rarely spoke in class, unless he was called on, and he didn't participate in any extracurriculars. He sat at the same lunch table and he sat against the same wall every day before classes started. He wasn't a jock, he wasn't a nerd, he wasn't a goth, he wasn't a stoner, he was just... Alex. And she didn't know how else to describe him.

Lauren bit her lip, linking her arm through Eli's again. “Just ignore him.”

“I feel bad for you, Ren,” Eli muttered, her good mood ruined, as they walked to her car.

Confused, Lauren tilted her head to the side. “Why's that?”

“That is your lover boy's best friend.”

“Oh. Right,” Lauren said, clearly distracted.

“What is up with you today?” Eli asked, unlocking her car and throwing her bag in the back seat.

Lauren shrugged.

“I know you, Ren. What's up?” she asked again, climbing behind the wheel.

Lauren shrugged again as she got into the passenger's seat. “I mean, haven't you ever wondered why Gaskarth is so quiet?”

“No,” Eli answered quickly, starting the car. Okay, maybe part of her had, but she wasn't going to admit that.

“I have,” she said quietly. “I mean, Jack's kind of loud, you know?”

Eli shrugged. “Opposites attract.”

Lauren smiled softly. “I just feel like he's hiding something.”

“Maybe a sniper rifle so he can shoot up the whole school this year on Homecoming,” Eli muttered bitterly. Didn't people always say it was the quiet ones they should watch out for?

“I think we would know it with how tight his pants are,” Lauren said.

Eli felt herself laugh in spite of the conversation at hand. “Okay, you have me there.”

“And he doesn't wear a trench coat.”

“Wouldn't surprise me if he started,” Eli said, turning onto Lauren's road.

“But, I mean. You think he's cute, right?”

Eli slammed on the brakes—using the excuse that she almost passed up Lauren's house (which they both knew was total bullshit since Eli practically lived at her house)—and looked at her best friend. “What?”

Lauren shrugged, blue eyes wide and innocent. “I mean. Don't you think so? Because I've always thought so.”

“What are you playing at, Ren?” Eli asked. She didn't understand her best friend's sudden interest in a boy who had maybe occupied less than one percent of their conversations.

“Do you think he's cute?”

Eli sucked in a deep breath, hoping if she answered the question then Lauren would answer her own. “There are worse looking men in the world,” she told her slowly, hoping her plan wouldn't backfire.

Lauren nodded slowly.

“Why do you ask?”

Lauren shrugged. “I mean. He is Jack's best friend... And, I mean. You're my friend...”

Eli sighed. “Goddammit, Lauren, do you have some fantasy in your mind of us double-dating?”

Lauren looked over at her and smiled, nodding. “I mean, it would be easier on Jack and I's first date if there was another couple there!”

Eli gripped the wheel tighter. “First of all, you and Jack aren't even dating. Second of all, you and Jack aren't even talking. And third of all, I am not going to go on a date with Alex Gaskarth, as a favor for you or not. It's not going to happen,” she said.

“Why not?” Lauren asked. “I would do it for you.”

“But I'm not asking you to do it for me!”

“Just...think about it?”

Eli sighed before sucking in a deep breath. “If that is the absolute only way Jack will go out with you, I might consider it. But he hasn't even asked you so, no, I won't consider it.”

Lauren smiled and reached across the console, hugging her best friend. “That's good enough for me. G'night, Eli! I'll see you in the morning.”

Eli waved to her friend, muttering a farewell, and shook her head as the girl bounced up the driveway. Lauren could be insane but Eli adored her. She was just more than a little curious to see where her new fascination with Alex Gaskarth had come from.

And she was more curious to know why she, herself, ended up thinking about the boy until she fell asleep that night.

+

“Hey, bro!” Jack smiled as he jogged off the field and over to his friend, holding his helmet under his arm.

“Hey, man, how's practice?” Alex asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his skinny jeans.

“Almost over, thank God. Shame all the cheerleaders left—now we won't have any distractions,” Jack joked, nudging his friend in the side.

“Yeah, what a shame,” he muttered, pushing his hair out of his face.

“You okay?”

Alex nodded. “Just ran into a couple of your precious cheerleaders.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “What did you do?”

“Nothing! That red-head just slammed into me and walked away.”

Jack rolled his eyes again. “Eli? No, she would've apologized.”

“She did.”

“Then she didn't just walk away,” Jack said.

Alex sighed. “What difference does it make? They walk around like they own the place.”

Jack shrugged. “The popular kids always do. But that doesn't mean that's what they believe.”

Alex looked at him, curious. “What's gotten into you? Last week, we were just talking about—“

“Things change, Alex,” Jack said, busying himself with looking down at his helmet, trying to hide the slight blush on his cheeks.

“You like one of them?!”

“Stop saying them like they're a plague or something,” Jack said. “And no, I do not.”

“You do.”

“I do not!”

“It's the one with blue bangs, isn't it? Dammit, Jack, I knew it!”

Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. “You're never gonna give them a second chance, are you?”

Alex shook his head slowly. “No. And I don't see why you are, either.”

“Because they've never done anything to me, Alex,” Jack said, pulling the helmet over his head. “Band practice tonight?

Alex jumped as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and smirked, typing out a reply before looking up at his friend. “Actually, uh. I have plans. Tomorrow?”

Jack sighed, nodding. “Sure.”

“Later, bro,” he said, his attitude changing as he turned and walked away. Nothing like a offer of cheap, meaningless sex to brighten his day.