Pride

The four of us walk into Subway, since none of us really had much money to go some place nicer. While in line, Mindy and Kai trade places. I’m a bit shocked when Kai appears beside me and Mindy goes to talk to Garrett. Sighing, I grumble to myself. I shouldn’t have agreed to going out like this.

“So…” Kai whispers, his eyes glued on me. I find myself glaring at Garrett from the corner of my eye, hoping for him to look over and see that his boyfriend has all his attention on me instead of him. Once I realize what I’m thinking, I pinch myself. I’m not jealous. I’m not jealous.

“So…what?” I ask, playing dumb. I know Kai wants me to say something about Garrett, anything. What does he want me to say? Oh, he seems like an ok guy but I still hate his fucking guts for being your number one instead of me. Yeah, that’ll go smoothly I bet. It’ll probably make Kai think that I…like like him…which I don’t!

“What do y-you think about Garrett?” I knew it.

“What do you want me to say?” I ask, ordering my meatball hoagie real quick and silently hoping that Kai will drop the subject. However, as soon as he orders he’s looking at me once again.

“D-Do you like him?”

“Ew.”

Kai smiles and rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean, Shi.”

Biting my lip, I shrug my shoulders and manage to say through clenched teeth. “He’s an ok guy, too good for you though.”

“Yeah…I think that too…” Kai mumbles more to himself than to me. When I hear him say that I suddenly feel really angry, more at myself than him. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Kai, obviously, doesn’t have that high of a self esteem. It’s obvious that he doesn’t feel like he deserves Garrett but he does. Kai doesn’t realize how amazing he really is…but there is no way I’m telling him that! We’re not girls. He doesn’t need my praise or some bullshit like that.

“Shut up,” I grunt and hand the girl at the cash register my money. When she winks at me, I grin. Finally, my good looks are appreciated before Kai’s! Sadly though, I don’t get her number because Kai is too busy dragging me away before I have the chance. “What the hell man? She was cute.”

“We’re talking,” Kai mumbles, glaring over his shoulder at the girl…wait, what? Glaring. Kai doesn’t glare at people for dumb reasons. What did she do to him? He can’t be that angry that she interrupted our conversation…I mean, she has to get the money off us. Whatever.

Kai takes his seat beside Garrett, who smiles at his return. Mindy giggles when I sit beside her, making me wonder what she has planned. My unspoken question is answered though when she wraps an arm around my own, leaning over to place a kiss on the corner of my lips. Immediately, I turn to face her with a shocked expression. What’d she do that for?!

“Took you two long enough,” Mindy says, squeezing my arm as she continues to lean on me like we’re…like we’re a couple or something. What the hell is this girl doing? I’m about to ask her but she digs her nails into my arm in a form of saying shut the hell up. I wince and hold my tongue.

“Oh?” Garrett tilts his head curiously to the side at the sight of Mindy and I. Beside him, Kai is as stiff as a board with his lips pressed thin together. “You two are dating?”

Mindy shrugs and giggles, not giving a clear answer but pretty much implying that we are. However, I do not remember this happening. Was I drunk? Obviously, I was. There is no way in hell I’d ask Mindy out sober. Although she’s pretty as hell, she is evil. Evil!

After Mindy’s display, or whatever you want to call it, I feel a very angry glare set on me. When I peek across from me I notice where or rather who the glare is coming from. Kai is glaring at me. I cock a brow and mumble, “What?”

Something about him seems off. The normal shy and reserved boy appears to be losing his temper. The way he’s clenching and unclenching his fists, the tensing of his shoulders and twitching of his lower lip is saying just how close he is to snapping. On what? I have no idea but I have a very strong feeling that it’s me. Kai swallows the lump in his throat and shakes his head, tearing his gaze from me and trying to converse with Mindy and Garrett.

He’s angry throughout the rest of the day.

“What the hell was that?”

“What was what?” Mindy is grinning innocently but oh, she is far from it. Innocent would be an antonym of what she is.

“Today! You were kissing me and holding onto my arm like a leech.” It wasn’t just at lunch that Mindy was acting strange. Throughout the day she would lean up to peck my lips or wrap her hand in my own. When we went to the mall and I sat down to take a break, she placed herself into my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck. A normal guy would probably say it was because she liked me, but I know that isn’t the case. Mindy and I are friends and nothing more. I know that she was doing it all for some sinister reason.

I say sinister because Mindy is evil, therefore all her plans are evil. It’s common knowledge.

“Did you see the look on Kai’s face?” Mindy sits herself on the couch, waiting for her parents to come pick her up in about 20 minutes. I scratch my head and think back to how angry Kai was today. He just seemed pissed all day but what does that have to do with it?

“You are so dumb,” Mindy sighs, shaking her head like she’s talking to a child.

I grunt. “Well sorry.”

“He was jealous!”

“Jealous?” I wrinkle my nose in thought. Why would Kai be jealous? “But Kai is gay, right? He doesn’t like you.”

Mindy slaps herself in the face and I swear, there is steam coming out her ears. After calming herself, she stands up and walks over to me, placing her hands on my shoulders and squeezing. I peer down at the small girl in front of me, waiting for her to speak whatever’s on her mind.

“Kai isn’t jealous of me. He’s jealous because of you! He saw me hanging all over you and it made him mad to think that we’re dating.”

“Bullshit.” It’s really the only thing running through my mind. Thinking that Kai could possibly like me like that…no. He doesn’t. He likes Garrett, that’s why they’re dating. You date people because you like them. Kai and I are friends, best friends and nothing more. Besides, he could have had other reasons to be mad today. “He’s probably just mad because he thinks we’re dating and I didn’t tell him about it.”

Mindy frowns. “You two…are so troublesome.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Really! Kai is the troublesome one. Not me. But before I can tell Mindy this, her parents show up. She hugs me good-bye and also adds in that I need to get over my “denial” and tell Kai “how I feel.”

Women. They really over think these things.