It’s now Thursday and Elisica is still ignoring me. I talked to her on Monday night, and Chase told her what I said soon after that.

“Jack, you’re staring.”

“I am not!”

“Trying to come up with a strategy to win the bet, eh?” Darren nudges my ribs with his elbow. I smack his arm away and move my attention from Elisica to Hudson, who has taken to zoning out.

“Hey.” I wave a hand in front of his face. “Bro. Hud. Buddy. Dude. Dudebro. Hudson. Hudson!”

“Fuck!” Hudson throws his arms up, protecting his face.

“Hudson?” I gently reach over and pull his arms down. “It’s just me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t- I don’t think you’re gonna hurt me, I just- it’s habit. From when I was younger.”

“What happ-”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jaxon smacks my back, exchanging a nod with Hudson. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Do you all know what happened?” I look around the table. Everyone nods, exchanging a look with one another. “Can someone tell me?”

“I’ll tell you later, okay?” Hudson says quietly.

“Yeah. Sure. I’m going to hold you to that, I hope you know.”

“I know. What did you need me for?”

“I need help.”

Hudson smirks. “Finally admitting it, eh?”

I sigh in response, shooting him a glare. “Shut up.”

“If I shut up, then you won’t get any help. Are you sure you want me to be quiet?”

“Look, man, are you going to help me or not?”

“Of course!” Hudson glances at the rest of our little friend group. “Not like any of these guys have a better chance than you do.”

“Everyone except Jaxon has a better chance than Jack,” Chase jumps in, nudging Hudson’s shoulder. “You know that.”

“But I thought- you said- Chase, I thought you said his chances increased!”

“I said that on Tuesday. Clearly I was very wrong.”

“Did you tell Hudson about what happened?” I jab a finger in Chase’s direction. “You bitch.”

“I told him you groveled to Eli and you got shut down.”

“Why do you call Elisica Eli, not her name? Or Ellie?” Darren asks.

“Because that’s the beginning of her name, and Ellie doesn’t fit?” Chase shrugs. “Duh.”

“But she’s a girl!”

“Are you Eli’s friend?”

“But-”

“Are. You. Eli’s. Friend?”

“No, but-”

“Then I know her better than you and I know she’s uncomfortable being called Ellie. Now shut up, we’re talking.”

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Darren rolls his eyes but closes his mouth anyways. Chase nods in approval before turning back to me.

“Eli and I are going to fuck around after school tomorrow, would you like to join us?”

“I shouldn’t. She’ll just go home, and-”

“I’ll come too,” Hudson interrupts. “She can actually stand me, and if I say that you and I were going to hang out then Chase invited us, she can’t complain as much.”

I consider the options in front of me. I either go home tomorrow and miss an opportunity to get closer to Elisica, I go and hang out with Chase and Elisica, or Hudson and I hang out with Chase and Elisica.

“Are you sure you can hang out with them tomorrow?” Jaxon looks at Hudson, who shrugs.

“Maybe. We’ll see.”

“I’d rather we didn’t!”

“I’m sure I can go. Don’t worry about me.”

“I'm going to worry about you whether you like it or not.”

“I never said I didn't like it, I said there's no reason for you to be worried. It'll all work out. I promise.”

Jaxon sticks his tongue out at Hudson, who responds the exact same way.

“Are you free tomorrow?” I draw Hudson's attention to me. Hudson nods, holding a hand towards Jaxon the second he opens his mouth.

“We'll talk later.”

“Like hell we will!” Jaxon exclaims. Hudson rolls his head, looking at Jaxon with a deadpan expression.

“I said we'll talk about it later.”

“We need to talk about it now, Hudson.”

“I said later.”

“Fine,” Jaxon snaps, crossing his arms and looking away. “Later.”

“You know I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just-”

“Whatever, Hudson.”

“C'mon, Jaxon. I said we'll talk about it, just not right now.”

Jaxon exhales roughly before nodding and uncrossing his arms.

“You're damn right we're going to talk about it.”

“Please don't get mad at me.”

“I'm not mad at you.”

“But you're mad.”

“Not at you! Hudson, we've needed to talk about this for a while now but you keep putting it off. We're talking about it today.”

“I promise we'll talk about it today.”

“I'm holding you to that promise.”

At this point I have no earthly idea what's happening. Jaxon is worried about Hudson? For some reason? And Hudson is shrugging whatever's happening off?

Please send help, Jack is very confused.

“Later, Jack,” Hudson and Jaxon chorus upon seeing my face.

“Someone needs to explain to me exactly what’s going on!” I exclaim.

“We’ll tell you later, Jack.” Hudson snaps his fingers and points at Elisica. “Right now, we’re focusing on her.”

“I- yeah. Okay.”

“Do you have any plans to win the bet?” Jaxon jumps in. “I mean, besides asking Hudson for help.”

“Not that I’d tell you.”

“You know what? That’s fair.”

“I’m well aware. Hudson, please? Any ideas?”

Hudson nods, his eyes flitting from Elisica back to me. “I’ve got a few, but I won’t share them now because number one, you can’t put them in motion right now and number two, someone would just steal the ideas.”

Jaxon gasps and holds a hand to his chest. “I would never! How dare you accuse me of such a thing?”

“I never said your name, nor looked at you, nor did anything that indicated I was talking about you.”

Jaxon lowers his hand, sighing. “I just walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, yeah you did.”

“You’re able to manipulate me way too easily.”

“The perks of being your best friend.”

“Great. Mind telling me how you trap me so I can stop falling for them?”

Hudson taps his chin then smirks at Jaxon. “No. It’s too entertaining to point out the fact that you’ve lost your leg after walking into a bear trap.”

“I’m glad my suffering is funny to you.”

“I’m glad you’re glad.”

“I’m glad you’re glad I’m-”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Darren smacks the back of Jaxon’s head, while Chase smacks the back of Hudson’s. The duo laughs, smacking the people next to them back.

“Look, you can come over later tonight and we’ll talk about it, okay?” Hudson points his phone at me and I nod.

“I’m coming over too.” Jaxon clamps a hand on my shoulder and stares at Hudson, who just exhales and nods.

“Fine-”

“Right after school.”

“Okay! Jesus, Jaxon-”

“I know I have devilishly good looks but I don’t think I’m Jesus.”

Hudson sputters something out before burying his face in his hands with a very long groan.

“Hey. Hudson. Hudson. Hudson. Hudson.” With each name call Jaxon’s poking Hudson. Hudson manages to endure the torture for five minutes before taking his hands away and eating Jaxon’s finger.

“Ew! Dude, what the fuck!” Jaxon yanks his hand back and wipes it off on Darren’s shirt, who smacks the top of his head.

“You poke a bear with a stick, expect to get bit.”

“All you did was shove your mouth around my finger!”

“Kinky.”

Jaxon lets his head drop to the table with a loud thunk as Hudson bursts out laughing.

“Hudson, I hate you.”

“Love you too, boo.”