After grabbing ice cream, we go our separate ways. I head to work, then come home. It's currently ten at night and Elisica is outside my house.
“What in the world?” I nearly drop my bottle of Gatorade when I see her. She rides a longboard slowly, taking her time to get wherever she’s going.
“Hey!”
Elisica stops and spins around, a smile on her face. She says something I don’t catch, and the duo starts conversing. I don’t hear anything.
“Go home.” They’ve been talking for about twenty minutes. Elisica sat down on her board about five minutes ago, and Chase is still straddling his bike.
Elisica starts looking around, and then she turns her head and we make eye contact before I can move away from the window.
She says something to Chase without taking her eyes off of me, then proceeds to lift a hand and flip me off.
I open the window as she turns away from me.
“Rude!”
“Fuck you.”
“Do you guys want to come inside?” The words leave my mouth before I can really think about them too much. Elisica looks at me and sneers before turning back to Chase. He, however, nods and flashes me a thumbs up.
“We’d appreciate that.”
Elisica stands up and picks up her board reluctantly. “I still don’t like you.”
“Eli.”
“Fine, I’ll play nice.”
“Thank you.”
I jog upstairs to the front door and open it right as they get to it.
“Head downstairs, I’ll be there in a moment. You can set your board down wherever.”
Elisica mumbles something to Chase as they walk down the stairs. I walk into the kitchen and grab a few snacks before heading downstairs. Elisica’s board is propped up against the wall right by my door, and she’s laying on the floor with Chase laying on top of her.
“You guys look comfortable.”
“I am very comfortable, thank you for noticing.” Chase smiles at me, ignoring all of Elisica’s attempts to shove him off of her.
“Sorry for asking, but are you two, like, together?”
Chase laughs before sitting up. “If we were, I wouldn’t be helping.”
“Help- I don’t need help you jerk!”
“With how well you’re doing, I think you do.”
“What are you two talking about?” Elisica asks.
“I know for a fact you know exactly what we’re talking about.” Chase taps Elisica’s forehead, making her blink rapidly.
“Well maybe I wanted to hear it out of his mouth.” Elisica flicks Chase’s forehead. “Think about that?”
“I sure did, but I figured him hearing you say it makes the bet much more interesting.” Chase flashes a thumbs up at me. “Right, buddy?”
“At the rate you’re going, you’re going to be demoted from friend to acquaintance,” I reply, falling onto my bed. “Elisica, you know about the bet? How’d you figure it out?”
“I’m not stupid.” Elisica sits up. “Jaxon is, though. Also you guys aren’t the quietest people in the world.”
“Yeah, but like- you always had earbuds in.”
“Doesn’t mean I had music on the entire time. And once again, Jaxon is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.”
“No, he’s the spatula that prevents the drawer from being opened.”
Elisica and I start laughing at Chase’s comment. Elisica quickly stops laughing and looks away from me.
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“Eli, you have to be nice. He was nice enough to invite you into his house even though he knows you hate him.”
“I only came in because you wanted to. You do understand that, right?”
“Okay, but he still knows you hate him. He could’ve just let us suffer in the cold but he didn’t. Maybe he wants to make amends.”
“He doesn’t even know why I hate him in the first place!”
“I do, actually,” I interrupt. “His name was Troy, wasn’t it?”
“You don’t even know his name?” Elisica’s eyes narrow at me. “Are you kidding me?”
“Look-”
“No, you look.” Elisica stands and steps over to stand directly in front of me. “You are a fucking prick and I don’t want to make amends, no matter how nice you seem. You are still the same person you were back then, you just put a mask on and pretend that you’re not ugly on the inside.”
“He isn’t as bad as he used to be,” Chase jumps in.
“You’re biased.”
“I am trying to get you two to get along. Jack, I think you need to say something to Eli.”
I nod, looking up into Elisica’s eyes.
“I am sorry for everything I did to Troy. I was in the wrong and I won’t make an excuse to try and weasel out of this. I was young, yeah, but that doesn’t make what I did okay. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not the person you should be apologizing to.”
“I don’t have a way to contact Troy, but if I did, I would. You have to believe me.”
“I don’t believe you.” Elisica takes a step back, still glaring at me. “Would you like to know why? Because you keep company that behaves the same as you did. They call everything gay, they’re homophobic, sexist- which you still are, by the way- xenophobic, transphobic.”
“When I moved here I became friends with Darren and Hudson first.” I stand up too, watching Chase step out of the room and close the door quietly. “Jaxon is only a friend now because Darren and Hudson were friends with him. When I hung out with the two, Jaxon was there too. I met Brendon through him.”
“But you’re still friends with him. You want me to believe your behavior has changed but you hang out with someone who is basically a carbon copy of how you were and you made a bet as though I am a prize to be won, a trophy to show off. The only difference between you now and you back then is how outspoken you are with your hatred.”
“I don’t see you as a prize! Darren came up with the bet because- okay. We were playing Paranoia- no, I should start earlier than that. Brendon showed me a video where you told Darren you hate my guts. I muttered something and then we started playing a game called Paranoia. I asked Jaxon if he would date you, he said yes, and then Darren came up with the bet.”
“Is that supposed to paint you in a better light? Because it isn’t doing that.”
“Look- god, how do I explain this better?”
I glance around my room, trying to think, but don’t come up with anything.
“Great. Are we done here?”
“No- no! I’m going to figure out how to explain it better- urgh, how?”
Elisica crosses her arms, still glaring at me.
“Look.” I sit back down on my bed, maintaining eye contact with Elisica. “I don’t see you as a prize to be done. If I did, I wouldn’t be desperately trying to convince you that I’ve changed.”
“Yes you would. You’re doing that right now because you don’t want to lose the bet, you don’t want to lose any money.”
“I’m not doing it because of the stupid bet! I’m trying to tell you that I’m different because maybe I like you somewhat!”
I clamp my mouth shut. Elisica rolls her eyes and scoffs.
“Last resort, huh?” She shakes her head and turns to leave my room. “You really haven’t changed, have you?”
Elisica grabs her longboard and leaves the room, closing the door gently behind her. I fall backwards, throwing my arms over my eyes.
“Fuck.”
“You are ridiculous, you know that?”
“Shut up, Chase.”
I feel my bed dip and move my leg to kick him off, only to be disappointed by him catching it.
“Dude.” Chase pries my arms away from my eyes. “Seriously. You should’ve known that wasn’t going to work on Eli.”
“I thought- well, I thought it might have changed her mind a little bit.”
“So you weren’t hoping she was going to fall into your arms and kiss you dramatically?”
“Of course not!” I sit up, glaring at Chase. “This isn’t some silly romance story you’d find on Wattpad, where the nerd falls in love with the jock and gets upset that she was just a bet the whole time. I’m not stupid, man.”
“That is highly debatable, but okay.”
“Look.” I glance away from Chase to my open bedroom door, wishing Elisica hadn’t left. “Can you tell her something for me?”
“Tell her yourself.”
“She wouldn’t believe it if it came out of my mouth.”
Chase sighs and smacks the back of my head. “What do you want me to say?”
“I wasn’t lying. I do like her, I just- it’s not- I don’t see her as a prize to be won. Maybe I am hoping that this’ll turn out like one of those Wattpad novels because in the end, they’re both happy with each other. I don’t want to win her, I want to be with her.”
Chase ruffles my hair before standing up.
“I’ll be sure to pass the message along.”
“Thanks, Chase.”
“Anytime.”