Page 11 of This is Me

“Wow, thanks, Andy.” Blaire glared at Andy who shrunk in his seat slightly.

“No hard feelings?” Andy muttered. I saw him put a childish smile on his face in my rear-view mirror, and I let out a chuckle as I brought my car to life.

“I’m gonna feed you to a pack of wild dolphins,” Blaire stated, and I stole another glance in the mirror to see her return the same smile Andy had given her.

“Seems harsh, but you know what? I probably deserve it,” Andy responded just as I pulled out onto the road and put my car into first.

“You do,” Leroy and I said at the same time, and we both laughed as I started driving toward the school.

The rest of the car trip was filled with idle chatter and the occasional teasing of Andy, but that was because he had brought it upon himself. After around twenty minutes, we arrived at the school's carpark, and I soon found a vacant spot and pulled into it, killing my car's engine.

“Ugh, I hate this sport,” Leroy moaned. I turned to look at him and saw that he was already looking at me.

“You just don’t like it because you didn’t make the team!” Andy stated with a laugh before jumping out of the car. “Holy fuck, it's cold!”

“Aren’t you glad you got a jumper, Andy?” Blaire said with a chuckle and followed suit, getting out of the car, leaving Leroy and me alone.

“I didn’t know you tried out for the team,” I said, a little surprised. I knew that Leroy liked to play soccer and used to enjoy watching football, but he’d never said anything about enjoying playing it or that he was trying out for the team.

“Yeah, well doesn’t matter now anyway,” he replied with a small, half-hearted smile before getting out of the car.

“It would have been cool,” I mumbled to myself before finally following my friends out of the car.

It would have been cool if Leroy had made the team. I had always wanted to be friends with someone who played on the football team, mainly because I was a massive fan of the sport. I didn’t get loud at the games and scream at the players, but I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed it—a lot. Though I only really enjoyed the school matches, and I continually tried to tell myself it wasn’t because of the fit, attractive players on the field.

“Come on, taxi man, let’s go!” Andy called to me, and I looked up, seeing that him, Blaire, and Leroy had all started making their way around to the side of the school toward the field.

“Oh, good. Thanks for waiting up!” I called after them before mumbling under my breath. “Assholes.”

After doing a slight jog, I quickly caught up to them, and we all walked to the field together, making small talk and greeting other students along the way.

“Hey, Pete, how’s the Blaire thing going?” Leroy whispered to me as we reached the field.

Blaire and Andy had wandered slightly ahead of us, as Leroy and I had slowed our pace. I wasn’t too sure why we’d slowed down, but I think Leroy may have somehow tricked me into doing it so he could speak to me alone.

“What do you mean?” I asked, playing dumb. If there was one thing I had become good at, it was playing dumb. It was something that I had to do to avoid questions like the one Leroy had just asked.

When you’re in high school, there is a rule that you have to be seen in a relationship at least once. At least, it was a rule in our high school. Why? I have no idea, but for me, that was a problem. Sure, I could go and ask a random girl out, but I know I would hate myself for doing that, and I couldn’t exactly go and ask a guy out. So, I had to dodge a lot of questions regarding the topic.

Did it make me feel bad that I occasionally had to lie to my friends? Yes. But what were a few small lies when I had one big one? It probably wasn’t the best way to look at it, but it was the only way I had to make myself feel slightly better about it.

“Come on, Pete. You know what I mean.” Leroy gave me a little nudge, and I just looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“I’m sorry. What Blaire thing?” I asked, really hoping that he would drop the subject, but deep down, I knew that he wouldn’t.

“Don’t you have a thing for Blaire? Don’t you like her?”

“I mean, yeah. As a friend.”

“No, no, no.” Leroy let out a small chuckle. “You had a thing for Blaire. You have for ages now!”

“It was a small crush,” I replied, trying to think of a way out of this.

I knew that if I outright said I didn’t like her, Leroy and Andy would start prying and trying to get me with another girl. But at the same time, I didn’t want to say that I still liked her as, eventually, it could make things weird within the group—especially when I wasn’t going to make a move.

“A small crush?” Leroy pressed, and I internally groaned.

“Yeah, it’s no big deal.”