Page 14 of I Love to Hate You
“Of course not,” he quickly answers, trying to correct himself before digging a hole that’s too deep to climb out of. “It’s just that, while I know you're super smart, nobody has ever said the same for Kendrick.”
I glare at Eddie for a moment, watching as he quickly scans the area around us, looking over his shoulder to make sure Kendrick isn’t within earshot. Even after giving a great pitch, he’s still Voldemort, and it annoys me to see my boyfriend's anxiety over just saying another guy’s name. I’ve never asked Eddie to be a badass, but it’d be nice if he showcased at leastsomebadass qualities. Deep-seeded fear of another college student doesn't look good on anybody.
“Seemed like he did fine to me,” I reply, rolling my eyes at Eddie’s skittish gaze bouncing around the hall, still searching for Kendrick. “In fact, he did better than I would've done. He made all of that up on the fly after convincing me he didn't even like the idea. The whole thing was crazy.”
“Of course it was, becausehe’scrazy. I’m surprised he didn’t try to steal your idea, or at least take all the credit for himself. I mean, it was a little flawed, but I guess he made it sound okay.”
“It wasa little flawed?”
Eddie scoffs. “Yeah. I mean, come on, Maya. We both know it sounded like half Facebook, half Ancestry.com.”
My eyes widen as it hits me. My mind quickly rewinds and replays the memory of Kendrick and I in front of the class, and a male voice shouting about Ancestry.com.
“That wasyou?” I snip “You were the one who interrupted the pitch to ask about Ancestry.com?”
“I couldn't help it,” Eddie answers. “I just thought the entire thing was a copy of something else. The words just sort of fell out of my mouth. I nearly shit myself when Kendrick started going off and looking through the crowd to find who’d said it.”
I stare at him for a moment as anger comes to a boil in my stomach. “Are you fucking kidding me, Eddie?”
He frowns and it makes me madder.
“What?” he asks, shrugging moronically.
“I was nervous as hell going up there, because I saw all of the groups pitch about products that already existed. I thought that I’d gotten the assignment wrong, and when it was time for us to do ours, I froze because I was trying to think of a new pitch on the spot. Kendrick swooped in, to my utter shock, and starts knocking the pitch out of the park. Then, out of the clear fucking blue, my own boyfriend interrupts to try to make us look bad, and Kendrick—who annoyed me all morning—has to defend me and our pitch in front of everyone.”
Eddie doesn’t move a muscle. “Was that a question, or—”
“What is wrong with you?” I bark. “Why would you try to sabotage my pitch like that?”
“I wasn’t trying to sabotage it. I just saw similarities and didn’t want Kendrick getting credit for stealing the idea.”
“Well, it wasmyidea, and you had no problem getting up there and pitching Pepsi. Why is you pitching Pepsi okay, but if we pitch something even remotely similar to Ancestry.com you're ready to throw a fit?” Eddie presses his lips into a line, and I scoff. “Wow, Eddie. Hypocrisy is a very unattractive trait. You’ve really been on a roll lately.”
“God, I’m sorry. Cut me some slack. I wasn’t trying to hurtyou. It was just about Kendrick. I was surprised to see him doing the pitch so well, and I just blurted it out.”
“So you wanted to sabotage Kendrick even if I was collateral damage?”
“Well … when you put it that way … I’m sorry.”
I take a second to just shake my head, before saying, “Whatever. It’s not like he and I were best friends or anything. He was getting on my nerves the entire class.”
“I bet he was,” Eddie agrees. “If it wasn’t for your idea, there wouldn't even have been anything to pitch anyway. You deserve one hundred percent of the credit. Fuck his little speech.”
Eddie takes another moment to glance around the hall that’s starting to empty out as students flow into different classrooms like water finding cracks to seep into. I know he’s looking for Kendrick, who’s probably not even on campus anymore, but I don't bother commenting on it again. I won’t be able to override whatever fear has been planted in his gut by Kendrick’s existence, so I choose to let it go.
“Anyway, so what do you have going on after this?” I ask.
“Nothing, really. Wanna go grab a bite to eat, then head back to my place?” he asks.
“Sure,” I agree, and we start down the hallway toward the exit that’s around the corner.
As we walk, Eddie reaches over and takes my hand in his. Part of me likes that he’s willing to walk hand-in-hand with me in front of everyone, but there’s another part that’s starting to feel like Eddie just isn’t enough for me—not man enough, not decent enough, not badass enough, not strong enough, not caring enough. It seems like a contradiction to ask a man to be all of these things at once, but a girl can dream, can’t she? Book boyfriends exist in fiction, but out of all the men there are in the world, there has to be at least one who embodies all of these traits in reality. Right?
Eddie and I walk down the hall and turn the corner leading to the exit door. I can see it clearly from here as people push the panic bar fastened horizontally on the metal and walk out into the sun. I also see Kendrick leaning against the wall just before the door with one foot against the drywall for support. He stands there looking down at his phone, oblivious to the wide berth guys are taking to avoid being on his radar.
“Not this guy again,” Eddie mumbles, making sure to say it quietly, which is really starting to give me the ick.
I ignore his statement and put my head down, choosing to look at the floor rather than make eye contact with Kendrick, but as we close the distance between us, a loud shout jolts my head up.
