Page 21 of I Love to Hate You
“Hold on, do we have a problem here?” Simon questions, stepping up behind me as my partner in crime.
“Nah, we’re good, Simon. I got this,” I say, trying to keep him from flying off the handle as our audience grows by a couple more people.
“Oh, who is this, your bodyguard?” Maya asks, pointing at Simon.
I’m almost in awe of her fearlessness. She points at Simon and glares at him as if he’s a tiny kitten who’s incapable of hurting her, instead of the gargantuan titan that he is. Simon is the size of four Mayas, but she doesn’t flinch. Her boyfriend looks like he’s ready to crawl inside his own shirt to hide from us, but Maya has her claws out, ready to fight a war she could never win. As dumb as it is, it’s impressive.
I point my finger at her and take a step closer. “You need to learn to watch who you’re talking to. Otherwise, somebody is going to put you in your place.”
Maya’s eyebrows go up as she tilts her head to the side.
“Do it then,” she says without a moment’s hesitation. “Put me in my place, Kendrick.”
I try to think of a response, but time stands still. The world stops spinning as Maya bites her bottom lip while staring at me, and my anger contorts itself into something else—a feeling of desire that hurts like hunger pangs in my stomach. My knees weaken because even though I know what she just said, it was the way she said it. It’s the way she’s looking at me. It’s the way I know Eddie could never put her in her place the way she just asked me to.
“Maya, let’s go,” Eddie’s tiny voice says, dragging me out of my trance and back into reality.
I look around and see that the crowd around us has doubled, and there are at least two security guards slowly making their way through the audience.
“No, I’m comfortable right here,” Maya says.
Eddie grabs her by the hand and gives it a little tug. “Please. This isn’t worth it. There’s a crowd gathering. Let’s just go eat somewhere else.”
“Listen to your boyfriend, Maya,” I say, staring directly at her. “He wants to go eat somewhere else. It’s too hot for him here.”
“Fuck you,” she says, but the temperature of her words has dropped. Her fight has run out because Eddie never had any. I can practically see the disappointment in her eyes.
He tugs her hand again, and she slowly allows herself to be pulled away. She glares at me, and I stare back until the moment the two of them step into the crowd and are swallowed by the sea.
Sixteen
~ KENDRICK~
From the moment I walked out of my house, it felt like there was something in the air. The people hanging out on the corner of my street, who usually look menacing and intimidate anyone unknown who walks past them, were all laughing together. The bus driver whose route comes through my block was beaming when he drove past me, and had the audacity to wave as if he hasn’t been the grumpiest bus driver in the area for years. Even when I got to school, the place seemed to be more jovial than normal. Professors smiled and waved, and the students seemed celebratory. The rest of them are feeling good because they all know the end of the year is so close they can taste it, and there’s a party looming to cap off their success. But not for me. Half the day has gone by, and I’m at lunch dreading what’s to come. For me, there isn’t anything worth celebrating yet.
This particular parking lot of the university is like a block party. Every space is filled with a vehicle and a group of people ecstatic about the state of their education and the assurance of their degree. Music blares from multiple cars, filling my ears with a combination of bass and drums that mixes to form nothing but noise. A lot of these people just finished taking their finals, and it doesn't take a genius to recognize the confidence they all have in how they did. It's a huge weight off their shoulders, and I’m envious. My shoulders, on the other hand, are slumped, heavy from the weight of the test I haven't taken yet and filled with dread over how I might do. This is what it has all been about. This is the reason I beat up Jacob Owens to force his brother, Justin, to get me the answers to the final. The big day has finally arrived, and I couldn't be more nervous.
I lean against the front end of my car with Amy directly next to me, her red hair blowing in the breeze of the beautiful day as she inches closer. She wraps her arm around mine like she’s holding onto it for fear of falling while she kisses me on the neck. The pride of having passed all of her classes has gotten to her too, and I can tell she’s in the mood toreallycelebrate. If I didn't have this last test to take, the two of us would be somewhere else right now with my hand around her throat and my cock as deep in her as humanly possible. Although her mind is obviously already there, mine is far from it. In fact, mine is split in two.
A few rows in front of Amy and I is another car surrounded by happy students with passing grades. They’re six or seven deep, with an even mixture of guys and girls, most of whom I don't recognize. However, I do notice the two at the front of the car with their fingers interlocked together. One of them is Eddie, who looks like he’s wearing the exact same outfit we saw him in two days ago at the mall. The other is Maya, who’s matching Eddie with baggy gray sweats, obviously dressed for comfort instead of looking the way she did the other day. Her clothes don’t matter, though. Either way, she looks … all right.
I should be thinking about my test, trying to focus on remembering the answers Jacob stole for me, but every time I look up I see Maya and Eddie together. They’re shoulder to shoulder the same way Amy and I are, but the sight of them makes my stomach churn. I see the way his thumb rubs against hers, the way he scoots closer to her instead of the other way around, the way his head is turned away from her as he talks to his friends, and the way her head is pointed in my direction, hazel eyes looking right at me.
I don't like interacting with Maya, because every time I do, the memory is a glue trap. It sticks to me and I can’t get it off my mind for days, which is a problem because ever since we spoke the first time at the career fair, I’ve been seeing her all over the place. She’s an apparition, haunting every hall I step into, standing around every corner, lurking on a random car just a few rows in front of me. She’s always there now, and so is this indefinable feeling brewing in my chest. At this point, it’s not about disliking her anymore. I just want her gone—her, and the annoying feeling that comes with her.
“Ugh, what is she staring at?” Amy asks when she finally notices Maya’s eye on me. Now that she sees her, Amy lays her head on my shoulder while glaring at Maya.
I cut my eyes down to her, my insides filling with annoyance. “I don't know, but what are you doing?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” she asks.
“When you noticed she was looking at me, you put your head on my shoulder. What for? Trying to make her jealous?”
Amy’s brows furrow. “What? No. I just wanted to lay on your shoulder. Is that so wrong?”
“It is when it’s not genuine. I don't know what’s with you and all this affection today, but we don't really do shit like this. We fuck. I make you kneel for me. I make you open your mouth for me. You give yourself to me because I’m the first person to ever show you a world outside of the vanilla shit you were used to, so we fuck. We don’t do affection, especially if you're only doing it to piss off your former friend. So, if that’s what this is all about, then get off me.”
The furrow in Amy’s brow turns into a full grimace. “What’s your problem?” she asks as she steps away and puts a few feet between us.
