Chapter 109: Chapter 109 Dating Font
GWENETH
"Who are you texting?" Dad’s question was long overdue, because I have been texting back and forth and laughing like an idiot since the ride to school began which should be like twenty minutes ago.
"My friends." I lied.
"You can lie to anyone else but not to me kid. You want to tell me that you’re texting that Malcolm guy and your other friend with that silly blush on your face?"
It’s not silly. I wanted to say to argue that but instead I said, "Yeah. You have no idea how hilarious these two are."
Dad blows off sarcastically, "Yeah, yeah. I believe you." He adds, "Whoever the guy is, I’d like to meet him and probably thank him for wiping off that glum look you used to have. Are you sure that Calix guy have stopped bullying you?
Not that I don’t believe you or that you don’t look like now, I just want to make sure."
"Yes he has. I am surprised myself." I say with a light shrug, not needing to lie this time because it is true. Calix have indeed stopped bothering me since that day.
For the first time in a long time, I feel glee.
And I am almost afraid to allow myself to enjoy this moment because I know that there is a chance that this might change at any second. Good moments tend to be shorter than bad moments. Especially for me.
The universe does not give you a tragedy like the one I have been through without making you paranoid and looking over your shoulder and expecting the worse to just materialize out of thin air because it has happened before.
Even though I’m happy with Rex and my mind is at peace now—which is because of him, I cannot pretend that the days after I butt heads with Calix did not happen. I am barely put back together with duct tape and denial. As well as pills of constant paranoia that comes in small hard doses.
Still, I take a moment to revel in the joy, and with a smile on my lips, I ran to hug Rex who held his arms out for me to come into. I had first taken a few seconds to reflect on what this means. Hugging him in the parking lot where more than half the school currently is and watching at this hour.
As well as his damn friends.
The narrative of us dating has been flying since eight days ago when we went to the cafeteria together. Rex had suggested that we should pretend that we are dating. That way, no one including the psychotic maniac that he calls his best friend could come at me.
It worked. As psychotic and evil as Calix is, turns out he cares about his friend’s happiness. And due to that kept his distance from me. That is if coming to the cafeteria —not to eat, but to toy with the food and bullying it like it offended him and glaring straight at me like he wants to eat me alive.
He hates the fact that Rex and I are a thing. That is a known fact that he does not even bother to hide. I don’t know what is his problem with it. With Calix Lamont, no one can ever know. He is just a really bad devil who likes to disrupt others peace.
My peace to be exact.
I have learned a few things about him from Rex. That he doesn’t have parents. Calix was and is still perhaps being raised by his uncle. The revelation was a shocker. Rex had divulged this secret to me when he was trying to tell me that his friend wasn’t as bad as he makes himself out to be.
I did feel sorry for him at some point because of that and started to try to make excuses for his malicious actions. But I could not find any. No one deserves not knowing their parents. It is one of the cruelest things that can ever happen to anyone.
But it does not give him a warrant to make other people’s life hell as if we are the fate that decided to be cruel to him. His actions are inexcusable. He is downright bad and evil in every language. Something tells me that he would still be like this even though he was raised by parents.
Let’s put him out of the picture for a second. Look at his friends. Curtis, Lucas and Dominic and Brooke. They are not orphans as well. They have parents. And yet they are almost as bad as Calix.
My Rex on the other hand has only his Dad now. His mother died of a heroin overdose when he was six. And he was then raised in Spain by his grandmother who is currently bedridden sick from stroke and is in an induced state of coma. Now that is something to be genuinely sorry about.
He had chosen to be there for her all these time which is why he did not quickly start the semester like the rest of us.
Last week to now counts as the most peaceful and happy school days that I have had since I came here. No one shoves or trips me like they used to. I no longer have to feel like a lamb passing the mouth of a lion’s den whenever I am visiting my locker.
Rex had since indeed been my protective knight in shining armor. But too bad his protection does not come with an invisibility package. There is another minor problem, this fake dating font of ours is way too real that I am also fooled by it sometimes.
He takes it so seriously that there are no lines to mark apart fake and real. They are all blurred together.
Even if there are to him, I just can’t see it.
The way he looks at me. The way he speaks gently to me. How he waves at me when I sit on the bench to watch his basketball practices because he asked me to. Not ordering, or saying that it would be good for me to appear there as his girlfriend. He asked in a gentle manner. It is the first in which anyone has ever spoken to me.
Giving me a choice. I agreed because of the manner in which he said it. And also because I want to watch him play. Something that always brings about a Stony glare from Calix.
During the pep-rally before the weekend, I did not know when I started yelling out his name and cheering him on. I did not think to do that on my own. Curry suggested it. She and Maverick truly believe that we are dating and are head over heels for us. I wanted to tell them that it wasn’t actually like what they were seeing. And that we were only making it appear that way.
But then I decided not to. Not that I don’t trust then to keep it a secret. It is just that if you truly want something to remain a secret, you gotta first keep it from your friends. Anyone who isn’t you. That way it would never get to your enemy.
Rex had paused the game to smile and wave in my direction. And then Calix aggressively throws the ball to him in a rough service. Shouting at him to focus. That was very uncalled-for. He does not even bother to hide that he hates me and Rex being together. I know he is somewhere now watching this like an angry lion. I throw myself into Rex’s arms. My body softly colliding with his in a way that makes my heart fluttering and butterflies feeling intensify. This might be one of many for him but it is a first for me. This feels so intimate. I have never hugged a guy before. Is it just me? Does he feel the way I’m feeling right now? He holds me up, my feet fly off the ground for a few seconds before he puts me down. I almost want to ask if this is needed in a fake dating like ours.
But I dissolve the question by answering it myself that it is needed to cement the dating story in everyone’s head. "How was your weekend?" He asked with that same radiant smile that always warms my heart. "It was great. I had fun." My brain accusingly brings up images of the time I spent at the martial arts studio receiving hits and being thrown off shoulders and landing painfully on my back in the name of training. "Really? I’m glad then. I thought about asking you out, but I was also busy too. I had a lot of things to take care of." There is a subtle tiredness in his tone.
"I hope they weren’t too tiring?" It seems logical to ask that. It must be about his Dad because he told me that they do not get along. If it was his grandmother, he would talk about her with a sweet smile on.
"No." He answers. "That is the thing with family. They get overbearing and annoying sometimes. But we can’t complain, can we? Since they are family after all."
"I can almost relate to that."
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