by E. L. Davis
“How is that?”
“Well, maybe he just thinks you were brushing him off like you weren’t interested in him at all.”
“Yeah, you could totally use this to your advantage!” Cheri chimed in, resulting in Alexia giving her a dirty look. “No, seriously. Now he probably thinks you’re not interested at all, so until you decide which guy you actually like, you flirt it up with Demetri and make Roman jealous. Then, if in the end you decide you like Roman and not Demetri, he will be all over you when you give him attention.”
“I love how confident you two are that they both are actually going to give me the time of day,” Alexia sighed. “They are so gorgeous.”
“Girl, please. First of all, Demetri already winked at you; secondly, they both dived to pick up your pen; and third,” Cheri paused for a moment, “and third,” she repeated with a smile on her face, “Demetri is walking over here now, so change the subject.” She laughed loudly as if they were talking about something very funny. “Seriously, Alexia, that’s too funny!”
“I can’t believe that happened to you on your trip! If I were you, I would have told that guy to get a clue.” Alexia had no idea where Ellie was going with this, but she tried to play along.
“Well, you know me; I try not to break guys’ hearts if I can help it.”
“Funny, ‘cause you look like the kind of girl who breaks a lot of guys’ hearts.” Demetri had reached their table now and was leaning against it, looking down at Alexia. “No offense, but you seemed to brush off Roman pretty fast back in English. I’m Demetri by the way.” He held out his hand to Alexia, but she didn’t shake it.
“I wasn’t brushing him off, and what makes you think that broke his heart?” Alexia didn’t want to make a bad impression on either of the boys. “He doesn’t even know me.”
“Ah, well, I saw him looking at you when we were getting our lockers with Principal Digger. He ‘dug’ you right away.” It was extremely hard to keep her cool around this guy; everything about him made her nervous, but sort of in a good way. Now that he was up close, she noticed his eyes were the brightest green she had ever seen. It was so hard not to let go and get lost in them, but she couldn’t. She had to keep it cool and not make a fool out of herself.
“Oh please,” she said coolly. “I didn’t even meet the kid. How can you break somebody’s heart that you never even introduced yourself to?”
“Come on, Alexia, you thi..”
“Wait, how do you know my name?” she interrupted, looking extremely confused.
“I’ve talked to a few people in this school already, and everybody says you’re the girl every guy wants to get with and all the girls want to be your friend.”
“That’s ridiculous and not true.” Alexia shook her head and turned away from Demetri.
“Don’t be so modest, Alexia, you know any girl would die to be in my or Cheri’s place.” Ellie was not helping at all; Alexia didn’t want Demetri to know this much already, and she barely had a plan in place to live up to what she knew people would say.
“Mostly they all say you like a good party.” Demetri sat down next to her with his eyes focusing right on hers. “I hear you’re the one who likes to get drunk and shake her ass a bit.” He looked her up and down as he said this, in a way that would usually creep Alexia out. This time, she was only creeped out until his green eyes looked back into her blue ones, and then she felt like flirting back.
“Well, you will just have to see for yourself if that’s true.”
Demetri smiled at her. “When?”
“This weekend. There’s this party at Stacy Mudet’s house. Her parents will be gone, and her sister always buys a bunch of alcohol for everybody.”
“You had me at party, babe.” He winked at her, stood up, and waved at Cheri and Ellie as he walked away.
“Oh wow, Alexia, he’s kind of creepy, don’t you think?” Alexia barely heard what Ellie was saying; she was watching him walk out of the cafeteria and didn’t look away until he was out of sight. “Ladies, I need a new outfit for this party; something really hot.” She started making plans in her head about what stores she was going to go to, what color she wanted to wear, if it was going to be a skirt, dress, leggings, or something else entirely. Her mind was just bouncing around and she couldn’t get his eyes out of her head. They were intoxicating to her.
“I have never seen you flirt like that with anybody before,” Ellie blurted out.” What the hell came over you?”
“Get off her back El,” Cheri said in Alexia’s defense. “She is just reeling him in before some other girl does. Come on Alexia, the bell is about to ring, and we have to get to Social.”
When Cheri and Alexia walked into their Social classroom, Alexia almost froze on the spot when she saw Roman sitting in the desk right next to hers. How did they always get sat right next to me, she thought to herself? She took her seat and glanced over at him and smiled. She debated what Cheri had told her about acting like she couldn’t care less about him but decided to go with a different approach.
“Hi, you’re Roman, right?”
“Yeah, and your name is Alexia, right?” he politely responded.
“Yeah, how did you know?” She laughed a little but was seriously wondering who these boys were talking to that kept bringing her up.
“Oh, a few people I have talked to mentioned you already.”
“Uh oh, hope they aren’t saying anything bad about me.” She laughed again, trying to make sure he knew she was joking.
“No, nothing bad at all,” he responded with a laugh. “A lot of good stuff, actually.”
“Oh, well, that’s good then.” There was an awkward pause for a moment and then she decided she was going to do something that might get her into a bit of a problem.
“You know, there is this party this weekend, kind of like a back to school thing. It’s not my party, it’s a girl named Stacy’s, but everyone in our grade is going to be there, so you’re welcome to come. If you’re into that sort of scene… do you like to party?”
“I’m not much of a drinker but I enjoy a good party. Thanks for the invite.” He smiled, and his bright blue eyes caught hers for a moment and she was stuck in them, sort of like what happened with Demetri, except this was different. This was calmer, and she didn’t get the urge to throw herself at him like she did with Demetri. Instead, it made her want to be herself. She shook her head to make herself snap out of it. He smiled at her and laughed a bit. “So, I’ll see you there then?”
“Yeah, of course.” Neither of them spoke for a minute and Alexia turned to smile at Cheri to reassure her that she knew what she was doing.
“Maybe before the party we can hang out a little bit and get to know each other,” Roman added. The way he asked made Alexia feel like he had never done this before. He seemed extremely new to flirting and asking somebody out, which Alexia found cute.
“Sure, what did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know, what is there to do around here?”
“Nothing at all.” Alexia laughed. “The closest thing to fun around here is Java Café. They have bowling, pool, and some arcade games. Would you be interested in that?”
“Definitely. So, after school on Friday, then?”
“Yeah, that works for me.”
“Sweet it’s a date then. Well, not a date… but you know, like a…” Alexia couldn’t help but giggle at his cute awkwardness.
“It’s a date.” She flashed him her best smile and he looked away from her, blushing slightly but clearly happy.
Alexia, Ellie, and Cheri spent the next three days at the mall looking through all their favorite stores for the perfect outfits for the party. Ellie had already bought two complete outfits and had to decide which one she was going to wear. Cheri and Alexia were being a little too picky, which was getting on Ellie’s nerves. The day before the party, she finally told them both if they didn’t pick something, they would never find anything. This caused them to panic a bit and they f
inally decided to buy some of the first things they tried on. All Alexia could think about when she tried anything on was, what will Roman and Demetri think?
Since the first day Alexia had talked to the new boys, they both seemed to be fighting for her attention. Every day when she was at her locker she could feel their eyes on her, which seemed to be almost all the time. During first and second block, neither of them seemed interested in class. Half the time, Demetri was trying to flirt with Alexia, and it was hard not to flirt back. After the third time of being told to stop talking, Mr. Clive told Demetri to switch seats with Roman, and Roman couldn’t look more pleased. As he took his new seat he whispered to her, “Don’t worry, I’ll try not to be too distracting.” When Demetri heard this, he turned around and glared at Roman, and he glared right back.
Considering they were both new, Alexia sort of expected the guys to bond a bit, but they really didn’t seem to like each other at all. On the third day back to school, Ellie swore she had seen them arguing with each other by their lockers, but as soon as they saw her, Demetri walked away without another word.
“I just think it’s strange how fast they seemed to hate each other” Cheri had said when Ellie told her friends what she saw. Alexia didn’t really expect them to hate each other simply because they were both into her, but it was clear that they did hate each other. She hoped it wouldn’t cause too many problems at the party.
On Friday morning, Alexia pulled on a pair of black yoga pants and a long pink shirt that draped slightly off her shoulder. Her hair was pulled back into a long ponytail, complimented with a glittering black headband. Light purple eyeshadow and thin black eyeliner completed her casual chic look. Before leaving for school, she stared at herself in the mirror for a moment, not even thinking about what she saw looking back at her. The doorbell sounded, and it made her jump. Ellie, she thought to herself and headed down to let her friend in.
She was more than surprised when she opened the door to find Demetri standing in her doorway. He looked amazing, as he had since the first day she met him. His hair was done in the same style as always, sticking up as perfectly as a male model would in a Calvin Klein ad. The same black leather jacket he had worn the first day of school was covering up a black shirt with a logo on it that Alexia didn’t recognize. Black jeans hugged his legs almost too tight for her liking, but otherwise he looked crisp and clean as always. Alexia hadn’t realized how strange she must look, not saying a word and just staring at him, taking in every detail. She shook her head and tried not to sound like she excited that he was at her door.
“Demetri, hi. Uh, how did you know I lived here?” She held the door wide open and motioned for him to come in. He stomped some wet snow off his shoes and stepped inside. Before answering her question, he looked around her entryway. From where he stood, he could see the comfortable living room with its leather couch and matching chairs.
“I was on my way to school and I saw your friend Ellie walking up to your door. I asked her if she was meeting you. She said yeah and that you always walked to school together, so I offered to drive you both. She’s waiting in the car.”
“Oh well, that’s nice of you, but it’s only, like, three blocks from here. You know that, right?” She opened the shoe closet and dug around for a moment until she found her most comfortable shoes.
“Yeah, well, you will find I can be quite a good guy.” He took a step closer to her and she could smell his cologne. It smelled so good it made her slightly nervous in a good way. For a second, they just looked at each other, and in what felt like minutes later, he finally spoke. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah, I think I have everything.” They headed out to meet Ellie who was waiting in Demetri’s car. Not many people actually drove cars in this town, since you could walk almost anywhere in ten minutes. She saw Ellie waving from the backseat of a jet-black Camaro. “This is your car? It’s so nice!”
“My brother and I have one thing in common: good taste in cars.” He opened the passenger side door for her, and before she got in, she asked,
“You have a brother?”
He looked uncomfortable for a moment. “We don’t talk. We aren’t really close.” She got in the car and he closed the door behind her.
“Hey Alexia, can you believe this car? I don’t think I have ever seen a car this nice before!” Ellie was smiling like a crazy person and it made Alexia crack up hard.
“You are a little too excited Ellie. Try not to smile so big. You look a little scary.”
“Who’s a little scary?” Demetri joined them in the vehicle and closed his door before speeding off to the school.
“Oh, nobody.” Alexia turned to face him, ready to question him about the brother he had briefly mentioned. Before she could, he spoke first.
“So, this party is tonight; who’s excited?”
“I am!” the two friends said at once. “It’s going to be such a good time.” Ellie continued.
“You know we should hang out before the party and then all go together.”
“Sorry, no can do, Alexia has a date with Roman before the party.” Alexia went beet red. She wished her friend hadn’t said anything; she didn’t want Demetri to think she wasn’t into him. She was into him, and into Roman, too; she just wasn’t sure who she liked more, yet.
“Shut up Ellie, it’s not a date. We’re just hanging out.”
“I thought you said it was a…”
“It’s not a date,” she interrupted, feeling slightly embarrassed.
“Awesome. Then we can all hang out together before the party and then go together.” Demetri looked at Alexia when he said this, and then turned his eyes back to the road. They were already pulling into the nearly deserted school parking lot and Alexia couldn’t think of a reason for them not to come.
“Well, before we go to the party, us girls are going to Cheri’s to get ready.”
“Alright, then can we drop you off and meet you at the party after?”
“Sounds good to me. What about you, Alexia?” Ellie had just made what was supposed to be a date into a ‘group hang out’ and she had no idea how she would tell Roman.
“Yeah, great.” She had the feeling she was getting herself into a sticky situation that could turn into a complete disaster.
∞ CHAPTER THREE ∞
Alexia could tell that Roman was disappointed when she told him that Ellie had accidentally invited herself, Cheri, and Demetri to Java Café with them. He tried to look like he didn’t care, but Alexia saw right through his act. She wanted to tell him how bad she felt and that she would make it up to him, but she couldn’t find the right words.
It didn’t help when Demetri entered the classroom, took his seat in front of Roman, turned to Alexia, and said, “I can’t wait to go to Java after school. It’s going to be great to have all of us hanging out together. Don’t you think it’s going to be a good time, Roman?” All Roman could do to stop himself from punching Demetri right in the nose was grip the edge of his chair and nod.
They had arranged to meet outside by Demetri’s car, so they could all drive over to Java Café together. Java was the only place that anyone drove to, since it was almost outside the town and walking there in the cold would be a pain. The three girls had piled into the back seat together. They were all slim girls, but they were a little bit squished. Demetri sat in the front seat with Roman (who was putting on his best act to look happy) sitting beside him in the passenger seat. It was clear from the moment they started driving that it was going to be an interesting couple of hours. There was only a little bit of conversation going on and most of it was between Alexia, Cheri, and Ellie. Demetri would throw in a comment or two now and then or Roman would laugh at what was being said.
Finally, after an awkward ten-minute drive, they pulled into the parking lot of Java. From the outside, the place looked pretty big, but Alexia knew that inside was sort of cramped. Basically, there were two sides to the building: the bowling side and the game side. The bow
ling lanes were deserted except for a group of middle-aged women who were laughing and drinking beer. On the opposite side, many arcade games lined the walls, with two huge pool tables taking up most of the floor space. Any empty space had been filled with black table and chairs.
“It is so sad that this is the only place we can have some fun at in this town,” Cheri spoke and then sighed. “Alright, so what are we doing, pool or bowling?”
“I have no idea; I think Roman should decide.” Alexia smiled at him, trying to make him feel a little better. “What’s it going to be?”
“I prefer pool over bowling…”
“Excellent, I hate the idea of wearing those shoes.” Cheri looped arms with Ellie and led the group to the vacant pool table leaving Alexia alone with Demetri and Roman.
“So, are you guys excited for your first party?” She tried to direct it more toward Roman considering they were supposed to be on a date, but it was Demetri who answered.
“Hell yeah. I’m hoping you small town folk know how to get down and dirty.” He winked at Alexia and went to help the other two girls set up the table.
“What about you?” Alexia asked Roman. When he didn’t answer right away, she snapped her fingers and turned her head toward him. “Hello, earth to Roman? Are you okay?” He snapped out of it and flashed her a smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” She could tell he was still putting on an act and it made her feel horrible.
“I just feel bad about what this turned into, you know? Ellie doesn’t really think everything out all the time.”
“No, it’s fine. This way I get to know your friends, too.”
“I know you’re disappointed. I just wanted to apologize again.” She smiled at him, hoping this would help.
“Are we playing or what?” Cheri called over, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Come on, you can break,” Alexia said as she gave Roman a playful shove. From the moment she touched his arm her whole body got hot, and her cheeks flushed. Roman looked back at her alarmed and his cheeks were also flushed.