tough love › › ˡᵃʳʳʸ ʲᵒʰⁿˢᵒⁿ ˣ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

01 | larry johnson.

—☆—

It was a dismal day, the overcast was depressing and cold. You stood behind the counter of the 711 gas station you worked at, flipping through the pages of your history textbook studying for an exam you had tomorrow. You yawned and glared at the clock,
8:34 pm. It wasn't a very busy day for you so you spent most of your time studying and playing on your phone.

The bell of the front door rang but you kept your head down focused on the pages in front of you, the shopper shuffled around the isles of the store while humming a soft tune. After a while of rummaging through the store, the customer came up and placed the items in front of you. You looked up at the costumer and instantly felt nauseous..

Larry Johnson. A classmate of yours whom you've known since kindergarten, what an annoying man. You and Larry have had a little feud between the two of you for god knows how long.

It all started in 5th grade, your elementary
was holding an art contest. You, who had been drawing since you were basically a new born, was so excited to take part in this contest. You loved showing off your art and getting praise, you had spent weeks and sleepless nights perfecting a gorgeous panting of a tree house which sat right behind the apartment complex you lived in. The day of the contest came around and you stood on the stage proudly with your painting behind you, covered by a grey cloth just waiting to be unveiled.

The judges one by one asked each kid to reveal their art and explain the inspiration behind it. After each child had showed their art, the judges whispered amongst themselves for what felt like eternity. You knew for sure that you were going to win, all of the other contestants paintings looked substandard compared to yours. But just as your cockiness got the better of you, the judges revealed the winner of the contest.

"It was hard deciding who to pick as the winner, all of your art pieces are magnificent. But we've come to a conclusion."
You closed your eyes and crossed your index and middle finger repeating 'Me, me, me!' In your head.

"Larry Johnson!" One of the judges announced. Your eyes shot open wide, you whipped your head around and glared at the boy who was now jumping up and down in excitement. You felt a wave of anger and jealousy flood over your body, you grabbed your canvas and stormed off the stage.
Ever since then, you and Larry had joined any art contest you caught wind of. Both taking turns trying to one up each other, you're both seniors in high school now and this silly rivalry was still in its heat.

Larry peered down at you as you rolled your eyes, you stood up and scanned his items.
"Will that be all?" You asked in a monotoned voice, "Actually, i'll take a pack of cigs too." You turned around and grabbed a pack of cigarettes and placed it in the bag.
"Your total is $14.49" You said, he fumbled with his wallet and brought out a few crumpled up dollars and some change, you grabbed the money and put it in the cash register.
You sat back down and tried focusing back on your work, till you glanced back up and realized that Larry was still there. He just stared at you with a slight smirk on his face. 'How annoying' You thought to yourself.

You stared back at him and let out a sigh of annoyance. "What do you want Larry?" You asked clearly sounding irritated.
"You know, there's supposedly going to be a big artist contest coming up. Winner gets $2k and a scholar ship to a university of their choice." He said, still smirking like an idiot. But of course you've heard of this contest, it's going to be the biggest one! People from all over the state are going to be entering.

"Yeah I've heard of it, why?" You replied crossing your arms over your chest.
"Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm going all out this year, so be prepared to lose." He declared. You rolled your eyes "Don't get too cocky Johnson, from what I've seen your art has been far less than adequate these past years." You said shooting an arrogant smirk back. "Dude stop using fancy words they make you sounds like a snob." He replied, of course he of all people would say something like that, he's got the intelligence of a rock. You turned your chair around so that your back was facing his, he scoffed and walked out of the shop.
You let out a deep sigh and continued back onto your work.

—☆—

A few hours have passed since your encounter with Larry, you packed your stuff and locked up the store. It was about 1AM now, you hopped into your car and drove home. The beaming street lights blurred your tired vision, as you pulled up to your apartment complex. You parked your car down the street a bit and made your way to the building, as you slowly approached, you saw a familiar face standing outside the front doors.

"Ash!" You yelled happily running up to her, she turned her head quickly as her eyes lit up seeing her best friend.
"Y/N! Hey!" She yelled back and opened her arms for a hug, you haven't seen Ashley in weeks since you both were really busy with schooling and work, you two just didn't have the time to hangout as much as you used to.
You jumped into her arms and gave her a huge hug.

"Gag me." A presumptuous voice spoke, you let go of Ashley and peered behind her to see who had spoken. Larry fucking Johnson. You looked at Ashley and she looked away from you innocently, she knew the two of you disliked each other, but you also knew she was really close with Larry so you never commented about it. You stuck your tongue out at the tall male and looked back at your friend.

"Ashley what is this degenerate doing here?" You asked speaking loudly so he would hear, he rolled his eyes at your comment. "Oh, well me and Larry were just working on an art project together and now we're just waiting for my taxi." She spoke softly and smiled, she was such a sweet caring girl. "Do you mind if I wait with you? I'd love to catch up!" You asked holding her hands in yours, "Of course!" She beamed back, Larry just looked away and continued to smoke his cigarette.

20 minutes had passed and Ashley's taxi finally came, you and Larry both waved to her as the taxi sped away. You sighed to yourself as you looked up at the stars, it was a beautiful night, the sky was clear and the stars twinkled bright. You enjoyed a moment of peace just gazing at the sky, until it was rudely interrupted by a loud cough coming from the greasy haired boy behind you.

You felt yourself instantly get aggravated as you were reminded that he was still around. You fixed your composure and walked past Larry making your way inside.
"Goodbye to you too." He said in a sarcastic tone which really irked you. You didn't bother saying anything back but you could feel him smirking behind you as you quickly walked away. That guy gets on your last nerves. He's always enjoyed teasing you, and his ego never made anything better.

You pressed the button of the elevator and let out a big breathy sigh, you just wanted to get home and crash on your bed. The elevator doors opened and you sluggishly walked to your apartment door, you swung open the door, locked it, and flopped onto your bed. You laid face down for a bit till you felt something soft nudging your arm, You turned your head to the side and saw your cat Bethany rubbing her head against your arm begging to be pet. You giggled to yourself and brushed your hand through her fur softly as you slowly drifted into a deep sleep.