Rivals (A Jelsa Story)

Chapter 15 - Changing Perspectives

Jack's POV

Bunny avoided me for the rest of the day. I figured he must be upset about me missing the meet, but this was taking it a bit too far in my opinion. As soon as I got home I called him. To my surprise, he picked up.

"What?"

"Look, I'm sorry about missing your track meet –"

"Oh sure," he said dryly, cutting me off. "I'm sure you're very sorry that you couldn't come watch me run and instead had to hang out with some girl."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, getting defensive.

"You were supposed to be there! You should've been there to support me, but no, you had to run off to go spend time with the prom queen –"

"Hey, she was upset! Hans was creeping on her and she didn't want to go because he would be running, so I offered to stay with her so she wouldn't be alone. And it's not like I've never been to one of your races before, I've been to all of them, I wasn't missing anything by not watching you win this one time –"

"I lost, Jack!"

That shocked me into silence for a second. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, I lost! And you wanna know why I think I did? Because right before the race started, I looked over and saw everybody in the stands, but I didn't see you. And then I realized I didn't see Elsa either, and I figured out pretty quickly that you must have ditched me to be with her. And so I had that on my mind while I was running, and I wasn't focusing enough on the race, so I lost."

"Bunny, I'm sorry, but I didn't ditch you, she was upset –"

"We're supposed to be best friends, Jack. I've never chosen a girl over you. And you know, you say a lot of things about those Disney girls, but when it comes to action you'd drop spending time with us, your friends, to be with the Disney prom queen!" He spit out those last two words in the most disgusted voice I'd ever heard him use.

"I – I'm sorry, Bunny..."

"Forget it. I'll see you tomorrow. If you're not too busy hanging out with your new girlfriend, that is," he said and hung up.

I just sat there, staring at my phone. Was Bunny right? I'd casually dated a lot of girls, but my friends had always come first. And apart from Tooth, I'd never spent as much time with any of them as I had with Elsa. It was usually just one date, maybe two, but that would be it. I was never interested enough to stick around.

I was interested in Elsa, and that scared me.

She and I were from completely different worlds. She was preppy and the prom queen. She cared about school and her grades, and she was a Disney princess for crying out loud! I didn't care about any of that, heck, the only reason I was on student council was because North and Mr. Moon pretty much forced me to be. Once I was on it I realized it wasn't so bad, but that wasn't the point.

I'd already had one failed relationship, and I didn't exactly have the perfect model of marriage growing up. I wasn't going to let any of that happen to me, ever again.

I had to stay away from Elsa.

Elsa's POV

"Soooo, did you have a nice time?" Anna asked, smirking at me as I sprawled on her bed.

I peeked up at her from underneath the pillow on my face. "Yes," I replied, my voice muffled.

"Sorry? I couldn't hear you."

"Yes!" I repeated, glaring at her.

She squealed. "Yay! I'm so excited! You guys are going to make an adorable couple!"

"Okay, wait, slow down there you crazypants." I sat up. "No one's becoming a couple. We're just friends."

She gave me a look. "Oh, yeah, sure. I totally look at my friends that way."

I threw the pillow at her. She giggled and dodged it. "Look, I'm not interested in a relationship. Not right now, at least. I have more important things to worry about."

"Keep telling yourself that!" She called as she ran out of the room. "You pick a movie while I get snacks!"

I rolled my eyes as I got up from her bed and picked up our two snowman plushies – one I had given to Anna when we were kids and she had named it Olaf, and the other one Anna gave me a few years ago. His name was Marshmallow.

I went down the stairs and flopped on the couch in the den. Anna came back in as I was scrolling through movie options. "I don't know what sounds good."

"How about a romance movie?" she giggled.

I moved to grab a brownie to throw at her but she quickly moved the plate away. "I don't know, let's watch a kid's movie."

"How about The Swan Princess?"

"Oh, I like that movie. Okay, let's watch it."

She laid the snacks down on the coffee table and then snuggled up to me on the couch, holding Olaf. I grabbed Marshmallow and picked up a handful of popcorn just as the movie began.

"You're my bestest friend," Anna said. "I love you."

"I love you too, sis," I replied, giving her a kiss on the forehead.