That's My Spotlight | ✔

vii. tired of trying to care when i don't

THE FOLLOWING MONDAY MORNING FELT very unusual for Alexander. Having that said, Monday mornings always felt unusual. But something was off about this Monday morning.

For starters, instead of walking freely through the broad corridors of Meadowbrook stress-free, he spent his time worrying about whether he'd see Inez. Especially when he walked to the cafeteria for lunch, he did his best to remain unseen by the girl. If anything, he knew that Inez had the same lunch period as him, which was extremely unfortunate. He figured that if he avoided her for the rest of the day, he'd be good.

His scheme wasn't for no reason, however. 

When the everyone was playing Spin the Bottle at Angelica's party the evening prior, he got picked on to spin the bottle. When he did, it landed miraculously (in a bad way) pointed to Inez.

Kissing people already sounded awkward enough. But kissing someone whom he disliked? That was a hard pass for him. 

Before Alexander got a chance to budge, Inez ended up insisting that she had to go and abandon the party. He may have not wanted to kiss the girl but being left alone like that didn't feel right. It was way out of his range to comprehend, so he ended up leaving the celebration himself. It was humiliating, especially since he was turned down like that in the game. Hence, he wondered why. It's all he's wondered for the past three days — whether it was at school, work, or at home. It followed him everywhere, like baby ducks following their mother to head to their nest. 

That wasn't exactly the clearest scenario, but that was exactly how Alexander Choi felt at the moment. He wasn't enjoying it one bit. 

All he wanted was answers so bad to the point where he barely slept for the past couple of nights. Answers were something he was desperate for, more than shoes or the newest iPhone at the moment. That's how anguished he felt about the situation. 

He may have wanted answers, but he figured that he might've been better off without them. Alexander also had trouble differentiating whether Inez's possible explanation of the entire thing would be problematic or not. It made him shiver just to think about it. Part of him didn't even want to know the entire truth about it.

Regardless, the entire situation weirded out Alexander.

He endlessly wondered if he did anything wrong. Even more, he wondered why he cared so much. It wasn't normal for him to have something like this on his mind for over twenty-four hours. Let alone, approximately seventy-two.

But like it or not, he was about to get some answers. Desperate matters call for desperate answers. 

Alexander was at the end of a long table all by himself. He could've been with Jayden right at that moment, but he was still in the lunch line retrieving his food. So, for the time being, he was left alone with his thoughts. That was until Inez took a seat directly in front of him, which caught Alexander off guard as he attempted to eat an apple slice, which was overly sour and barely ripe. He set the slice down on his lunch tray in embarrassment, his cheeks flushed.

"Inez, what are you doing here?" He questioned as his hands laced together on the food-filled surface of the table.

"Before you assume anything, hear me out," Inez mused quietly as her head sank. "I just came here to apologize for how I acted at the party. Even if I was a bit uncomfortable, I could've done something else way better than walking away and throwing you under the bus like that." 

Alexander remained silent as he stared directly towards Inez. He allowed her words to sink in so he could thoroughly ponder about everything. "Are you being for real right now? Like, you're actually being sincere and all?"