Leaving The Friendzone

Chapter 18

Matthew Dunlop.

God, I was tired. What did I have to do to make Elena see the real KJ? What could I possibly do to make her stop and just listen? What in the freaking world was so special about KJ anyway. He was just another bullshit guy looking for another girl to jangle his balls or something. I'm a guy, so I would know. And I would know that he wasn't worth Elena or her time too. But she was refusing to see that. So was so hellbent on believing KJ was the one, it was mad annoying anytime I thought about it.

And to think that I thought she had gotten over the asshole. Gotten over the whole "Kj's so handsome and the sweetest guy ever" stupid thought every other girl at Belford High seemed to be carrying with them every day they came to school. Two days ago when I visited her at her house, the way she had talked about him, it was almost as if she was willing to never speak to him again, no matter what happened. But here she was, telling me he'd apologized and she'd forgiven him and now they were friends again, and she'd want me to be friends with him too because he's a fucking "nice guy". A nice guy my left foot.

It had taken all my willpower not to reach over to KJ and slap away the silky smirk on his face as Elena said those things to me. Of course, there was no way KJ and I were going to be friends. Not while we were in high school and he was being an asshole to the one girl I cherished. Hell was more likely to freeze over before that ever happened.

And it hurt me to think that Elena probably thought I was her enemy or something. Probably was growing tired of me always warning her about KJ, while I was doing what any best friend would, telling her the crystal clear truth. It hurt me to think that Elena wasn't willing to realize it. To think that the Elena I knew before KJ came to our school might be gone. Gone forever.

I sighed and ran a hand through my wet hair before raising my face to the shower of water falling from the showerhead. Either way, I was going to keep trying. I'll make sure to seize any opportunity I had to prove to her that KJ wasn't worth it, and I believed eventually she'd come to the realization too. The only thing I hoped now was that it wouldn't be too late by then, that she wouldn't have fallen so deeply for him already. If she hadn't yet anyway.

I blew out the water getting into my mouth, ran my hand through my hair once again, and turned off the shower.

Football practice had ended minutes ago, and while most guys decided to hang back on the court and chill and talk, I decided I wasn't feeling it today, plus my skin was crawling with sweat, so I decided to take that shower first before anything else. And I was glad I made that decision. It helped me think about everything that's been going on lately. Helped me clear my head.

Wiping my hair and body with my towel, I wrapped it around my waist and stepped out of the bathroom. I walked over to my locker, got out my clothes from my duffel bag, and headed back to the secluded area of the locker room where we were unsuited and suited up for either practice or a game.

I was alone in the whole locker room, so basically I was freer than ever. Taking off my towel, I slipped on my pants and pulled on the shirt I'd worn with it earlier. After that, I raked my hand through my hair, fluffed it out, and gave it a quick touch-up with my fingers. When I was done, I folded up my stuff and put them into my duffel bag before stashing the bag back into my locker.

Remembering, I had left my wristband in the bathroom, so I went back in to get it. The moment I stepped in and the door shut of its own accord, my eyes fell on it, its shiny dark beads. Picking it up, I slipped it onto my wrist and turned around to go when I heard voices.

I won't have stopped in my tracks though. After all, they were just voices. The thing was, out of the two voices, one of them was familiar. One of them belonged to KJ.