Unpopular - Enemies to Lovers

➸ 9

Maude's POV

I took a deep breath as I searched for Felix and Jack in the restaurant.

I was wearing an oversized leather jacket to disguise the white dress I was wearing underneath. My game plan for tonight was to spend 2 hours with Jack and Felix, then leave to go to Logan's party. The whole school kept buzzing about how "epic" Logan's party was supposed to be.

The restaurant Jack had chosen was the kind filled with games like pool and darts. In the back of the restaurant, I could see the boys laughing and playing pool. I nervously approached them.

Jack was wearing a hoodie and track pants; whereas Felix was dressed in a striped green sweater and black pants.

"Sorry, I'm late. Traffic," I announced.

Jack excitedly greeted me but Felix simply stared at me. I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Jack handed me a pool stick so I could join their game. Jack went first. He blindly hit a ball and completely missed.

I smiled to myself as I prepared for my turn. I was a pool expert.

I carefully leaned over the table and properly positioned myself in front of a ball.

The ball I hit rolled into the pocket.

Felix seemed unfazed. He maneuvered his pool stick to hit a green ball placed in an awkward angle and it still fell into the pocket.

Felix coyly smiled at me, "beat that."

I scoffed. My competitive side was getting to me.

"Okay, me versus you, starting now," I challenged.

"You're going to lose," he replied.

Felix crossed his arms and smirked at me. Since he was much taller than me, he had to lower his head to properly leer at me.

"You're on."

I went first.

I slowly leaned over the table and carefully positioned myself, then I hit a ball. The ball I hit collided into another and both balls fell into the pocket. Felix rolled his dark eyes.

"That was a fluke," he said.

I rolled my eyes and hit another set of two balls.

"Lucky shot," he said.

"Is it a lucky shot if it happens twice?"

"You can get lucky twice."

Out of frustration I shoved my stick into his hands.

"If you're so good why don't you try hitting two in at the same time?" I asked.

Felix stood over me and simply smirked at me.

"Well, are you going to go?" I asked and I tried to take my stick back but Felix held it above his head.

I tried to get it back but he was too tall.

"You're such a sore loser!" I asserted as I jumped to get my stick back.

Jack was incredibly amused with the spectacle. He doubled over in laughter instead of helping me.

Felix calmly placed the stick back at my level and handed it back to me while laughing.

"My mom's calling, I'll be back," Jack said as he left to take the call outside.

Felix and I awkwardly looked at each other. We were alone together now.

"You're freakishly good at pool," his low voice admitted.

I smiled, "you're finally being honest!"

"Where'd you learn how to play?"

"My mom taught me, she used to love pool."

"She doesn't love it anymore?"

"She died," I grimaced as the words left my mouth. It never got easy to talk about it.

Felix looked at me with great sympathy.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said.

"It's fine. It happened right before 9th grade."

I still had very vivid memories of my mom and I always missed her. Not seeing her every day changed me as a person.

"Well, I think she'd be proud that she taught you to be such a great pool player," Felix kindly said.

His remark made me chuckle. I had never thought about it like that and suddenly being great at pool made me feel more connected to my mom.

I felt the urge to hug Felix but instead I just smiled to myself.