Before You Say Goodbye

9

French was never my strong subject in school. I can solve numerous math problems in under a minute, I can remember the periodic table – even upside down, I can name all the states in our country – and all the states in all other countries too. But learning a new language – now that was something I wasn't very good at.

I thought long and hard before deciding to choose French as my foreign language subject. I could've easily chosen German – mom's mother tongue. And even though, I have never been interested in learning the language every time mom used to bring it up, if I wanted to, she'd immediately start helping me learn it. And perhaps that was why I didn't choose German. These days, I didn't want to do things with my mom's help.

Sulking, I walked to my French class, not liking the fact that the school had made foreign languages a compulsory subject for us. When I walked inside the class, my frown only deepened. There were only two seats available – one next to Holland O'Connell and the other next to the one and only younger De Niro.

Already having my decision made, I walked with purpose towards the back of the class. Where De Niro sat. I didn't even know he had this class with me. Terry sat right in front of me, so that's one good thing. I guess. When I dumped my bag on the floor and slid into the seat next to him, he looked up. "Do you mind me sitting here?"

He looked around, his eyes falling onto the only other empty seat in the room before he turned to look at me. With an indescribable look in his eyes, he gave me a shrug, shaking his head no. Good, I wasn't going to leave the only seat in this class that will hold my sanity anyway. I'd rather hollow my eyes out with a rusty fork than sit next to Holland O'Connell.

Terry turned to look at me, her eyes narrowed. I knew the look in her eyes. It said, the hell are you doing sitting next to De Niro? Sighing I shook my head, "What?"

She huffed, "Nothing."

Maddox, the boy who sat next to Terry chose that moment to wake up from his nap. He let out a yawn so big, not even closing his mouth with his hand. I fought the urge to gag, giving him a look. What was he, raised by wolves? Though I should be thankful to him a little; he'd taken Terry's attention off me and onto himself.

He turned to look at who was sitting next to him and when his eyes landed on Terry, his sleep completely vanished off his eyes. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas day as he turned to face her. Did I tell you the guy has been crushing on Terry since middle school?

"Well, well, if it isn't sweet, little, Terrance," he whistled.

I grimaced. I know Terry's face held a similar expression. The whole school knew to not call her Terrance, I guess Maddox didn't get the memo. Terry remained silent, giving him a look so scorching, it could burn through any boy. Any human. Not Maddox though.

"What? Are you speechless about seeing your future boyfriend after a long time? If you can't guess, that's me – your future boyfriend."

You see, we've known Maddox all our life. We used to be friends with him when we were very young. We've played with him, fought with him for toys, knew him through middle school when he was the famous boy that shat his pants in class after seeing a frog, and then watched from a distance since freshman year as he slowly became the annoying person that he was today. In middle school, Javier threatened him after he incessantly annoyed Terry, Piper, and me at the playground. To us, he'd always be that boy who cried with snot running down his nose because of Javier Ruiz. And for him to try and flirt with one of us made me want to puke.

I won't completely blame everything on him though. I'd like to share the blame between his uncaring parents, his crazy, stupid friends, and all the other people influencing his life right now. If it hadn't been for all of them, he would've been a little more tolerable.