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___________ c h a p t e r t h i r t y - s e v e n
"Jane?" Bianca checks what felt like the third storage closet in search of El, not finding her anywhere. "Ugh."
It'd been almost twenty minutes of searching, with Mike and Will on one side of the roller rink, and Marco and Bianca on the other.
Of course, they couldn't escape Angela's ever-condescending tone in the background, only furthering Bianca's frustrations. All she wanted was to punch the blonde square in the nose, but she knew ultimately, Marco was right, and that wouldn't end well for anybody.
"Not there either?" Marco raises his eyebrows. "It's like she's moving."
"Exactly. You could've told me, you know," she frowns. "That she's been getting bullied, I mean."
"I wanted to," Marco frowns. "But she begged me not to say anything and I didn't want to ruin her break."
"So? I could've helped her."
"I was helping her," he retorts.
"Oh, is that what that was? Because she surely didn't look helped out there," she rolls her eyes. "I mean, I could've talked to her about it."
"Nobody wants to follow up a story about how awesome your life is with a harsh retelling of being terrorized by Angela," he crosses his arms.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That it's embarrassing enough being the weird new kid, and it's tenfold when your best friend is having such a great time in high school a thousand miles away."
"Jane knows she can tell me anything. I understand. And why do you care so much? The last time you were this nice to a-" she raises her eyebrows before a look of realization crosses her face. "Holy shit."
He realizes she's caught him, and vehemently shakes his head as she begins to chuckle.
"No-" he waves his hands in a motion to stop, eyes wide.
"You totally have a crush on her! Oh my God, this is great," she grins. "I have to tell Max."
"No, you do not have to tell anyone."
"Does Will know? Is he gonna set you up?"
"Can we stop this? Like now? I don't even have a crush."
"You're so lucky we have to find her," she points with a smirk, which slowly drops at the sound of a scream.
They quickly follow the noise, being met with El holding a rollerskate and Angela crying on the ground with a bloody nose.
Anyone with a brain could paint the missing pieces of this picture, and the cousins grapple between wanting to applaud El for giving her what she deserved and the fact that maybe that wasn't the best approach to conflict resolution.
