How to Date Someone You Hate

Chapter 2: That jerk stole my Corgi(Mavis)

It's almost 10, and the book club members still haven't left. That means Warren hasn't left either. I'm just glad he doesn't have to come in my room. He usually spends time In the kitchen playing with my dog, Jellybean. 

I've had Jellybean since I was really little. She's a Corgi and I love her more than anything in the world.

Sadly, she loves Warren more than she loves me. Yeah, she'll cuddle me and let me pet her, but when Warren comes over, she'll run up to him and they will play and cuddle the whole time he's here. Usually she'll get away from me after about 30 minutes.

I love Jelly too much to not let her get love, but it sucks that she's attached to such a jerkwad.

I'm scrolling through social media when I finally hear the downstairs door shut, singnaling everyone is gone, hopefully.

I start heading downstairs where, much to my annoyance, mom and Mrs. Conway are sipping wine, with Warren in the corner playing on his phone with Jellybean asleep in his lap. 

"Hey Mavis, do you want some left-over pizza?" My mom smiles at me. "Uh, sure." I force a smile back.

"So, how are things going with you and Warren?" Mrs. Conway asks setting down a slice in front of me. "Erm..." I look away and take a bite so I don't have to answer.

Since me an Warren have known each other since we were little kids and used to be best friends, our moms think that our "rough patch" will end soon. But that patch has gone on since the 7th grade, and that was four years ago. 

"Everything is going fine, Mrs. Conway." "Honey, how many times do I have to tell you, call me Kylie!" she laughs. 

"You guys certainly aren't as close as you used to be. I remember you'd stay up for hours playing outside and then spend the rest of the day playing videogames! I wish you guys hadn't fallen apart." Mom shook her head.

"You know, when you were little, we always thought you two would be the cutest coup-" "Hey mom, look at this!" Warren calls out before she can finish. 

"Yes sweetie?" "My girlfriend sent a photo of her new cat, isn't it cute?" Mrs. Conway and mom are silent. "I get the hint, I get the hint." Mrs. Conway throws up her hands in defeat. "Anyway, we should probably get going, Warren has a doctor's appointment tomorrow. Athlete checkups, am I right?" She laughs with my mom.

"It's quite dangerous, isn't it? Thats why I took Mavis out of jujitsu." Mom takes a sip of her wine. 

They start chatting again, despite the earlier comment of leaving. "Mom, can we please go?" Warren calls out from the couch. Jellybean looks up at him from his lap, offended. "Don't worry sweetie, we can play tomorrow, ok?" He coo's out in his baby voice. 

Jellybean just scoffs and sashays away. 

Mom and Mrs. Conway say their goodbyes and head out. Warren doesn't spare me a glance at all when we leave. Probably because he's texting his girlfriend, zoomed up on a photo of her cat.

He's always loved animals ever since we were little. That might be why Jellybean loves him so much. He's like an animal whisperer. Something I am far from being. For example, when we were on a field trip to a petting zoo in the 4th grade, a goat went up to him to get pets, and the same goat peed on my brand-new pair of shoes less than a minute later. 

"Alright, I'm heading to bed mom." I fake a yawn. I'm probably just gonna stay up all night on my phone. "Actually, honey, I was wondering." She starts, nervously.

"Hm?" "Well, I was wondering. Are you dating anyone?" I pause. "No, why?" She gives me a look. "Well, me and Kylie have been talking, and we think-" I already know what she's gonna suggest.

"No mom, you can't set me up with Warren. He has a girlfriend. Plus, if you haven't noticed, we hate each other." Mom just shrugs as that. "Well when he's single-" I stop her with a loud groan. "I'm going to bed mom, good night." 

I walk up the steps and head to my bedroom.

"Night honey, love you." She calls. "Love you too." I reply. And with that I close my door and turn on my phone.

...

It's only 3 in the morning, and I can still see a light from Warrens room.

Our windows are right across from each other. You might think that having a perfect view into the room of an admittedly attractive guy is a dream come true, but in reality, he has the blinds closed most of the time. When they aren't, he plays obnoxiously loud music and looks into my window until he can see me flipping him off.

AKA, what is happening right now.

I groggily get out of bed and open my window. Sure enough, Warren is sitting on the window seat with a shit eating grin, loud metal music in the background. His shirt is off like normal. Probably to annoy me.

"Sup neighbor!" He shouts. I flip him off and he laughs. "What, are my abs too distracting?" He flexes. "No, it's literally 3 in the morning and our moms will kill us!"

"No they wo-" "Mavis go the fuck to bed!" I can hear my mom shout from the next room. I glare at him and he smirks, but his face drops when I hear yelling from his house. "Welp, you better listen to your mom and get some beauty sleep! you definitely need it!" I smirk, glad I can finally bite back. "Oh fuck off." He closes the window and the blinds. I do the same.

I lay back in bed, closing my eyes. If I'm being honest with myself, I quite enjoy our nightly bickering. It reminds me of when we were little. He'd climb into my window by jumping from his roof to mine. He never did that again after he broke several bones.

I kinda miss our friendship sometimes, but not really. We were friends since birth, basically. We stopped being friends in 7th grade due to the "incident". But we don't talk about that.

Finally, I fall asleep, dreaming of Jellybean eating my pants, for some reason.