Effortless

Sixteen

Elias Richardson

I woke up in my bed, hungover and confused. I remembered parts of the night before but not all of it.

I remembered getting to the party, drinking, seeing Benji, then I was in the car with Javier, and now I was in my bed. Did Javier bring me home again?

I instinctively looked at my phone and saw multiple texts and missed calls from both Ricky and Bella. The texts were them asking where I was and if I was okay. I guess I ended up getting separated from them. I texted them both and told them that I was fine and that I'd call them later in the day.

I winced when the lights in the room were abruptly turned on. After my eyes adjusted to the bright lights I recognized my siblings in front of me.

"You owe me twenty bucks, again." Emerson cheesed at her twin as Easton sighed in defeat.

I ignored their attempt to rile me up and I shut my eyes again. I heard shuffling as they moved across the room and closer to me.

"We thought you got caught by the cops." I heard Easton say.

I opened my eyes when I heard this. Cops? The police busted the party? I didn't remember any of that. How drunk was I?

I wanted answers to the foggy parts of my night. "Do you two know how I got home?"

"We don't keep tabs on you, kid." Emerson said 'kid' as if I was eight years younger than her. I didn't expect her to know though because I was pretty sure she was drunker than I was last night. I unfortunately remembered that part of the night.

"I saw you get in the car with that guy." Easton said as he took his shirt off and threw it on the ground. He went into his drawer and began to look for another shit. "Y'know, the one that you so passionately hate. The guy that's better than you at everything."

"Javier?" I asked. My brother nodded. "He isn't better than me at everything."

"We both know that that isn't true."

I didn't respond. Easton was trying to find something to get under my skin, like always. I didn't have the energy to be angry. I rolled over on my side and tried to go back to sleep because I had only been awake for two minutes and I was already tired of it.

This was the third time Javier had helped me out for absolutely nothing in return. I couldn't remember the majority of the night but it was clear that he was there for me.

I still wanted to hate him. I wanted to blame him and be angry at him for constantly being better than me, like my brother had so kindly reminded me of. It was getting hard to do that, however. I was beginning to realize that he might actually be a really cool person. I was starting to truly realize that maybe my hatred was misplaced.

So should I have started being kinder to him? Well, at least somewhat kinder than I had been before. Maybe I'd find him in the hallway and not give him the evil eye. Maybe I'd stop cursing under my breath every time he came near me. Maybe I'd put my own ego aside and be cordial with him. Because with each passing day as he kept being nice and I kept being an asshole, I began to feel more and more like a bad person.

I hated Javier Cortez. I hated that he was smarter than me. I hated when he teased me. I hated when he had that stupidly smug look on his face when he knew he was right. I hated how everyone else loved him just because he was him.

But those were also the reasons I wanted to be around him.

-

That next day at school I wanted to thank him for what he did for me. I couldn't fully remember what he did but based on what I could remember I needed to thank him for it. I was also in a pretty good mood that day so telling him thanks wasn't as difficult of a task as it would have normally been.