Defender's Heartbeat

Chapter 30

Enzo

During the days when I was angry with Papa, I pushed away all my girlfriends, leaving me without any. Pam still hung out with us sometimes, but she preferred to be with her girlfriends, talking about girl stuff. I saw Pam hanging out with some guys. Finally, she had moved on from me, which I considered a positive development.

"So, how does it feel to be single?" Noah asked.

"Same," I said.

"How does it feel to have more than one girlfriend simultaneously?" Diego asked Noah.

"It's great because if one girl is busy, you have another. And they're not the same," Noah said.

"How does it feel to never have dated a girl yet?" Elijah asked Diego.

"I'm waiting for the right one. I don't just want to have fun. I'm going to find the right one and marry her as soon as I turn 18," Diego said.

"What?"

"What?"

"Dude, what's wrong with you?"

Diego laughed, but I guessed he was serious about what he had said.

"How does it feel to secretly date girls without telling your friends?" I asked, and everyone looked at Elijah.

"Really, bro?" Noah asked him.

"I'm not," he said, blushing.

"And why did you say that, Enzo?" Elijah asked. He was mad for being exposed.

"I saw you sending messages like, 'Hey baby, can we hang out today? Love you, baby. Mmmuah,'" I said.

The others laughed while Elijah frowned with anger. "You secretly read my messages? You jerk."

"I'm your best friend, and you didn't tell me about that?" Noah asked Elijah with a worried tone.

"It wasn't serious. Just for fun," Elijah said.

"Do you think I'm serious about all those girls? Yet, you know all of them," Noah said.

Then they started to argue.

Pam

I was happy to see Enzo was single now. I pretended to hang out with some guys to make him jealous, but he didn't care. I wanted to talk to him alone, but the four almost always stuck together. There was no way I could catch him alone. For all these years, I had never found any of them alone; it was always two or four of them together.

Finally, I decided to make the first move. "Enzo, can I talk to you?" I asked.

"Yeah, go ahead," he replied, still not looking at me. He was with his friends. Although I tried to talk nicely, he gave me a jerky attitude. I felt embarrassed and blamed myself for deciding to make the first move. Trying to speak to him now was a mistake. But now I had to continue.

"What's up, Pam?" Elijah inquired.

"I'd like to talk to him alone," I said.

"Whoa, hold on, you can't do that," Noah interjected jokingly. Enzo was shaking his head, indicating no. I felt helpless. He could have just come with me and talked to me privately, saying what he thought about me without embarrassing me in front of the others. But he even refused to listen to me.

"Come on, Enzo. Talk to her. She's our friend," Diego urged.

"Let's go, guys," he directed, leading the others away. Diego was the only guy in the group who had grown up with common sense.