A Recipe for Disaster

Put some perm on your attitude

"No! Move to your right!" I demanded as I scowled at Ryder.

"I did move to my right!"

"No, my right!" I said, in frustration.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he did what I said. "You can just move your phone."

"Well, I don't want to do that," I said simply as if it solved all the problems in the world.

"You don't want to do anything I say," he grumbled.

"Probably 'cause you're wrong!"

He rolled his eyes. "Just take the damn video."

I let out a sarcastic smile as I pressed play on the video.

"Girls and boys, boys and girls. We are the same sp-sp-

"Species, you dummy!" I screamed, not being able to hold myself back as I tried not to cuss in the school hallways. "It's species! It isn't a hard word; why can't you get it?"

"I forgot my contacts, geez," he said as he looked down at the paper again.

"Well, you should have remembered them! I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you're not that important! You're a normal kid! You're supposed to remember your contacts and be able to say a word as simple as species! It's not that hard of a word! None of these words are hard! Why can't you be like the rest of us? Why do you have to forget something as simple as contacts? Is there some sort of brick in your head? Or are you just-"

"What's your problem with me?" He interrupted, looking as if I had slapped him across the face. Which, thinking of it now, I kinda did, verbally.

Oh, you mean other than feeling like trash and insecure after seeing Graham's girlfriend? Oh, nothing at all. Nothing. At. All. I don't feel like I'm ugly, and I don't feel like I'm nothing compared to her. And no, I don't feel insecure; I feel completely secure about my skin colour and who I am as a person. Oh, and I think I'm beautiful too!

"Nothing," I lied.

"Then why are you always mad at me for no fucking reason?"

"Probably because you embarrassed me in front of the cafeteria," I half-truthfully said, not mentioning how he said I was 'in love' with Graham.

He looked at me as if I had said I saw an elephant. "You're still pressed about that? That was like, three weeks ago."

"Well, yeah, it was embarrassing."

"So that's it," he asked, dumbfounded. "That's the reason you're rude and annoying to me. There's no way in hell that's true." Is it because I told everyone you're in love with him?

Wouldn't it be so nice to strangle your enemies, just think about it, just for a second. A kick to the ankle and a punch in the guts. "I don't love him."

"And I'm not dating Matilda," he said sarcastically.

"You aren't dating Matilda," I said seriously. "You're just friends-with-benefits, I mean, I am right."

"How?" he asked, his right eye twitching a little.

I know I shouldn't have continued, but he asked! "You don't have any actual connection other than your dick in her vagina, and you always break up every, what, two seconds? Is that what you call a relationship?"

His right eye was bulging now, probably like his penis did when he saw Matilda in that short skirt today. "You don't know anything about me and Matilda!"

"So, she is a virgin? Do you actually stay together longer than two weeks?"

His face was red, and his eyes were trying to pop out of their sockets like his pants did every time he and Matilda would go into the Janitor's closet. Oh, how I wish we were in the cafeteria right now.

"That's none of your business, bitch!"

I let out a small victory smile. "You're right, it isn't, just like how it isn't your business about me and Graham, and if, in any timeline, I was in love with Graham, I would, for sure, not tell you. So, let's continue to work."

He didn't want to work; he wanted to punch me, it was obvious by his red cheeks and bulging right eye. "You're just jealous that I can actually date someone, you're just jealous that I'm fuckable, that the person I like actually likes me back, that my girlfriend is actually pretty, unlike you! You're just mad because you know you'll never be Maya, because you know you'll never have someone like Graham. Because you know he has a type, and it isn't his best friend!" He said in a surprisingly rude yet calm voice.

It was as if he knew all my insecurities and was just pointing them out with a huge projector. I didn't say anything; I just looked at him, his mouth slightly twitching, as he stormed away, leaving me with a phone and a broken heart – but not in a romantic way. In a "wow, that hurts" kind of way.