endless competition - academic rivals

|chapter 7| liquid courage

mira's pov:

mira wrinkled her nose in disgust when she saw the guy she was talking, whose name she found out was holden, downing yet another drink of god knows what. he was a typical american teenager: average looking and in love with alcohol. mira could not believe that she was even talking to him. 

in all honesty, she had no clue what she was doing. she had never been to a party before and never even approached a guy. a nervous feeling crept up in chest fueled by the "punch" that holden kept drinking.

the subtle drum of music continued as holden asked her, "you wanna get out of here?"

mira choked on air. she thought about that question and she thought about what it entailed. every single bone in her body was begging her to say no.

"sorry, but i think i'll stay here for now," she mumbled, pulling down lia's borrowed top that was definitely ten times shorter than anything she owned in her closet. 

holden flashed her an ugly smile, "are you sure? we could have plenty of fun at my place."

mira felt like vomiting at those words and refused once again. 

in a split second, holden grabbed her wrist and began dragging her out. 

mira could feel the burn against her skin, the utter sense of helplessness as she looked around for a familiar face. lia was nowhere to be seen but mira she saw mateo talking to cynthia. his eyes widened as he saw mira being dragged away by a random stranger. 

in this moment of time, their lifelong rivalry simply did not exist. the boundaries that they had drawn so carefully vanished into air and they became mira and mateo, nothing more and nothing less. 

and then mateo punched holden. 

mira jumped out of the way and cupped her hands to her mouth. she did not expect this to happen.

holden stumbled back as blood dripped from nose, a gnarly sight. his lips twisted into a cruel smile and he stuck out his right hand to return the favor.

but watching holden attempt to fight mateo was like watching a cat fight a tiger. mateo was better on all fronts, which mira had to admit, and easily dodged holden's jab. mateo punched holden once again and simply watched as he crumpled to the ground.

a whole crowd had arrived now, watching the ongoing scene like watching an action scene in the movies. mira couldn't blink, or else she feared that she might miss something.

"you should get out of here." mateo spat out.

"since when were you her boyfriend?" holden chuckled through the blood all across his face.

mateo kneeled down and punched him one more time, which mira thought was unnecessary.

"get out. now." mateo said once again.

holden didn't move, and mateo raised his fist again. but mira couldn't watch it, she grabbed mateo's arm before he could inflict anymore pain into that excuse of a human being.

"he's not worth it." she whispered, momentarily unaware of all the questioning faces surrounding them. 

mateo's eyes softened and broadcasted his regret. in that moment, mira did not see mateo santos, her lifelong rival, but instead someone else. someone with a secret,  someone that reminded her a lot of herself. mira shrugged aside her thoughts as she gently helped him get up as they walked out the house, ignoring but definitely hearing the gossip ensue.

by the time they reached the front door, mateo turned to mira, his chin mere inches away from her head.

"thank you mateo," mira said first, bottling up her conflicted emotions. 

"that was the bare minimum," mateo shrugged it off. "are you okay?"

although mira was still reeling from holden's touch, she found the question quite absurd. mateo was the one who got into the fight, so shouldn't she have been asking him that?

her thoughts were interrupted by the scent of alcohol from mateo's mouth.

"have you been drinking?" she asked with a frown.

"i'm fine, don't worry about me." mateo responded.

"come on, mateo. don't be stupid." she chastised.

suddenly, mateo's arms rose to mira's shoulders, gently pushing her away.

"we have to stop doing this." he said, shaking his head.

"doing what?" she scoffed incredulously.

mateo took a step back as his hands reached his head. 

"i don't know!" his volume increased. "this! pretending to be enemies and pretending to hate each other!

"i don't think you hate me, mira rao. and i know that i don't hate you." he finished with a pained expression on his face.

mira's mind officially turned to mush. for the first time in her life, she was at a loss for words. she hated mateo santos - right? sure, recent events had caused her hatred to disguise itself. but it was definitely still there - it had to be. she searched deep within her for any traces of her animosity but couldn't find any.

what was she even supposed to do right now? admit to her self-proclaimed enemy that her hatred for him disappeared within the span of a month? even if she didn't hate him, she would never ever agree with him. 

"you're drunk, mateo." she dismissed him, searching his eyes for any semblance of the truth, but ignoring what she found. 

"you know i'm right, mira" his eyes pleaded.

"you're never right, mateo. and i'm never wrong." she pushed back. "that's how we are."

"you know what? forget that i ever said this." he muttered as he stormed back into the house.

this was bad. really bad. mateo was not in the mindset to be there and he had to leave. in all honestly, she was worried about him. 

no scratch that, mira was not worried for mateo like how a friend might be worried for their friend but rather how a human being might be worried for another. she found that lie most believable and disguised it until it became the truth.

she took a deep breath before reentering the party. her nostrils filled with the scent of booze and sweat, making her wonder why she even came. she pushed through the crowds of sweaty people until she reached the kitchen.

her eyes found mateo who was downing alcohol to run from his problems. 

but mira was better than him at everything, and she'd run faster. or so she'd hoped.

"mira rao!" mateo burst out rather cheerfully. "what a pleasure for you to join us!"

she frowned at the sight of mateo's oddly smiley face. he looked... happy. but not like he was in peaceful place, instead like he'd entered wonderland street in delusion city.

"let's go," she looked at him angrily.

"why not? i'm having so much fun, you should join me." he offered. 

she grabbed his arm, silently surprised as mateo's muscles but the feeling immediately subsided as she realized who she was talking about. she dragged him out of the room and he obliged happily.

is this why mateo hadn't wanted her to drink? because this is what it did to him? 

for the millionth time today, mira ignored her conflicting feelings about mateo and distracted herself by finding them a way to get out of there.

her entire body felt relieved when she saw lia and jack talking beside a staircase.

"lia!, we need to leave now."