Effortless

Thirty-three

We arrived at the competition bright and early. I was still half asleep yet they expected me to be able to coherently answer questions. There were less people than last time, which was odd since eliminations weren't a thing in the competition. Maybe people had given up after the first round and quit. I wasn't complaining though because that meant it was more likely for us to win.

I was tired but that unfortunately didn't get rid of the nervousness. Javi kept talking a lot just like he did last time. I didn't know if it was because he too was nervous and was trying to distract himself or if it was just because he simply liked to talk. I was trying to focus on remembering everything that I thought we would need to do well but it was difficult to do that with the constant babbling.

Principal Montgomery was very enthusiastic today. After our second place 'victory', as she called it, she was very optimistic. She seemed convinced that we would win this round and the next, which would definitely put us in the finals.

She was so hopeful that she had been telling people that we would win. She told them as if it was a fact set in stone. In the morning announcements at school our principal told everyone that we were competing. That was the day after the first round, it was when she announced that we placed second. I was fine with that, it wasn't as if it was some secret.

However, a couple of days ago she brought it up again. She wanted our fellow classmates to know that when Javi and I won the entire competition our school would be the first to win in our district ever. Her optimism and faith in us was nice and it was great to know that she thought that highly of us. Though, in the event that we did not win like she hoped we did it would be extremely disappointing for everyone involved. But that was a problem for the future.

We were in the exact same room that we were in last time and they had us sit at the exact same table. We weren't almost late this time, we were actually a little early. That gave us some time to internally panic while we waited.

Javier's chattering had finally ceased once we reached where we needed to be. He was thinking about something while his finger tapped against the table incessantly. He thought about it for so long that I was not sure if he was going to speak his mind.

"What I want to ask you has absolutely nothing to do with what we're doing right now." He said, his voice low because the room was quiet. "But I feel like a distraction might be good for the both of us so I am going to ask you anyway."

I tilted my head. "About what?"

"Does Benji weird you out? Or is it just me."

Did Benji weird me out? Honestly, sometimes he did. I found his recent behavior odd but I was trying not to think too much of it. I was more curious as to why Javier thought that.

I shrugged. "A little, I guess. Why?"

It was his turn to shrug. "He just gives me bad vibes. The things he does, the way he acts, it's weird."

Javi wasn't totally wrong. The crush I had on him before was fading more and more as the days went by. I assumed that was because my liking for Javier increased by the day. I would say that I meant my liking for him in a just friends way, but I wasn't sure how true that was anymore.

Part of it was because of that, but another part of it may have just been that he was...weird. Like Javi said. I thought back to the day at lunch when he insisted that he and I go to the mall. That could have been innocent, but was it? Or the awkward conversations that he would try to start with me, those were confusing. He didn't talk to me the way I saw him talk to my siblings. I couldn't explain it, it was all just fucking strange. But now that my siblings were aware of his and I's little trip I probably wouldn't have to think about it all anymore.