Battle of the Captains

truce

"He drove you home?"

Liz had her hand on my locker, in front of my face, to keep me from opening it and urged me to pay attention to her question, which seemed more like an interrogation to me because there was no escaping her stare. I nodded, pushing her arm away to put in my locker combination. "I know. Weird, right?"

"That was nice of him, though," she said thoughtfully. "And just because the guy knows that he isn't supposed to let a girl walk home alone in the dark, doesn't mean he's weird. It makes him a good guy."

I snorted. "But–"

"Especially," Liz said, raising her voice by a tenth to overlap mine. "If he's willing to be a good guy to the girl who's given him hell most of his life."

In my defense, "He was the one who started the hell-giving."

"What if he's trying to end it?"

"Not likely," I replied. "Besides, where's the fun in that?"

I rummaged through my books, trying to figure out why I needed to go to my locker in the first place. Liz seemed to realize my dilemma and raised her own Chemistry textbook, reminding me that we had that subject together next.

"For a second there, I though that things were going good so that world must be ending," she said. "It's good to know that you've matured."

I pointed at her and countered, "Ah, but I don't see the problem with being immature if it keeps the world from ending."

Liz gave me a dry look.

"You know what? Sometimes, I hate talking to you."

Whatever, I knew she didn't mean it. I mean, if she really hated talking to me:

1. We wouldn't be having this conversation.

2. I wouldn't be getting daily random messages everyday.

3. She wouldn't be replying to my random messages.

4. Who would she share every single detail about her swoon worthy boyfriend over and over again to? Yeah, no one.

Speaking of, Liz looked past me and waved. "Clay, c'mere."

Liz's boyfriend had the weirdest name. I often wondered what his mother was thinking when she named him but who was I to judge? I had a guy's name. Plus, it was a free country where people could name their kids after Star Wars characters if they wanted to. But aside the name, Clay was a good guy. Mainly, the reason I ever disliked him was because Liz liked him too much and someone had to try to even things out.

So far, Clay had been good to her and surprisingly, to me too. He didn't show that he minded my snarky comments or the times when I tried to make things difficult for him. Sometimes, he even defended me when Liz got mad at me for insulting him since he probably knew how important our friendship was to Liz and I was almost a hundred percent sure he knew I was joking. Then my dislike stopped being about 'what if he was a bad guy and what if he wasn't good enough for Liz?' and it started being about 'what if he takes Liz away from me?' It had always been Liz and I against the world and then suddenly, out of nowhere, this guy that she'd been crushing on for months was squeezing his way into the picture.

Clay wrapped an arm around my best friend's shoulder and gave her a sweet peck on the lips. "What's up?"

"Gross."

Clay shook his head at me. "She's just jealous because she's still single."

"Hey," I interjected, pointing at him defensively. "By choice. I'm single by choice."