Best Exes

AFTER: Heartbreaks

What Finn was doing was he was luring me in on another trap and I'm not falling for it again.

I groan. 

"What's up, caveman?" I look up to see Reid walking up to me.

I was in class, waiting for everyone to arrive once again.

"Math," I say, which wasn't entirely a lie because I was in the middle of doing my math homework while the devil was clouding my thoughts.

Reid kisses the side of my head before settling down on the seat beside me.

"Lemme see," he says, sneaking his arm around my waist. He's always been good in math and I envy him for that.

I stare at him as he stares at my homework. His mouth opens and closes, probably explaining the equation to me but nothing registers in my brain because all I can think about is why the hell am I getting frustrated over Finn when I have Reid already.

I hear him sigh and it snaps me out of my thoughts, "You weren't listening again, love,"

"Sorry," I mumble.

He explains the equation again, and this time, I listen intently. He lets me answer on my own and after finishing my homework, I feel slightly smarter.

"Thanks, Reid," I say, hugging him.

He rubs my back, "Anything for you, princess,"

After that, he just talks about this new game he was playing. His hand moves around in the open air as he passionately explains the objective of the game.

Most of the time, I don't understand what he's was saying because he uses terms that are foreign to me, but I try to understand it anyway. I'm sure this is exactly how he feels when I talk to him about things I love but he can't relate to.

"I know you don't understand," he chuckles, shaking his head.

"No, no, I do," I say, "I mean, I get it,"

"But you're not interested," he says.

"I am, Reid," I say, bringing both my hands up to cup his cheeks, "You're just so cute when you talk about something you love,"

He encloses his hand around mine and puts them down before lightly pinching my nose, "You're cuter,"

Reid, then, continues to talk about another topic as I continue to stare at him. I hate that Finn still gets to me when all I want and all I deserve is this person in front of me.

The door to our class opens and Finn enters. He was hardly ever early to class, so to see him walking in 20 minutes before classes start instead of 20 minutes after is a little odd. 

I turn my attention back to Reid and he's suddenly quiet.

"Hey, what's up?" I ask. Reid had different types of quiet, and this particular one, I didn't like.

He shakes his head as he stares at the table before him. 

"Hey, Reid," I push.

"It's nothing," he says, but his eyes say otherwise as he stares at the table intensely. 

He says he has to leave 5 minutes before the usual time he heads back to his class because he had something important to do. I knew it was a lie but I let him be, hugging him tight before I let him go.

I didn't have to be Einstein to know that the reason why Reid suddenly went quiet was because of Finn's presence.

And I know that that should have been an enough reason for me to stay away and ignore Finn for the rest of my life but being in the same class with him didn't help at all.

"I am here to announce," Miss Carol -the yearbook staff adviser- says as she excuses a few minutes of our livelihood subject. "That your graduation pictorial will be held a little sooner than expected. I will be handing out letters for your parents to sign and to inform them about the schedule.  It will be held approximately four week from now, more or less,"

She explains that it was because the photographer that the school usually hired was booked and so they decided to have the pictorial sooner than never.

I receive my letter and fold it before slipping it into one of my notebooks.

"So," I jump in my seat as Finn's voice rings beside me after Miss Carol left.

"What do you want, Finn?" I roll my eyes. I try to ignore the roar of my pulse, deciding that it was only because I was surprised by his voice.

"Why so grumpy?" he asks, and I could almost hear that hint of concern in his voice but I brush it off.

"None of your business," I say.

"Trouble in paradise?" He smirks.

I groan, "Yes okay, and so what? It happens. Couples fight."

"Woah, woah," he says, raising his hands in surrender, "Calm down, Regan,"

"You're annoying,"

"Tell me something I don't know," he smiles smugly.

I hate you because I might still love you and I'm afraid I'll ruin the best thing that ever happened to me since you left.

I roll my eyes at him instead.

"With the amount of eye rolling you do, I'm surprised your eyes are still intact," he says.

"Funny," I laugh humorlessly.

"I wasn't trying to be funny,"

"You're infuriating,"

"Right back at you,"

"What! What does that even mean?" I exclaim, frustrated by the fact that Reid is avoiding me and Finn isn't.

He chuckles, "You're still so easily worked up,"

That shut me up. What is it with him and speaking indirectly about the past? Our past, in particular.

"Which reminds me," he says, "I have something to show you,"

I stare at him as he takes out his phone, sliding it open before showing me a photo.

A photo of a girl, specifically.

I ignore the sinking feeling in my chest.

"Isn't she stunning?" he asks.

Alright Finn, two can play at this game.

"Yup," I grin "Smokin'"

"And she's really sweet. I'm her first ever boyfriend," he grins with pride.

"Must be exciting," I say.

"Sure is," he says through gritted teeth.

"Firsts are always exciting," I tell him, "They introduce you to these new amazing firsts: kisses, dates, heartbreaks..."

He squirms in his seat, chuckling softly, "Yeah,"

"I mean, heartbreaks aren't amazing, but you know, you don't know," I say.

He scoffs, "I unfortunately do, contrary to your belief,"

I shake my head.

"Everything's perfect and the next thing you know, they slip off your fingertips, telling you it's over and you're just left with a hole in your chest," he says, looking at me but not really. He's reminiscing.

"You left, Finn," I say again, just like before.

"But that didn't mean I was letting you go, Regan, damn it!" he fires. 

"Then why did you even leave in the first place?!" I fire back. Everyone else in the room was engaged in their own conversations and it was loud enough to eat our voices.

"I-" he starts, but decided against it, shaking his head, chuckling.

I stare at him until I join him, and soon, we were laughing together again.