My Solution (Jelix)

Chapter 4

*Jack's POV*

I was so fucking stupid. Sure, Jack, obsess over video games with the captain of the football team. That sounds like a great idea.

He was probably judging me the whole time,  thinking of how lame I sounded. Then he was probably going to text his jock friends and laugh at how much of a loser I was. At least he had the decency to be polite to my face; most of the assholes in this school would've shut me down the second I started talking.

Sighing, I listened to the quiet click of my sneakers against the sidewalk on my way home. The wind gently blew through my hair and shook the leaves of the tall oak trees around me. The surrounding sky was a beautiful gradient of soft pinks and bold oranges and baby blues.

I made my way up the creaky wooden stairs of my front porch and pulled my keychain out of my pocket, flipping through the keys until I found the right one. I slid the key into the lock and turned it to the right, producing a loud clicking sound before I pushed the door front door open.

"Hey Sean," my mother called from the kitchen. She was the only one who called me by my real name.

"Hi Mom," I made my way towards her.

"So," she pulled me into a tight hug,"how was your day?"

"It was alright."

"How did the tutoring go?" She released her grip on me and returned to the oven,  stirring a pot full of noodles with a wooden spoon.

"It went well. He seemed to understand it better after I explained it to him," I shrugged.

"Well of course, he had the best teacher," she bragged.

"Mom," I groaned playfully.

"Okay, okay. I'll quit being that mom. Now go get your homework done, because dinner will be ready in about an hour."

I made my way back through the living room and passed by some of my siblings on my way up the stairs. When I finally got to my room I closed the door behind me before throwing my backpack on the floor and collapsing on the bed.  I grabbed a pair of earbuds from my bedside table and plugged them into my phone. Within seconds heavy metal music was blaring into my ears and I nodded my head along to the beat.

I laid on the green comforter,  staring blankly at the ceiling above me as my mind wandered. I couldn't help my thoughts from revolving around Felix. What if he wasn't just putting on an act? What if he truly was being nice and enjoying my company?

No. As cliche as it sounded, guys like Felix Kjellberg didn't hang out with guys like me. Guys like Felix Kjellberg hung out with guys like Chris McKnight who picked on guys like me. It was sad, but it was reality. It didn't matter how much I was crushing on him; I was worthless to him.

But how did he know about Tibia? It wasn't exactly a very popular game. Maybe he wasn't lying about everything. But that didn't matter.  No amount of gaming could change the fact that we were worlds, if not galaxies, apart. I was just a math tutor to him: nothing more and nothing less. He would get his decent grades and then he would never talk to me again.

I inhaled slowly as my fists clenched into balls beside me. It wasn't fair.  Why were guys like Felix and Chris able to have a good high school experience? Because they could throw a ball around a field they magically got treated better than everyone else? But people like me, the shy and the nonathletic and the academic people, got shoved into the dirt both literally and figuratively.

I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't bring myself to it. I knew it was just an act; I knew he didn't really want to be my friend, let alone anything more than that. But I was just naive enough to think that maybe, just maybe, I had some sort of chance.  I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up, but damn was I head over heels for that boy.