Love is a Losing Game

The Bet

"Jesus Christ, El," my best friend, Ashley Maldonado, blasphemed as she set the school newspaper down on the table in front of her. Running a hand through her long, raven colored hair, she kept her brown eyes trained on the words glaring up at her. With a heavy sigh, she shifts her attention to me and smiles sadly. "That was a little harsh, don't you think?"

"No," I answer instantly, not missing a beat. "I think I hit the nail on the head. Love sucks and people should know that."

Ashley opened her mouth to say something but quickly thought better of it. She gave another sigh and turned away from me, gazing out the window as she watched some students cool down after their gym class. The boys were messing around, tossing a football between them while the girls were stood in a circle, chatting and trying to get the boys' attention. I noticed Missy Logan, in her tiny crop top and non-existent shorts, sending flirty glances in Joshua Archer's direction, but he hardly noticed. Or if he did, he wasn't reciprocating in the slightest.

Joshua Archer is Mercer Prep's biggest and most notorious player. There were only a handful of girls from our senior class that he hadn't slept with, a statistic that Joshua was more than proud of. He regarded it as a badge of honor but the worst thing was, the girls didn't seem ashamed about having slept with him. I wouldn't be surprised if the girls served themselves to him on a platter. Honestly, you'd have to be seriously lacking in standards to go there with Joshua Archer. My skin crawled just thinking about it.

"God, that boy is sex on legs," Ashley comments, licking her lips as Joshua pulls his shirt over his head to reveal his perfectly toned chest. With an audience watching him, he knew exactly what he was doing by flaunting himself like that. Unfortunately, some girls, like my best friend here, were lapping it all up, swooning over him like deranged fangirls. "What I would give to run my tongue over his six pack."

I roll my eyes and stand when the class bell rings, heading for the door and out into the hallway. I was thankful that it was finally lunch because my stomach was grumbling from boredom and if I didn't eat soon, my insides may just decide to snack on themselves.

Of course, now that most of the students were out of their classes, I couldn't help but notice some were giving me withering looks. It amused me that they were the ones who were standing with their boyfriends or girlfriends, school newspaper in hand. Not caring enough to give them a second glance, I continue towards my locker and spin in the code, pulling the door open and placing my backpack inside. Ashley, who had finally snapped out of her Joshua Archer induced daydream, met me at the door to the cafeteria along with my other best friend, Mariam Esfandiari.

"I bow down to you, love-hating friend" Mariam sarcastically greeted me. Looping her arm through mine, Mariam ignores Ashley's indignant glare and guides me into the cafeteria. "All the girls in my class want to kill you by the way."

I scoff. "Mission in life complete, then."

While Ashley ordered her usual Caesar salad and Mariam argued with the cook about the lack of halal food, I piled my tray up with a large slice of pizza, a chocolate brownie, and a strawberry milkshake. Seeing Ashley's look of disapproval, I reach out for an apple in the interest of making my lunch a more balanced one, something that made Mariam snort unattractively.

Once Mariam had settled on joining Ashley in ordering a salad, we all paid and started to make our way through the drab cafeteria to our usual table. When someone jumped out in front of me and knocked my tray to the floor, I watched in horror as my pizza landed face down and my brownie soaks up some of the milkshake.

The anger at losing my lunch rapidly bubbled inside me. I tried to calm myself down by counting to ten but I only got as far as three before my eyes landed on the person in front of me. I groan as I see Jess Tomlinson smirk at me, almost challenging me to retaliate. I wrote an article about Jess and her cheerleading squad in one of last year's newspaper edition and ever since then, Jess has made it her mission to get me riled up. Everyone knows I have anger issues, to the point that my parents are convinced that one day I'll get kicked out of school for instigating a fight, but I know better than to go up against Mercer's Queen Bee.