Weathered Love

IVAN

"What did you get?" Caleb asked. We were approaching Christmas break, but that didn't stop our teachers from giving us exams and assignments right before we were supposed to go on break.

"Nuh uh!" I said, quickly stuffing my paper into my bag. He always did this. Asked about my score, then pretended to be mad that I got a better grade than him. It wasn't even that he wasn't smart, I was just better at school than he was. But not that much better. I usually only beat him by a mark or two.

Caleb managed to get a hold of the paper and when I made a grab for it, he held it out of my reach. I tried to jump for it, but he was extremely tall. I tried to jump for it again, but Caleb held his other arm out, restraining me by me shoulder and further preventing me from reaching the sheet.

"Don't jump too hard, we'd hate for the school to collapse," Aria teased as she was walking by.

"Oh shut up Aria," I said. "Is your life so pathetic that you sit around waiting for an opportunity to make fun of me? Yes, I'm fat. Get over it!" I said. Caleb looked at me wide-eyed, as did Aria and Crystal for a moment. I shocked even myself. Did that really come out of my mouth?

To save face, Aria turned her attention to Caleb. "I hope I'll see you at my Christmas Party," she stated.

Caleb turned to me. "Are you going?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I didn't merit an invitation." I seriously needed to read some more modern literature so I didn't come off like someone from the early 1900s. Caleb smirked though.

I think he liked that I didn't use the same vocabulary as the rest of our classmates. He said it challenged him to speak properly. And it made me sound smart. I thought I sounded pretentious, but I liked coming off pretentious. I needed to have an ego of some sort.

I took his moment of distraction and managed to snatch the paper out of his lowered hand.

"Well, I guess that answers your question," he said, turning to Aria. "I'm not going," he finally concluded as she stood there waiting for a definite answer.

"Ivy can come," she continued. I could see her suppress some bile, making me laugh to myself in disbelief.

"I don't want to," I jumped in. "You can go Caleb, I don't care. That's just not my scene."

Caleb shrugged. "It's not really my scene either." He turned to Aria. "Later," he continued. We both walked away and headed over to the lunchroom.

"You didn't have to do that," I said to him. "I'm used to Aria. You should go to the party if you want to go."

"I wasn't lying when I said it's not my scene. I like hanging out with people I like. Aria's not a person I like."

"She's a person everyone likes," I said bitterly. "Or at least, that everyone wants to have like her."

"Not me," Caleb continued after shrugging off my comment. "What's her issue with you anyway?" he asked.

"I don't know. She's hated me since first grade when she moved here. I only had 5 blissful years of peace in my life," I continued with dramatic melancholy. I took any opportunity to practice my acting skills that I could.

"She's been doing this since first grade?" Caleb nearly yelled. "You'd think she'd get a new hobby." He started seething.

"Don't get yourself worked up over it. I'll tell you a little secret. I'm not actually fat, all this is just thick skin," I joked.

"Ivy, you're not fat. I don't know why you keep saying that," Caleb scolded.

I was starting to get angry. "Don't," I warned. "I'm very self aware, I know where my beauty lies and where it doesn't. I know my strengths and weaknesses. Don't lie to my face. That's just insulting." I walked ahead of him, angrier at him than at Aria. At least Aria didn't give me a false sense of security.