A Friendly Experiment

Last Minute

BELLEN:

I looked across the room and sighed.  It was my last night in this room and I had made little progress with Teneson.  Sure we'd talked, even joked, but we hadn't gotten to the point that I wanted.  By the time the three weeks were done, I'd planned to be life long friends with him.  Then again, you really can't plan friendships.  I wish you could, though; it'd make my life a heck of a lot easier that's for sure. 

Still, no matter what I did, he didn't want to be my friend.  I tried being nice, positive, even uplifting, but he absolutely hated that.  It's not like a tried to be mean and brooding like him, because that's physically impossible.  So I tried calming down and not talking to him as much, which I think he liked.  However, I hated not talking to him, even though he'd ignore me.

The rest is history.  Now, we're just somewhat silent.  He acknowledges me sometimes, talks to me every once in a while.  It's worse this way though.  At least when he was ignoring me when I was being a total pain, I knew he was trying hard to ignore me, which meant he was thinking hard about me.  It sounds dumb and childish, but it's nice to think that someone is thinking about you.  I was dumb to think I'd make any progress that way though.  I wish we could go back, but we can't, so I just sit here staring at him.

I looked at the clock.  It was 10:13.  I wanted to cry.  In less than 12 hours, it'd all be over and I'd have to go back to my stupid house, tolerate my stupid parents, and get ready for stupid college.  At least I'd be free in a couple weeks.  At least I could forget about this whole thing and start all over, with people who will hopefully do more than just tolerate me.  I looked back up at him.  He was sitting in his blankets, reading one of his covered books.  It made me so upset that he didn't care.  At this point I decided it'd be useless to say anything to him, but I figured I should try one last time.

"Are we really just going to sit here?" I asked angrily.  My tone must've caught him offguard, because he looked up to me and scrunched his eyebrows together.

"What else would you suggest?" He tempted, looking back down at his book.

"Talking." I suggested.  There was no response. "You could at least explain to me why you hate me so much!"  He looked up and just stared. "Or at least stop just staring!  You could tell me something?  Couldn't you?" I realized that I was now yelling.  I bet my face was turning awfully red too (it was the Irish in me). "Or is it humanly impossible for you to be civil to me?  Or civil to anyone?  No wonder people say all that horrible stuff about you, because you don't take the time to correct them or even talked to them!  Do you talk to anyone?  Tell anyone anything?"  He looked down at his book and instead of continuing to read he took off the sleeve and revealed a Captain America comic book.

"I like comics." He said. 

I didn't care what I looked like, but I'm pretty sure my jaw was straight open and my eyes were as wide as a semi.  There was a rush of anger in me.  Out of all the things he could've said, he had to say that.  The reason I was angry at him saying that was because it was stupidly cute.  I didn't want to think he was cute right now, I wanted to be upset.  I wanted him to yell at me, so I could yell back.

"That's what you have to say?  You think that's letting me it?" I asked him aggressively.

"Why would I let you in?" He shouted, throwing down the comic. "Why would I let some vapid girl into my life, huh?  Why would I be real with someone who's not real with me?"

"I am real with you!" I yelled.

"Bullshit, Bellen!" He said standing up and pacing around. "Maybe right now you are, but never before.  You're always fucking prancing around with your fake persona!"