Xavier is a nobody in school. He barely scrapes through his exams, no one takes notice of him in orchestra, and even his best friend is an over-achiever.
Diana has got it all. Popularity, grades, looks. The perfect girl. They belonged in different...
"Hey X, hurry up, you're late!" George flailed her arms in the air from a bicycle kiosk in the distance to get my attention.
Today was our monthly meet-up day at Crestbridge Park; Jon, George, Aus and I. We usually did activities like cycling or roller-blading. No, I didn't have much athletic talent, it was mostly the three of them, two football captains and a badminton captain showing off their skills. Don't even get me started on the first time I tried cycling; Jon was a patient guy, yet he also left me to my own devices after I failed to even start the bicycle after two hours straight.
"I'm not that late, Jon's not even here yet," I stated matter-of-factly, not bothering to quicken my pace.
"You guys are horrible, your punctuality would have been a deal breaker if this were a date," George piped.
"If X even manages to get a date," Aus burned me without a second thought. "Out of the three of us I bet X has the highest chance of ending up forever alone."
Typical Austin, blunt as ever. Yet despite his usual insensitive comments, I somehow thought that he had something on his mind.
"So Aus, what were you up to last night?" I threw him a suggestive smirk. "You look awfully tired."
"It's nothing of that sort you perv, it's just the exam results. I'm afraid this might be the last time we will be hanging out as a group. I might have to repeat junior year considering how badly I flung my paper," he admitted dejectedly.
"So what, you gonna get new friends to replace us?" George accused.
"Yeah, and remind me not to find bad company like you guys."
I pretended to wince at his snide remark before giving him a deserving hard slap on the back.
"Hey Jon's here," George proceeded to grab his attention.
If Aus looked like his didn't sleep for two days, Jon looked like he hadn't grabbed a shuteye in a whole week.
"Jon, are you alright? You barely look alive," George spoke my mind.
"Yeah, I'd just been thinking quite a bit these two days, y'know with all that's happening..."
George interrupted, "Jon, are you sure you want to continue our cycling plans for today? I haven't got any insurance coverage for you if you were to crash." And I thought George was genuinely concerned for a moment.
"Challenge accepted. Race you to the end of Crestbridge park," Jon scrambled off to get his rental bicycle.
---
"Georgie stop being weak! I'm practically owning you every round!" Jon called out with an arrogant smirk.
George scowled. "Stop kicking me while I'm down! Why don't you go challenge X?"
"Forget it, I'll race you instead. X probably can't even keep up with George," Aus volunteered before speeding away with Jon down the track.
Well, I couldn't help it that no one got that much satisfaction from beating me in a bicycle race.
George and I started cycling in silence together. "X, do you think Jon will be okay? Especially after what's happened to Diana?" she asked suddenly.
"Don't worry, he will be just fine. I guess we are all shocked and need some time, Jon included," I replied, mentally calculating the number of laps needed to tire the two guys out sufficiently.
"But Diana's the only girl I've seen Jon be so serious about, the only girl he'd put so much effort in speaking to. I even practised his lines with him for his first conversation with Diana."
"Don't worry George, Austin and I are concerned about Jon too. He probably just needs some time."
"Time. Yes, time, he needs more time," George muttered so softly I almost couldn't hear her.
A/N: I think I put a little of myself into X in this chapter ._. I'm hopeless at sports and the one thing that I can do is cycling. And even so, I only cycle leisurely, I can't keep up with those friends who decide to race each other on their bikes :(
And a 'forever alone' meme, if I'm not a few years too late ._.
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