"Just Friends"

Chapter 4

SAM

The day was warm, the sun shining on our faces, leaving heated spots on our skin.
We were sitting in the bleachers.
Evan was eyes deep in Julie's soccer game, his arms leaning on his knees. Hailey laid down on the bleacher on top of us using my backpack as a pillow, reading a book.

"Doesn't she look amazing?" Evan suddenly said.
"What?" I replied confused. At first, I didn't know what he meant, but when I looked back at him and saw an impressive smile on his lips, I realized he was talking about Julie.
"Oh, yeah," I choked. "I don't know, I-" I let out a jittery giggle. "I don't like girls," I tried to play it cool. Failed tremendously.

My words sounded fake. Fake as in reading a poem I learned by heart in class. You know the words, you just don't believe in them. They left me with a weird copper-like aftertaste.
I could feel Hailey's amused stare on my neck. I readjusted myself on the bleacher, which now felt eerily uncomfortable.

"No, but- just look at her," Evan went on, not even noticing my unease. His sight was set on Julie, and he had this amazing smile that spoke for itself.
I did as commanded. I looked at her. And I understood why he was smiling like that.
She looked astonishing. Crop top and short; a flat, tanned stomach showing off. Her hair flew with the wind as she run to catch the ball.

"Why does she look so fucking beautiful playing soccer? Who does that?" he cried out, as if he was annoyed by how perfect she could be. I agreed. It wasn't natural.

She ran with the ball in between her feet and pushed it into the court. The ball passed through the goalie's two hands in the air and scored the goal. The team ran to her cheering whilst Evan stood up and yelled at the top of his lungs: "That's my girlfriend!"

The word rang in my head. Girlfriend. His girlfriend.
You're not supposed to look at your friend's girlfriend like that. Don't be an ass, Sam.

He ran to her, held her face, and kissed her. Julie smiled at him, both startled and pleased.
I bit my lip and turned around, escaping from the dark reality I was facing.
I saw Hailey stand up and come to me.

"So you're still lying to yourself, huh?" she said with an amused grin.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I lied with a smirk on my face whilst we went back inside. The bell rang on our way to the cafeteria.
"Yeah, right," she scoffed. "You're seriously gonna tell me," we stood in line, "that you still haven't realized you're into Julie?" I rolled my eyes as we moved forward up in the line. "I don't know- I don't like girls," she made fun of me.
I punched her in the shoulder and mumbled: "Jerk".

We got to the end of the line and grabbed our trays. As we picked up our food I admitted she might have a point, something I had been thinking about for a couple of days now.
"Okay, maybe" I enlarged the words, trying to give it off as more of a point of view rather than a fact, "I am, a tiny, little bit," I lowered my voice, "into Julie."
"Okay," she simply said, which sent me off the tracks; since I was really expecting her to start jumping around or something.
"Brat Pitt ain't cute," she dropped out of nowhere, having me laugh.
"What?"
"What?" she shrug her shoulders, "I thought we were telling lies." A devil grin showed up on her face. I rolled my eyes, chuckling. We sat at the closest table.

"Sometimes you're a real pain in the ass," I told her.
"What I do best," she struck a vow, smiling.
"It was not a compliment," I grabbed my burger and gave it a bite.
"I hear what I want to hear," she mumbled, placing the straw on her Coke can.
"I just think that the sooner you admit you're a little bit gay, the better," she said, not even bothering to lower her voice.
I rolled my eyes. Insistent much?

"Look, I get it. It's weird, it's new. And the fact that she's your best friend ain't exactly helping. I'm not saying it's a good thing. But it is a thing, and the least you can do is acknowledge it."
I shrug my shoulders, "I don't know, maybe I'm just bi-curious or something."
"You realize how stupid that sounds, right?" I did. It's just that it's weird. You can't just go from straight as can be, to a little bit gay in a week.
I rolled my eyes, feeling the same uneasiness I did at the field.
"Okay, we can talk about something else," she said, giving me a sweet smile.
"You know what, Hailey? I like you. You're cool. With that hair and that vibe," she chuckled.
I liked how I could talk to her about stuff I didn't really talk to anyone about. Every day with her I discovered something new about myself, like the other day I discovered I could jump from my roof onto my pool, and come out alive.
"Well, I like you too. Even if you pretend to be straight when you're not," she gave me a playful smirk, and I mirrored it.