Love Is a Losing Game // Joel Pimentel

32 | Lying

Chapter Thirty-Two

Joel's POV

"Hey," I greet as I plop down at our table. Blu smiles at me as a reply and she continues to fiddle around with her pen. Today she had the ribbon I had so carelessly ripped and then repaired, with a white tee and light blue jeans. Her gray zip up was zipped halfway and she had on white Vans.

"What's up?" she asks politely.

"Nothing much," I breathe out.

Except that was a complete lie, everything was up. Yoandri had found me this morning and told me to back off from Blu, threatening to break a body part of mine if I didn't. He also told me that he would be asking her to be his at winter ball and if I intruded in anyway shape or form, I would no longer be a friend worth keeping around.

My first thought was, We're still friends?

And my second thought was, Blu has already chosen you.

Of course, I don't think he knew that because if he did, he wouldn't be trying this hard to make me stay away.

We all look up as the teacher walks in. "Okay, this is it. The week before presentations. Make me proud," my teacher beams. I chuckle at his enthusiasm and he lets us split up to practice. Blu pulls out her flash cards and I slip my laptop out to pull up the powerpoint.

We begin to go over the slides but not before Yoandri comes over and distracts Blu for a couple of minutes. I try not to read to much into her facial expression but somehow feel that she was slightly ticked off they he was preventing her from doing her work.

"Hey, sorry, but Joel and I need to practice," she says softly enough for him to hear.

He gives his lips a small tug upwards, before nodding and glancing at me, his eyes sending me over one last warning before he walks away.

"Sorry about that, where were we?" she asks as she returns her attention to the task at hand. I smile and flip to the next slide, taking the time to run through it correctly.

When we finish we have about 15 minutes left so we just talk about stuff and catch up.

"How's your dad?" she asks with a curious expression.

I shrug and avert my gaze, "He's alright. Busy."

She nods then stays quiet for a second or two before taking a breath which captures my attention. Our eyes meet and she releases the thought that was running through her mind.

"Wanna hang out on Friday?"

***

By the time school is over and I'm entering my home, I've had my fill of Yoandri and Blu's situationship—they now have me at the brink of total emotional collapse. All day they had been expressive of their feelings and how much they like each other; They held hands, kissed cheeks, and walked to classes together.

Somehow, I still got an odd vibe from how she acted around him. To make it all more confusing, she asked me to hang out on Friday which was approximately two days away.

Maybe, I'm just doing some wishful thinking.

I groan and shut my bedroom door behind me, flopping onto my mattress straight after. In the silence of my room I try to erase all of the wanting and desire I had for Blu's smile, her kisses, and the way her eyes looked at me with a tenderness they always seemed to hold.

My body runs hot and I know that my wish has become futile; I'm still hers even though she isn't mine and no matter how many times I say I'm over her.

I'm just lying to myself.

____________________________________

a/n

bUT IM LYINGGG WHEN I TALK TO YOUUU CUZ YOURE LYINGGGG NEXT TO SOMEONE NEWWW