The Epitome of Me

Chapter Five: Didn't Your Mother Ever Tell You . . ?

I was jolted awake by someone shaking me. I opened my eyes to see a frantic Elgin gripping my shoulders. "Oh my God, are you okay, Jamie?" He asked, scanning my body for any injuries. All I could do was blink at him in confusion.

"What time is it?" How long had I been sleeping? It felt like one minute I was talking to Elgin on the phone and the next he was right in front of me.

"2:30. I went home during my spare and you weren't there. I thought something bad had happened to you." His eyes were shining and he pulled me to his chest. "I was so worried, J."

"Sorry. After everything that happened I was just so stressed." I looked away guiltily. I never meant to worry him.

"That's alright, little leech, I get it." Elgin smiled, plopping down beside me on the bench. "Hey, now that I'm here, tell me what happened."

I sighed. I really didn't want to, but I knew Elgin would stop at nothing to get the information out of me. "My parents dropped me off at school this morning and Alex was standing by the dumpster vaping."

Elgin chuckled, "Of course, tell me something I couldn't figure out just by looking at her." His eyes rolled back into his head and he waved his hand as if he was waving the information away.

"Yeah, that's what I said." I laughed, but soon my face fell. "But then, out of completely nowhere, she just ran away."

"Well, what happened before that?" Elgin asked, looking confused.

"I had just told her that I was gay ... Well, unintentionally anyway." He gasped, but I put my hands up in defence. "No, she wasn't homophobic or anything, she even went along with it. I don't know what happened, maybe she just got scared." That's probably exactly what happened, now that I was thinking about it. Alex was almost flirty, and then boom she was gone. She was likely still in the closet, just as I was, and panicked because she outed herself right back at me.

"What exactly did you say?" He probably thought that I had confessed my undying love for her, for God's sake. I was an idiot for not elaborating. I was just trying to figure it out inside my head.

"She asked who the hottest person in our grade was and I panicked and said Anastasia was pretty cute," I said glumly, resting my chin in my hand. "She said sure, but Shawna was the hottest girl by far."

"Well, I think it's safe to say that she's at least a little," Elgin flicked his wrist down with a grin. He leaned into me and added, "I don't know anyone who would say something like that if they weren't."

I looked up at him hopefully, "You really think so?" He nodded. I was so relieved. My thinking was on the right track. I needed to be sure somehow, but I would have to figure that out on Monday.

We made our way back to Elgin's house and his mom greeted us as we walked in. "Hey, you two! Did you have a good day at school?" We nodded and exchanged pleasantries. I made up a fake story about something that could have happened in Drama class and Mrs. Pyre laughed. Why was it getting so easy for me to lie? I wasn't happy about that.

A few hours later, Elgin and I were sitting in his room watching a movie when the phone rang. We didn't think much of it until his mom called up the stairs a moment later. "Elgin! The phone's for you." He gave me a weird look but stood up.

"Who is it?" He called back, his hand hovering over his retro desk phone. It was one that looked like a football. I think it used to be his dad's because Elgin would never buy anything sports-related.

"Some girl, I think she said her name was Alice?" Alex. Alex was calling Elgin's house. Why was Alex calling Elgin's house? He whipped the phone up to his ear and nonchalantly answered.