Pride of the 90's

Chapter 4

The three of us worked at the kitchen table, since I don't like new people in my room and if I know Haley, she's gonna get distracted by the TV in my room. I had a VCR and Haley's family didn't, so whenever she came over, she would almost always have something from Blockbuster, mostly because I only owned two movies: Jurassic Park and Batman, and Batman barely worked since I'd watched it so much I practically burned a hole in the film. She did the same to A Goofy Movie.

I'd go to a Power Line concert.

I could make a VCR, but I can't fix a radio? I mean, I could fix it any other time, but I never thought I would mess up that badly. Maybe Brandon's just a bad luck charm for me. The entire time I was working on it, I kept thinking about how this partnership was going to go. I'm usually pretty okay about working with people, but I just kept thinking about him, like he's my new hyper fixation. Like I need him to like me or something.

As we worked through the night, stuffing our faces and trying to talk about the project (key word, trying), it was a mostly quiet night. Brandon wouldn't take his stupid headphones off because he said music helped him think, so I just let him do whatever. As long as I'm not doing the work of three, I don't care what he does. I almost got stuck doing Haley's work as it is. That didn't get far though when I withheld food from her.

It was so loud, though, that I kept trying to passive aggressively get his attention by glancing over at him, but he wasn't paying attention. I wouldn't even care if it wasn't so aggressive. I mean, this is the same guy that comes in everyday looking grungey with patches all over his backpack, so it makes sense. Still, I get it's part of his troubled loner who doesn't care what the world thinks about him and sinks himself into his emotions with music act, but still.

Haley didn't mind, so I couldn't get her to say anything and I didn't want to speak up and start another argument. If he wasn't so stubborn, there wouldn't have been one in the first place. But here I am, carefully watching him to get his attention. Stuck looking at his dumb face that looks dumb, even though his long hair is covering half his face since he's looking down, which does look good on him, so I'll give him that.

Huh. She's right, he does bite is lip when he's thinking. His eyes are also a lot brighter than I thought, too. Like, really bright. Almost turquoise. I noticed he has freckles around his nose, too. He has slightly darker skin than mine, too, since he's half-Mexican, so that's a little odd, but still kind of cu-

"What?!" Brandon yelled, taking off his headphones and staring me down.
"What?" I asked. The hell?
"Why do you keep staring at me?"
"What? I'm not staring at you. Right, Haley?" She slowly went under the table, trying to pretend she wasn't here. I wasn't staring at him. Just watching him.

The tension around us just keeps getting thicker and thicker.

"Well, If I was, which I totally was not, it was probably because I was distracted because you won't turn your music down."
"Then just say so next time," He said, turning the music off. "Happy?"
"Thank you."
"Can I come back up now?"
"Nobody made you-...okay."

She was trying so hard to make us get along and I have no idea why. I mean, is she trying to get me to make new friends or something? I know she doesn't like me hanging out with Mason and them, but at least try for someone who's not a total dick. I know I'm not much better, but still. I'm not the one throwing shit at him or calling him a fag and I just as easily could. Well, I did today, but that's different. It was his fault.

"You know, I am actually trying. To be nice to you, I mean."
"Yeah, and I'm not interested. I'm just here to work and leave."
"Oh, my god, will you two just kiss already?" Sarah yelled from the living room. "I can feel the sexual tension from here."
"This doesn't concern you, She-Thing!"