Don't Get Me Wrong (Middle of Revamping)

Chapter 8: Old Friends, Part 1

"No way! That actually happened?" I exclaim as Arjun and I sit together at the back of the temple, talking about everything that happened with us. Right now, he's telling me about this girl who has a major crush on him, and she somehow convinced his entire soccer team that he's dating this girl. But he doesn't like her like that apparently, and now he doesn't know what to do.

"I hate it so much. Most of my team thinks I'm lying, and I never get a chance to talk to her about the situation. And I know she's my friend and all, but what she's doing is wrong!" he rants to me as I stay silent, just listening to him vent about his situation.

"Come on, Juny. You need to tell her once and for all that you're not into her, and maybe she'll stop," I finally break my silence since this was the most obvious thing to do.

"I know, but I'm kinda scared. I've known her since freshman year, I don't want to be too blunt and hurt her feelings," he admits, causing me to facepalm. He's always been a softie, anyway.

"Junie boy." Okay, that sounded better in my head.

"You never called me that." I roll my eyes and turn myself around so I can make direct eye contact with him.

"Listen to me. The more you avoid this, the worse damage it causes. You're both in the wrong; you're leading her on by not being honest and spitting out that 'you don't like her', and she's not a real friend by lying to your friends and your team. I get you're close with her, but you need to clear it up by just spitting it out," I advise, causing him to form a sly smile on his face.

"You're so hot when you're angry," he teased, and I lightly slap his arm when he starts laughing at me.

Okay, before anybody assumes anything, let me just clear one thing up. I do NOT like Arjun, and he does NOT like me. Arjun is my best guy friend, a brother from another mother. We kinda had some things... happen between us.

Arjun Sripada is our childhood best friend, and he's the oldest in our little group. Neil, Deepa, Vinnie, Arjun, Vihaan, my cousin Sam and I grew up together. Except for Sam, we all lived in the same neighborhood, so we were pretty tight. But around 4 years ago, he moved to a different part of Dallas after his mom became a Regional Manager of a popular Indian restaurant chain, and they had to move locations so that she could be closer to headquarters.

I remember how sad he was about moving away; he was in eighth grade and about to start high school with his best friends, only to find out that he was moving far away from them. It even got to the point where he said that he could stay with Neil and Deepa temporarily just so that he wouldn't have to move schools. But eventually, he decided to give this move the benefit of the doubt. So now, although he's a senior in high school just like Neil, Deepa, and Kat, he now goes to another school in our school district called Blue Ridge High School.

It all worked out though because now he's doing amazing there! He's not only an amazing soccer player on Blue's Varsity team, but he's also in their highest orchestra, DECA, BPA, NHS, NAHS, MAθ, and Independent Study. And not to mention, he's ranked #4 out of 595 students. Blue Ridge is an extremely competitive school, but I'm not surprised that someone as intelligent and organized as him could flourish there.

So yeah! I'm super proud of him. But even with all his accolades, he's still the sweetest and most humble guy I know. He has a good head on his shoulders, and he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Overall, he deserves all the good that comes to him.

Even though Arjun moved away, we're still really close. He comes to every dinner party and festival we do ( and vice versa), we're in a giant group chat, and we go to each other's high school events. But I'm guessing he got a new phone or something because we haven't heard from him these past couple of weeks.