The Epitome of Me

Chapter Thirteen: Call Me Maybe?

When we got home, Elgin was raving. "Oh my god, leech! That was so much fun. How come we've never been roller skating before? And Ben. Oh. My. Lord. That boy. I can't." He started fanning his face and I burst out laughing. Eventually, he learned how to skate without Ben's arms around him, but he kept faking clumsiness to keep him close. It was hilarious to watch.

"I'm glad you had fun. Do you think you'd go out with him again?" He vigorously nodded and I laughed again. "And you were gonna stay home ..." I shoved him lightly and he blushed.

"Listen," he argued. "You didn't exactly give me a good impression of the guy. He totally exceeded my expectations." I rolled my eyes and shoved him again. It was true though. I didn't really know anything about Ben other than the few things that Alex had told me and the incident at the mall. That wasn't enough to give him a good rep.

"I didn't have a lot of intel. I was running on blind faith." Elgin chuckled and slung his arm around me.

"Thank you, Jamie." We sat there silent for a while, just soaking in the memories of the night; until we were interrupted by Elgin's ringtone.

"Hello?" he answered, looking at me curiously. "Oh hi, Ben ..." My mouth fell open. Speak of the devil! "Yeah, I had a good time too." Elgin smiled. I shimmied my shoulders at him and wiggled my eyebrows. "I'd like that." His face turned red and he nodded into the receiver. "Yeah, see you then, B. Bye."

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!" I screamed, grabbing Elgin's shoulders and shaking him.

"That was Ben," Elgin said, still smiling. No duh!

"Mhmm," I smirked. "What did he want?" I tried my hardest to hold my composure, but I'm sure that the excitement in my voice was evident.

"He wanted to know if I wanted to go out with him again tomorrow. You know, without you and Alex around." I squealed and hugged him tightly.

"I'm so happy for you El!" It was like all the planets were aligning. We were both in budding romances and life was moving on the up and up again. It was about damn time if you ask me. Elgin and I had been in a bit of a slump since the beginning of high school. This was just the change we needed. Plus, now Elgin would be a part of Alex's friend group by association. That meant that I wouldn't have to leave him out if she wanted to hang out with them. It was a win-win-win situation.

I went home that night feeling like I was floating. My dad took one look at me and raised his eyebrows knowingly. "I take it your date went well?" He smirked. Before I could answer, my mom ran into the room out of nowhere and stared at me intently.

"Yes, it did." I giggled, shaking my head at my mom. "You guys are so weird." I had never seen my parents so excited or happy. It was kind of scary.

"I'm just so proud that you and Elgin are growing up. Remember when they were just this big?" My mom asked, looking at my dad and raising her hand halfway up her chest.

"Elgin was never that small, mom." I snorted. "Can I go to bed now?" She made an exasperated sigh but moved aside.

"Goodnight, sweetie." I ran away before she could change her mind.

That Monday morning, I was standing at my locker when Alex came up behind me and started ranting. "Ugh! My mom tried to get me to go to church with her yesterday. I haven't gone to church since I started dying my hair purple. They would have totally thrown me out."

I turned to look at her with an eyebrow raised. "Aren't churches more laid back this century?" The look on her face told me that, clearly, I was way off. I wasn't the one to know. I hadn't gone to church since I was about four years old.

"Maybe most churches, but not the one my mom goes to. If they found out that I was gay I'd probably be stoned—and not the good kind. They don't even like when women wear pants." Alex's brow furrowed. That didn't sound fun. I couldn't imagine my parents trying to drag me to a place like that.

"I'm sorry, Alex. That sucks. I wish there was something I could do." I gave her a peck on the cheek as the first bell sounded. "I'll see you at lunch?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you back here." She twitched her mouth into a half smile and headed towards her class. I made it to English as the second bell rang and thanked God that I wasn't late.

"Et tu, Bruté?" Ms. Eiswalt asked the class. We, of course, sat there staring at her in silence. This apparently made her irritated and she rolled her eyes. "Today we'll be talking about the death of Caesar. As you must know by now, if the title of a Shakespeare play has the name of the main character in it, we can assume they will die at some point before the end. For example Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Julius Caesar." She turned and stared down her nose at me and I gulped. "Jamie, who is your best friend?"

I recoiled into my seat. Why me? "Uh, Elgin Pyre," I mumbled, praying she'd move on to another student.

"Okay! Imagine that Elgin has a group of friends that really don't like you. So much so that they want him to destroy you, because he's so close with you. You trust Elgin completely. Well one day, he stabs you in the back. 'Even you, Elgin?' you ask as you realize what's happened. That's exactly what happened to Julius Caesar." What. The. Fuck. This lady was officially the craziest person I'd ever met.

But then again, a few weeks ago the same guy I thought was my best friend outed me to his mom without my consent. That felt like a stab in the back ... Maybe the concept wasn't so hard to grasp. "Why would he agree to that?" I asked without thinking. The class groaned in response and I sat back into my seat again.

"Well, he was jealous. He thought that Rome deserved a better leader. Caesar was fallible, and yet he was still the peoples' choice for king. So, Brutus and Cassius devised a plan to kill him." Ms. Eiswalt frowned. "The two were quickly banished for murdering the best thing that had ever happened to Rome and began to raise an army to avenge their banishment."

"So they were friends with Caesar and still decided to kill him, all because they were jealous?" I scoffed, still not really understanding. "That seems a bit extreme." Even while I was angry with Elgin for outing me, I never once thought about killing him. At least, not seriously.

"Indeed," She nodded. "But that was the way of things back then." Call me a pacifist, but I couldn't imagine killing someone in cold blood out of jealousy. I couldn't even hurt a fly without feeling bad about it. 

When the bell rang, the class scattered. I gathered my things and made my way to Math class. It felt like the sea of people in the hallway were parting for me. Unlike usual, I wasn't accidentally shoved or even brushed past. It made me feel strange.

I watched Anastasia walk into the classroom and followed closely behind her. "Hey, did you notice that the hallway wasn't as much of a jungle as usual today?" I asked, sitting at the desk beside her.

"No?" She said, averting her eyes. I looked at her suspiciously. She was hiding something from me, and I wanted to know what it was. "Okay, fine." She sighed, turning to look at me. "Everyone is afraid of Alex because she beat the shit out of that guy a couple of weeks ago and he told everyone that she was a crazy psychopath and that she was brainwashing you."

I paused for a moment, trying hard not to laugh at the ridiculous conspiracy. "What?" 

"I never said that people were smart." She shrugged, smiling when she realized that I wasn't at all mad about the situation. "They're actually really, really stupid."

"What do they even think I've been brainwashed into? Alex isn't some crazy cult leader. She's not scary at all, she's just a sixteen-year-old girl." We laughed together as Mr. Arbour began class. I couldn't wait for lunch to come so I could tell Alex and Elgin about this crazy rumour. They were going to die of laughter.