Beyond Our Lies

t h i r t y s e v e n

It had been a whole six days since blondie came to our table. I'd be lying if I said her existence didn't bother me. After I left lunch that day, Xander did in fact tell her he wasn't interested. However, that didn't matter. Anytime I would see Xander he would be with her, whether that be during lunch or passing through the halls.

I attempted to be nonchalant about it but it was honestly wearing me down. Whenever I would look for him so we could rant about a certain teacher or continue an ongoing joke, her thin figure would be right beside him. No matter how clingy she was, he couldn't deny her beauty, could her? I saw the emotions flowing through his gaze as he flickered his stare over her body at the party and it made me feel worse that I had never seen that from anyone else, let alone him.

As the Sunday afternoon sun shined through the windows, I zoned off into space while the television played one of my favorite Disney movies, Tangled. Putting it on was a failed attempt at resting my thoughts at bay for a little while, instead making them worse. While this dilemma continued, my stomach growled in anger at being unfed for so long. But I couldn't eat. I had already ate some fruit, I could wait a few hours for dinner.

A shirtless Elijah passed me as he walked out of his room to the kitchen. Flickering his gaze to the movie, he laughed and shook his head. "Again? You've already watched it once this week."

"You're just mad you're not Flynn," I joked and leaned against the couch, watching the lantern scene. After a moment, an idea popped into my head and I made my way to the kitchen. Once there, I found Elijah digging through the fridge for a snack. "Can we hang out today? Just us?" He peeked his head from behind the refrigerator door with his bottom lip jut out before nodding.

"Hell yeah. Let me get dressed and then we can go bowling or some shit?" His lean figure made way around the kitchen, peeling his orange.

"Bowling?" I laughed and leaned against the counter.

Elijah kept a small smile on his face as he shrugged. "It's fun 1v1." I nodded in agreement at our chosen activity and watched him head out the kitchen doors.

Since I was already dressed, I decided to sit back on the couch and wait for him. A few minutes later, a door opened in the hallway and I expected to see Elijah's curly hair but instead saw pitch black. Xander gave me his boyish smile as he plopped down onto the couch next to me. The only times we had actually talked this past week is when I would check up on him about his father. Other than that, us near each other was extremely rare.

"Hey," I mumbled and turned back towards the movie.

"You wanna maybe hang out today? Go to the theater and have dinner or something? he asked, causing my eyes to dart to him.

The request combined with the bright look on his face made my heart beat fasten yet I couldn't help but picture her and it made me overthink why he thought of eating when it came to me. With a sad smile, I declined, "Sorry, me and Elijah are already planning to hang out. Maybe some other time though, yeah?"

His face dropped and his expression flashed with sadness. My heart dropped in guilt. Why do I have to mess everything up? He was for once smiling not even ten seconds ago. Before I could try and say anything to help my case, Elijah came into the room. "Ready?"

When Xander stood up, he glanced between Elijah and I a few times before his jaw clenched and he went to his bedroom, slamming the door along the way in. He was mad. He was mad at me. My hands held a slight tinge of shakiness as I gripped the arm of the couch.

"Hey, look at me." I followed his voice and noticed Elijah was now squatted right in front of where I sat. "Everything's okay. He's mad but he won't do anything to you, you know that." He went to place his hand on my shaky one before realizing that included physical contact, resorting to sitting his hands back on his lap. My head nodded slowly, not wanting to hear the tremble in my voice.