Growing Pains

Chapter 3 - I was winning at life

J A C O B

I had always been a hot topic at school. It had been like that for as long as I could remember, and I didn't want it to be any other way. I liked being on other people's mouths. I also liked other people's mouths. That was a big problem for me, some would say, because apparently it made me a fuckboy.

I didn't resent the title. Jacob Miller, voted most likely to steal your girl. What could I say? I was good like that. I had won some sort of genetic jackpot at birth and now nothing could stop me. People shouldn't be allowed this much power, but who was I to complain?

I was winning at life. I could have any girl I wanted, and I wanted a lot of them. If that made me a fuckboy, then so be it. At least, I wasn't going around calling it love. The world was full of hypocrites bringing out the big L-word to justify the implications of their own sexual drives. Just fuck and be done with it.

I was sure in a few years scientists would come out and say love was actually a made-up human emotion, something more about attention and jealousy and insecurity than anything else entirely. I was sure I would be getting a lot of calls then, all of them girls saying they were sorry they called me all those names when I stopped texting. Until then, I would just have to continue being misunderstood. I didn't mind. Most times, girls that tried to understand me did it under the sheets. So no, I didn't mind at all.

I wouldn't mind if someone tried tonight either. I was throwing a party to celebrate the end of summer. We all agreed coming back to school shouldn't be a celebration, but we wanted summer to go out with a bang.

"Who's coming?" Edward asked, leaning against my Porsche. I had wanted a Tesla, but my parents had refused giving me a copy of my brother's car. Derek had loved hearing it. He had gotten himself one before going off to some third world country in Africa, probably to help build better jungles, I wasn't sure.

Something to come back for, he had said. He rarely did. I suspected Derek wanted to be everywhere except home. He had fucked off to London when he was eighteen and came back with a diploma from some architecture school good enough to convince most employers to fart out job offer after job offer. None of those offers had been good enough to make him stay apparently. My parents were, after all, considering spending Christmas in Africa with him. I would rather die.

I threw my bag on the backseat of my car. I felt very much alive thinking about the plan for tonight...Who was coming?

"Everyone," I said. Edward frowned. I didn't think this needed any more explaining, but apparently, I was wrong. "Everyone that matters, Eds."

He frowned again. It meant, come on, don't be shitty. I didn't think I was being shitty, so I ignored it altogether. I was sure the girls camping outside a concert for a boy band wouldn't want me crashing their movie marathons. Was it not fair to expect the same kind of decency in return? But Edward had a flawed judgment sometimes. He thought it wasn't fun to switch Luke's Adderall for mints and then draw dicks on his face when he kept falling asleep in class, even if the whole thing was completely harmless. Luke didn't need Adderall. He was a teenager. He was supposed to be falling asleep in class. He probably just had rich parents who liked throwing money at problems.

Edward had a different opinion. Of course. Edward Amin, the next Gandhi.

"Well," he said now, stepping away from my car. The day was over, and we both had things to do before tonight. "I'm gonna head out. I'm excited for tonight."

I had been looking at the locker room doors, watching the cheerleaders come out in small groups, gym bags slung over their shoulders, hair probably smelling of fruit shampoos.