Playing with Fire

Chapter 4

“Good thing you came in just after we bought the dress. I’m really not the kind of person who goes back to a store to yell at people, no offense,” Matthew said.

Noelle glanced at me, there was a zealous gleam glinting in her eyes. She grabbed at Kevin’s arm and scooted closer to him. Meanwhile, he was still chopping up his double steak.

“Nah, it’s just fate. As a friend, I wouldn’t let you buy bad things, right Kev?”

Up until now, twenty minutes after the boys decided that it was a good idea to have a double date, I still hadn’t contributed anything conversation-wise. I didn’t even have the energy to touch my soup.

It was bad enough that I was stuck in dinner with my ex-boyfriend and my boyfriend. Throw in my ex-bestfriend, and it became a nightmare. Plus, the fact that my boyfriend and my ex-boyfriend were so close to each other, that they kept bro-ing it up, made me uncomfortable as hell.

And then there were also these type of questions.

“So how long have you been dating her again?” Kevin asked Matthew.

Those kind of questions.

“Quite long,” Matthew said, although I knew that he just forgot. “I bet your grandmother’s pearl necklace that you regretted your decision to let her go.”

And those kind of answers.

“Hey, not in front of Noelle!” Kevin laughed and they both high-fived, for what purpose I didn’t know. Noelle and I shared a distasteful look, and for a modicum of a second I thought that I had my partner-in-crime-back. And then she flipped me the bird.

“How bout you? I didn’t know that you two were dating, weren’t you like, Alea’s best friend? Isn’t it weird or anything?”

IT IS IT IS IT IS IT IS. And not to mention, it was life-shattering in every literal sense. The moment I knew that Noelle hooked up with Kevin, I lost all control and yelled at both of them in public. I had just broken up with Kevin for about three weeks, and he had had the audacity to kiss Noelle, my best friend. Little did I knew that Noelle would be on Kevin’s side and called me a bitch for slapping him.

Noelle, Kevin, and I avoided eye contact with one another and the three of us just laughed weakly. Matthew finally gave me a bit of peace and let the ‘who dates who’ topic die on its own.

The rest of the dinner, however, wasn’t so peaceful. Kevin was busy gobbling food. I was too busy being miserable, and my boyfriend was too busy talking with my ex-bestfriend. Noelle and Matthew shared a love for movies, something that I wasn’t really passionate about. It became increasingly difficult for me to follow their topics, Collin Farrel, Teal and Orange, anti-heroes, and right now, the new Spiderman film.

“You watched the rebooted Spiderman 2?” Noelle asked Matthew enthusiastically. She was doing this thing where she leaned on her elbow and stuck her chest out. The fact that her boyfriend was so focused on eating made it easier for her to flirt without guilt.

“Of course. The girls kept screaming whenever the shot of Andrew Garfield’s butt came up on the screen,” Matthew laughed. I didn’t find that funny. I just found it very slightly odd, which wasn’t a bad thing. It was just really weird to hear your boyfriend talking about another guy’s butt.

“I thought you’d be used to the screaming, since you know, the girls always screamed whenever you’re on the ring during your MVP days.” Noelle’s smile was tight-lipped and her eyes testing.

“Really? I didn’t notice.”

“I noticed.”

“How come?”