IDIOT AND THE BEAST

CHAPTER 8 — CALL ME BY MY NAME

[DANESH]

Despite my better judgement, I find myself waiting for the idiot outside school after practice ends. Since he is the captain of our soccer team, the coach wanted to discuss something about our upcoming games with him and so he stayed back a little longer. I could have very well just left, but here I am, standing beside my bicycle, waiting for him.

To my utter fear and disappointment, Valerie has driven my car back home since her classes have ended early. I'd proposed that we do a swap of vehicles and have her take my bike, but she just took off. I swear to myself this is the last time I am ever letting her drive my car, no matter what. Five minutes pass and there is still no sign of him.

Maybe I should just leave, I think and shockingly enough, I am actually put off by the idea.

I decide to ignore that for the moment and pull my bicycle upright; damn him and his dinner. I haven't even taken five steps when I hear a voice, his voice, from behind me:

"I thought you weren't ignoring me,"

I walk a few more steps before yelling back my reply, "I'm not. I got tired of waiting for you,"

I don't know why but I felt this weird flutter deep, deep down in my gut when I hear his footsteps jogging up to me.

Traitorous heart, calm the fuck down.

"I'm sorry," he says as soon as he is beside me, walking in step, "Coach held me up, and went into one of his famous motivational speeches for our upcoming last game,"

"Yeah, that can take a while," I say, recalling the times coach almost made us late to our own match because of his never-ending speeches.

"Yeah," he chuckles.

And then after a while, he says, "I thought you'd have left,"

I don't say anything and just keep walking. Thankfully and surprisingly, he doesn't say anything for the rest of our walk either.

़़़

Around ten minutes later, we reach Grillz; they serve the cheesiest pizza in town and is the closest diner to school. Fortunately, the place isn't too crowded as it usually would be and we are able to find ourselves a booth.

Few who attend WHS (Willowcreeks High School) are there as well; I'd seen them around school before but don't actually know them personally. The same can't be said for Zacharrine however as he is the first one who recognises them from the little crowd and start talking to them as I walk past them to an empty table.

Within seconds they are laughing loudly, and Zacharrine is literally the centre of their attention. They follow his every move, every word — for a second I wonder what they are talking about, and wonder if I can ever be like them, laughing so freely and talking with no worries. The very next second I remind myself I don't care.

"Sorry about that," he says as he joins me a few minutes later.

I shrug, not saying anything.

"They're from our school," he says.

"I know,"

The waiter appears at our table right then cutting our conversation short. We order our meals, and when the waiter leaves, the air around us, it quickly gets awkward. For the first time, even Zacharrine has nothing to say. If not for the hustling and bustling around the diner, I don't think any of us could've survived the uneasy atmosphere; it is very much constricting.

What the heck am I doing? I wonder. I am supposed to be staying away from him, not fucking go to dinner with him. So, what if he thinks that I am ignoring him? Why can't I just admit that yes, I am in fact ignoring him and stay the hell away? Why the fuck do I care?