It’s also annoying that she likes him. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Lots of girls in our grade have crushes on Hunter, but I guess I feel like they don’t know him the way I do. They like his image more than they actually like him, and that’s not real. It’s like being attracted to a single photograph of a person, then seeing them in real life and realizing it was just the angle.
I like him from all angles. I bet Valerie doesn’t.
At least Sara is having a genuinely good time, though.
By the time we finish eating, I’m already tired of the hostility from stupid Valerie. I don’t think of myself as a mean person, but she’s certainly filling my head with mean thoughts. Maybe it’s the casual way she lashes out at me with her constant digs and “jokes,” maybe it’s blatant jealousy because even though I hate her, she’s Hunter’s friend so he still talks to her. Whatever it is, I’ve had enough of it.
When I take my tray over to the garbage can to empty it, I also text my mom and let her know we’re ready to leave.
I don’t say anything to anyone about it when I get back to the table. I want to tell Sara so she’s not taken by surprise when my mom gets here, but she is so swept up in our day pass to the cool table, she doesn’t even look at me long enough to shoot her a look to check her text messages. It kind of annoys me because she even fawns over Valerie, who—besides being rude to me all day—has been passively mean to Sara since first grade.
“What time does the movie start?” Valerie asks Hunter, scrolling through her phone.
I didn’t pay attention to which one they were seeing since I knew we would be gone by then, but I am a little bummed to miss out on going to a movie with Hunter. I’d like to, I’d just like to go with him alone—not him and his friends.
My mom would never let me though. It would seem too much like a date.
I sigh, momentarily hit by how difficult it will be to build any kind of relationship with Hunter, friends or more. I don’t like his friends and my mom doesn’t like him—which is so stupid, because she doesn’t even know him.
Maybe I can find a way to make her like him. Give her a peek at the side of him I see. Instead of getting together for something like this with his friends, I could have him over to my house. Maybe he could come over for dinner and Mom would get to talk to him and see that he’s perfectly harmless.
It is kind of stupid that she won’t let me have a male friend. Just because he’s a guy doesn’t mean hanging out with him would automatically be a date. I want to keep spending time with him even if it’s only as friends; I just don’t want to have to also spend time with people I don’t like to spend time with him.
Everyone else is finally gathering up their trash and taking it to the nearest receptacle. I notice Hunter doesn’t clean up his own; he adorably—and annoyingly—messes with Valerie, stacking his plate on top of hers and then sliding his empty tray under hers, too.
He smiles at her. “Thanks, Val, you’re the best.”
She sighs, trying to look annoyed with him, but she’s as bad at it as I am. “You suck.” Hunter cocks an eyebrow at her and her eyes light up with scandalized horror. “Oh my god, shut up, perv.”
Their easy familiarity bums me out even more. Hunter and I have that; he’s not supposed to have it with her, too.
“I didn’t even say anything,” Hunter says, like he’s innocent. “Now be a good girl and go throw away my trash.”
“I hate you,” she lies as she hauls the tray to the trash can.
I sorta wish she hated him. I tell myself that’s stupid. It shouldn’t matter how she feels about him if he likes me… it’s just, I don’t know if he likes me that way, and since I never want to hang out with his friends again, it will be much easier for him to spend time with her than me.
I’m starting to see what he means about me making his life easier if I could win his friends over.
I’m starting to see why it doesn’t even matter if he likes me the way I want him to—this is never going to work.
That’s the thought in my head—and the look on my face—when Hunter’s gaze swings in my direction. He loses his easy smile and pushes back his chair, then he walks over to my side of the table. “Hey. You good?”