Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Hopeless Romantic ❯ Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I sighed as I sunk onto my bed, exhausted from such a strenuous day. Despite my self-reassurances during homeroom, when Lenny and I parted ways until lunch, my original feelings had gotten the best of me. We were best friends; he could've told me he was interested in a girl. But today, it was almost like we were an old married couple, sort of. We had a fight. As in, if we actually were married, he totally would've been sleeping on the couch tonight.

I had had problems concentrating all throughout French, Chemistry (through which I sent piercing glares Perry's way), and Biology. When lunch had come around, we had sat down at our usual lunch table. I was usually the one to start the conversation, but this time I was silent, still a little put out by his omission. We ate in silence; he realized my reluctance to speak but decided to ignore it. By the time I was sipping apple juice from my Mott's container, I couldn't keep the pinched look of annoyance off my face.

He had been chewing slowly, watching my every move. When he opened his mouth to speak, I thought he would finally ask me what was wrong or skip that and just explain the situation and why he hadn't told me about it. But instead, he looked over my head and said,

“Hey, Perry, why don't you come sit with us?” I didn't even have to turn around to notice that Perry was smiling at him again, because he was grinning back like an idiot. I was seething with anger.

“Sure, Alex,” she replied, going to his side of the picnic table and sliding way too close to him for my liking.

“Alex?” I couldn't help but ask Lenny. The anger was gone now to show the pity and comfort I thought I would be expressing when he broke down crying or had one of his strange reactions to the name.

But he just sat there, staring back at me without budging. There wasn't a flicker of emotion on his face, even when she had called him Alex.

“Yeah, he lets me - and only me - call him that.” Perry answered in an excited voice. “Isn't that so cute?!” She crooned, giggled, and kissed his cheek. He smiled and placed his hand on her bare knee. On her bare knee, which was connected to the rest of her friggin' exposed leg.

My shoulders dropped and I stared at Lenny with a shocked, speechless expression. He shrugged, and rage flooded me. At the moment, I felt like ripping what was left of Perry's short blond hair and stab out her dark, dark eyes. And Lenny - Oh, I so wanted to mess up the perfect parting of his chestnut brown hair and break his long nose. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but I did want to shout at Perry, “No! It's NOT cute!” and then turn to him and yell, “What about your dog, Lenny? Did you forget about him? Have you changed already? At least have some respect for the dog, you”— But I didn't. Instead, I forced a smile (easier said than done) and replied, “Totally cute.” Lenny knew I was faking, but he didn't even glance my way.

The rest of the day followed with tension between us. I hardly said a word to him, but during English, my eyes couldn't stop glancing his way. He even told me to stop staring after about the thousandth glance. Under normal circumstances, I would've smiled and joked about it but, instead, I mouthed, `Go to hell,' and still kept staring after.

The tension was at breaking point after school as we walked home together. We only live a couple of blocks away from each other, so we do this often. You could've fitted about 6 other people in the space between us. The silence got so irritating that I couldn't stand it anymore and said,

“You should've told me.” In a low but audible voice.

Lenny sighed in slight exasperation. “You know I'm not the type who apologizes. It slipped my mind. And I'm not going to break up with her, if that's what you want.” His words were short and sharp.

“Why would I want you to break up? I didn't even know you two were together!” I hissed, and without waiting for a reply, continued, “I'm just upset you didn't tell me. I mean, she calls you `Alex', Lenny. I didn't even know you weren't sensitive about that anymore.” I gestured dramatically.

“His name was… Alexander.” He hesitated and stumbled before saying the name. “I never called him Alex.” Lenny explained after recovering.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Whatever.” I mumbled. “How serious is it?”

He considered before saying, “I really like her. She's kind of artistic like you, so I thought you would like her. I'm just different with her; it's like I can do anything whenever I'm with her.”

“Oh no; not you too.” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “Did you have sex yet?”

“Sex?” He seemed genuinely surprised by my question. “I told you I wouldn't have sex until college.”

I stopped walking and stared at him knowingly. He halted too, and when he understood the meaning behind my expression after a couple of seconds, he looked at the floor and exhaled heavily. “No, not yet. She wants to, though.”

“And what does that mean?” I asked, cocking my head to one side as I still stood in place.

“Give it a couple of weeks.” He finally admitted unwillingly.

“I thought so.” We continued our way in silence for a moment. “Is she going to change you, Lenny?” I asked with a worried expression on my face.

He glanced at me and our gaze held for a few seconds. “By the end of the day, I'll still be Lenny.” He spoke seriously, as though making a promise.

“Not Alex?” I wanted him to clarify.

“Well…” He smiled a little, and I kind of smiled too. I felt much better.

Now, I was in my messy room, rolling around in my unmade bed. Clothes were everywhere, and where cosmetics, perfume, and normal girly stuff should have been on my hairdresser, there stood a cluttered group of soda cans, juice boxes, and other opened or finished snacks. Every morning I take about half an hour looking for my hairbrush and promise myself I'll clean this mess up as soon as I get home that evening (before giving up on the hairbrush and using my fingers instead), but it's been about a month since that started.

The room is about ten times worse now, with my laptop buried beneath the pile of dirty clothes in the closet, my towel hanging over my full-length mirror, my toothbrush hanging from the broken lamp on my bedside table, my DVD player and a few articles of clothing in the mini-fridge (don't ask how they got there), my socks in the otherwise empty garbage can, and Chichi's stuffed bunny, one of mom's sandals, dad's Machiavelli novel, and a whole box full of Landon's condoms (revenge; another long story) all somewhere under my bed, chilling with the dust bunnies. As far as I'm concerned, it'll stay that way until the food on my hairdresser starts to rot and reek…