The Romance In Our Rivalry

68 | Hate The Skin I'm In

March 28, 2022

Aubrey

"I see you made a new friend" Jason said as I stood at my locker before first period. I was getting a little concerned about Nova, because she down right avoids me in the mornings now. She's always out of the house before I wake up, and I assume she goes to school with Hailey or something.

"Rosalina?" I asked, "eh, more like new bait. I need someone to help boost my campaign, and who does that better than a mysterious new girl with a decent looking face and a cute little kid voice?" Jason looked at me, "I guess" he said, "but just be careful, don't wanna be around her too much." I looked at Jason, "what do you mean by that?" I asked, wondering if he had some type of tea on her.

"I mean, she'll become the next Nova" Jason said, playing with my lock. "People will start rumors and if she's around you but Nova starts disappearing, people will assume Rosalina is your new girl toy." I rolled my eyes, "who's gonna assume that?" I asked, and Jason folded his arms. "Half the football team already has. When I saw that, I assumed you and Nova fell out. That's what it looks like."

"Oh my gosh" I said aloud, "that's it." Jason looked at me curiously, "what's it?" he asked, as I shook my head. "Nothing important" I lied, "but class is about to start, I'll see you later." Jason nodded and we shared a quick kiss before he walked away. A kiss that didn't spark anything me or make butterflies fly around in my stomach. I realized more and more that Jason really just was nothing more than my prom date, because I felt legitimately nothing when we do anything intimate. Either that, or I felt so much with Nova that it felt like nothing with Jason. Maybe it was the latter.

"Wow" I said to myself as I opened up my phone case to quickly glance at the picture of Nova and I. "It all makes sense now. You think I like her." I felt like complete shit when I thought about it. How did I not realize the accidental closeness that I was sharing with Rosalina?

I began walking to first period, and when I got there I met a idle Rosalina standing around at the doorway. "Just the girl I was looking for" she said, "how are you? Do you have any plans for our campaign?" I smiled, "no" I said, "the campaign is really all about the fundraiser and getting on everybody's good side." I looked around the room as I walked in, "have you seen Nova?"

"Who?" Rosalina asked, and I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, the brownish girl with short curly hair?" she asked, "the one that's like, kinda skinny?" I nodded, "yeah" I said, "have you seen her?" Rosalina shook her head, "no" she said, "but since she's not here, you don't mind if I sit in her seat, do you?"

Maybe it was the fact that I made the realization that I did, or maybe it was just Rosalina as a whole, but she was starting to piss me the hell off. I mean, yeah, we're candidate buddies, but that's about it, and now was the time that I needed to make that clear before Nova and I fell apart. Well, Nova and I weren't exactly anything if we're being honest.

Nova

My phone dinged as I jogged, so I stopped to take a quick peak. "Where are you?" a text from Aubrey read, but I just wiped the sweat off my forehead and rolled my eyes. "Like you care" I said aloud to myself, and put my phone back in my pocket.

I had decided that instead of going to the class that I have with Aubrey, I can skip it and use this time to run. I'd been doing a good job with that for the last two days, because I just started. I also have ate little to nothing, which was already kinda starting to catch up to me, but I was willing to push myself.

I looked at my phone, "five more minutes" I said, referring to how long I'll be running for. "Then I'll quickly go change and get to school." I began running again, but my stomach was growling like a bitch. "Holy shit" I said as I ignored the intense cramping that was beginning to feel, "almost done."

***

Jason

"Dude" I said to Nova as she came in, looking like she was seconds away from passing out, "where did you just come from? A desert?"

Nick looked at Nova as well, who seemed out of breath and who's breathing could literally be heard. "Why are you breathing so hard?" he asked. "You either just ran a marathon, or had your back blown out." Nova put her head down, "I jogged" she said, "and I'm fine." Nick looked at me in a worrisome way.

As we were all sitting, Nick texted me. "I think she's doing something that she's not supposed to, to her body" Nick's text read. I raised an eyebrow for a moment, looked at Nova really quickly so that she wouldn't notice, then began texting.

"Hm, maybe" I said, "do you think she got a tattoo on her asshole or something?" Nick looked up from his phone and then looked at me funny. "Bro, what?" he texted, "no, I mean she's starving herself. Look at her, she's on the verge of passing out."

"Hey Nova" I said softly, "do you want cookies? I have some in my bag!" Nova looked at me, "is that supposed to be funny Jason?" she asked, "you see how big I'm getting and you say that shit?" Nick looked at me in a "now why the fuck would you do that?" type of way, but I ignored it, "okay" I replied to Nova, "my bad. You just look tired."

"I freaking am!" Nova replied, "tired of being so freaking big" I shook my head, "I think you have body dysmorphia or something, because you look fine in all honesty." Nick looked back and forth between Nova and I as if he didn't know what to say, which made sense because he did happen to be the one that caused all of this shit to begin with.