The Only Exception [BoyxBoy]

14 | ѕтυρι∂ ιn ℓσνє

I thought I saw your potential
Guess that's what made me dumb

Chapter 14 ~ Stupid in Love

Ryan Rivera

It had been a week and a half since I last spoke to Bobby, and I was doing perfectly fine.

Actually, I was doing more than fine. A week away from Bobby meant that I had spent a week reconnecting with things that I hadn't had much time for in my life until now ... like somehow always becoming the third wheel in a never-ending flirtatious exchange between Bryan and Kaya. I was rarely ever included in conversations unless they were asking my opinion on a matter that concerned them and had nothing to do with me, almost like they forgot that I was supposed to be their friend, too.

I was happy for them, truly, but I didn't want their happiness to be at the expense of my own. They were practically head over heels for each other and everyone knew, but them. They'd blatantly flirt in front of me, but would refuse to admit that they were doing it, leaving me to continuously roll my eyes in annoyance and if I had to be honest, eye-rolls had become a commonplace in my behavior as of late.

Maybe it was my fault for ditching them in favor of Bobby in the first place, but now that I was actively trying to reconnect with them, they weren't doing a good job at showing their appreciation.

"Ooh!" Kaya blurted out, grabbing the table's attention as she plopped a magazine onto the table and pointed at one of the dresses. "That one's pretty, isn't it?" Her question was directed at me and my brother, but Bryan was the only one who cared enough to answer.

I watched as Bryan's arm snaked around Kaya's waist in a not-so-discreet way. He leaned over her shoulder to peer at the magazine, and said with a grin, "yeah, you'll definitely look great in that."

"I wonder if they have it in red ... I think red's my color. I think it makes my melanin pop, you know?"

Bryan nodded in agreement. "Red's definitely one of my favorites. Yellow, too."

"Ew, yellow?" Kaya flipped the magazine closed and glanced up at my brother with her face screwed in disgust. "I don't want to look like a school bus at spring formal."

Bryan nodded once more, but this time he pulled a grin that I had only ever seen him use when he was talking to Kaya. "You have a point, but at least you'll look like a smoking hot school bus."

Suppressing a sigh, I fixed my attention on my homemade PB&J sandwich, becoming oddly entranced by the ratio of peanut butter to jelly. It was ridiculous, I knew, but it was better than being subject to the endless love affair that was unfolding right beside me.

I snapped out of my stupor as soon as I felt someone plant a wet sloppy kiss on my cheek. Sighing, I wiped away the residue of the kiss with my sleeve and turned to face Preston who, during these past two weeks, I had become to appreciate as well. He was a nice distraction, and a distraction was what I desperately needed in times like these.

"Hey, sexy," he said with his signature preppy smirk as Bobby would've put it. We weren't dating, but he liked to think we were because it meant he could kiss and touch me, so I let him.

"Hey," I said, forcing myself to be happy about his arrival, though I really wasn't. Between him, Kaya, and Bryan, I couldn't really tell whose presence annoyed me most. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to be left to my own devices so that I could properly mourn the friendship that had made up such a big part of my life, but I knew that being alone would only make me think of Bobby more than I needed to.