“Later I’ll teach you the trick for getting two items at once from the vending machine. I don’t teach this to just anyone.”
“…So it’s because of guys like you that sometimes the chocolate bar didn’t come out of the vending machine.”
What stopped Nathan’s chatter was Liam, who appeared from the locker room with his stuff.
“The vending machine being inconsistent is just how it is, I just know how to take advantage of it appropriately.”
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, what were you doing with Cheick?”
“Appropriate fraternization?”
Liam nodded at Nathan, then naturally took the water bottle in my hand and drank all the remaining water.
“Fraternization is good. But Charlotte was just looking for you.”
“Really? Where is she now?”
“Inside the field.”
After Nathan left to find Charlotte, I ended up giving Liam a ride home at his request.
“Thanks. I can get home comfortably thanks to you.”
Liam expressed his gratitude, saying that if it weren’t for me, he would have had to listen to Nathan’s endless chatter all the way home today too.
“But Cheick, do you often listen to music when you’re in the car?”
At Liam’s question, I answered that when I rode in this car, it was Sophia or Virgil who played DJ.
“You just listen to whatever they put on?”
“Sometimes I listen to CDs my mom used to listen to.”
“Hmm, really?”
“There should be one around here.”
I rummaged through the car and pulled out a CD, then handed it to Liam. He was pleased that it was a Backstreet Boys album, and I asked if he liked the band.
“Rather than liking the band, this band sang a song I like.”
“My mom is a Kevin Richardson fan.”
When I said that’s why my dad hates the Backstreet Boys, Liam laughed very loudly.
“Hahaha!”
“But what song do you like?”
“Ah… can I play it for you separately later?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
After answering Liam, I started the car, reminded that I’d been delayed a little.
“I want to formally apologize for what happened during the day.”
A DM apology isn’t enough, Liam said, watching me as I just started the engine and began to move.
“No. It’s not like you were the one calling me a track team loser or whatever.”
“Still, I’m the one who leads them, so I think I should formally apologize to you. And it’s not like I wasn’t there either.”
“……You must be the responsible type.”
When I muttered the words that came to mind without realizing it, Liam said his position had made him that kind of personality.
“Come to think of it, you’re the quarterback and captain of the football team, right? Then that definitely makes sense.”
“There’s that and…… How should I put it? The people around me, um, does saying this make me sound too critical? But the fact is they lack responsibility.”
Listening to Liam’s words, I thought of the people around him—guys like Aiden, Hazel, and Blair. Those guys, overflowing with all kinds of disqualifying traits, would surely be severely lacking in responsibility too.
“Still, life is about filling in each other’s lacking parts. If my people lack responsibility, then it makes sense for me to become a responsible person. And surely those people are filling in something I’m lacking. I’m so full of myself that I don’t know exactly what that ‘something’ is, though.”
“From what I can see, you don’t seem full of yourself at all. Rather……”
“Rather?”
Liam asked, his eyes sparkling with anticipation.
“You seem mature.”
“Sorry, but isn’t that too similar an assessment to ‘having a strong sense of responsibility’?”
“Sorry. But I have a tendency not to be able to say ‘cool’ straight out.”
“……I’m cool?”
At Liam’s question, I couldn’t bring myself to say yes and instead just nodded my head a couple of times. Then, barely managing to steady my reluctant voice, I said:
“If I were in the same situation as you, I think I would have just complained that people lack responsibility. But you try to see it differently. Just as you fill in what those people lack, those people are probably filling in something you’re lacking. I think that’s…… mature.”
“Can’t you say ‘cool’ instead of ‘mature’?”
“Sorry. That seems difficult.”
When I even apologized, Liam said he was sorrier and laughed loudly, and while he was laughing, I thought to myself without realizing it:
That conversing with Liam was ‘enjoyable.’
***
“……Even considering you were at practice, you’re way too late. Don’t you think?”
When I returned after unintentionally ‘building rapport’ with Liam, my mom, who had been waiting for me looking a bit angry, began her sharp interrogation.
“I was late watching a friend practice football. I’m sorry.”
“Your friend is a football player? So you’ve completely broken up with Sophia?”
“To begin with, I wasn’t even dating Sophia…… What does me hanging out with a friend who’s a football player have to do with breaking up with Sophia?”
It has nothing to do with it at all, Mom answered with a completely calm face.
“I just asked because I saw Sophia hanging out with unfamiliar kids at the department store today. Her outfit was different from usual, so if I hadn’t looked closely, I wouldn’t have even known it was her.”
“Sophia made new friends.”
“New friends? So she’s no longer friends with you?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t particularly fight or anything. Still, if she prefers hanging out with her new friends, there’s nothing I can do about it. But I’d appreciate it if you’d refrain from prying too much into my friend relationships.”
When I asked cautiously, Mom frowned and said okay. I let out a low sigh and climbed the stairs.
“Aren’t you eating dinner?”
“I’m not hungry. I’ll eat in the morning. Sorry.”
Leaving behind the somehow unsettling conversation with Mom, I went into my room and immediately checked Sophia’s social media. Her social media was full of photos taken with friends including Leda, and among them, a meaningful phrase posted without an attached photo was impressive.
Sophia You’re the loser.
The loser here seems to be Virgil no matter how you look at it. I scratched the edge of my neck, which wasn’t even itchy, and tried sending Sophia a DM.
Hey
I waited quite a while but there was no reply. So I gave up and was doing other things when I heard my smartphone vibrate and went into the DM window.
Sophia
Sorry
I didn’t mean to be mad at you :/
You know that, right?
I know
Sophia
I’m still annoyed thinking about what Virgil said
Why did he say that crap?
Because you were getting too close to Leda, I think he was scared of losing you
I don’t think he meant it either
I also fought with him today so I’m not sure I’m qualified to say this but
Sophia
You fought with him too?
I didn’t see him that way but he’s a total fighter lol
Sophia was the same Sophia I’d always seen. I wanted to ask her if she preferred hanging out with Leda rather than me or Virgil, but since the answer that would come out was obvious, I decided it was better not to ask.
lol I’ll have to talk it out well when we meet tomorrow
What about you?
Sophia
I’m still not completely over being mad. I need to think about it more
After finishing the conversation with Sophia, a new post appeared in the overall feed so I checked it and it was posted by Liam.
Liam Blake What would you do if the person you’re interested in seems to like someone else?
Hazel Says the guy who broke up with his girlfriend less than a week ago
***
Leda Seriously. What is this. Are you trying to annoy people?
***
Charlotte It could just be a question. If it were me in this case, I’d give up cleanly.
***
Nathan I’d go straight ahead.
***
Should I comment on this too? After thinking about it for a moment, I gave up, thinking I’d become a joke, and deliberately put my smartphone far away.
***
“You woke up earlier than usual today. Is it because of the competition preparation?”
The next day. Dad asked me as I wandered around the living room after waking up early. I told Dad that starting today the friend I’d be going to school with had changed, and that he lived a bit farther away than Sophia.
“So you really did break up with Sophia.”
“I told you I was never dating her.”
“There was no kid who suited you as well as that kid.”
“So…… Whatever, never mind.”
I didn’t want to hear more of what Dad was saying on his own, so I tried to just leave, but I spotted Mom near the kitchen with her arms crossed, glaring at me, so I obediently went to the kitchen. Then I roughly stuffed the leftovers from the dinner menu Mom had prepared for me last night between slices of bread and promised I’d eat it on the way to school.
“If you have to pack and take even breakfast, you must be in quite a hurry. Where does your friend live?”
“Um.”
If I said he lives in a trailer park, there would probably be a problem. I need to make up something appropriate.
“I don’t know. That, uh, a girl I like asked me to give him a ride, so that’s how I ended up giving him one.”
“There’s a girl you like?”
At the words ‘a girl I like,’ both Mom and Dad looked at me with great interest. Well now, I’ve jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
“Yes. That, anyway, I’ll be going. I don’t know where he lives. I have to ask while I go.”
