Be Rude but Love Me | ✔

CHAPTER 4

"His favorite color," I blurt out.

Ellie laughs, momentarily distracted from her deep reflections. "Sky blue," she says, "but I doubt that's what you wanna know about him."

I shrug at her even though she is right. "At this point, I'll take what I can get, honestly."

Her laughter dies out and only the sound of stirring water fills the backyard. Then birds start singing in a nearby tree and soon, the melody of nature reaches my ears and I revel in the moment. A cool summer breeze blows my hair and I lift up my head, welcoming the caress.

"Remember Ollie?"

Ellie's voice brings me back to reality and I look sideways at her. "Oliver? Yeah, why?"

Oliver is a friend I met in freshman year of high school. He was a junior at the time. The school's loner, he didn't have any friends and was an absolute jerk to anyone and everyone. His sarcasm was notorious and people avoided him like the plague. I knew it well before I even went to his high school. I would hear his fellow schoolmates talk about him when I would go to that food place near their school sometimes.

What most – or all – of them didn't know, was the reason why he was this way. I knew why – or I had a faint idea until that idea was solidly confirmed. Abandoned by his parents at an early age and being raised by an aunt who never treated him like a real son, Oliver was afraid to let people in, afraid to get attached. I know this because my mother worked in the office as his aunt and she would hear her talk about her nephew like he was a burden to her. And so Ollie never got attached, never made friends, never let anyone in.

I had only ever seen him from afar until then when on the first day of high school, I walked right into him. I can't recall the impolite words he threw my way that day but I do remember not giving a care in the world. I was alone in a new high school with no friends. I started following him around for weeks like a lost puppy, ignoring his constant remarks and jabs. I wanted to be friends with him, somehow. When he realized I wasn't letting go of him anytime soon and that I most definitely did not mind being seen with him, he gave in. 

"You're damn stubborn," he had said.

And he was right. I can be stubborn when I want to. It took him more than half a year to truly let me in but in the end, he did. When he left to go to college, I was devastated but he'd promised to stay in touch and come visit. And he did. Till this day, he and I are close.

"Remember how you wouldn't give up on him?"

Uh-oh. I see where this is going. "That's different," I shake my head at her. "I knew about him before I met him and I was on a mission to make him realize that he could be loved, that not everyone was going to abandon him."

"Yes, I know it's different. But imagine Yann is Ollie."

"I can't." I blurt out immediately, momentarily forgetting that I said I would try to look past what's skin-deep.

"Tracy," Ellie says in annoyance. "Just listen. I can't tell you much, OK? But trust me when I say that Yann is worth it just like Oliver was."

I sigh, giving in to her. "You always have to have it your way, don't you?" I grumble in fake annoyance.

She smiles but remains serious. "Thank you," she says.

"Yeah, whatever," I say dismissively but inside I'm grateful that our little feud is over.

"Yann is a good person," she says with a smile, trying to convince me once more that there's more to Yann that meets the eye. "He's just a little difficult sometimes, you know?" And her smile turns apologetic, knowing her words couldn't be farther from the truth.