Summer of '07

The Rivalry

Chapter 5

July 2004

~TRAVIS~

Not long after my date with Heather did I find myself being harassed by Elijah Radford, who of course must've found out that the two of us had hung out the night before. And apparently he also must've found out that Heather was just as into me as she was to him. And thus was the beginning of the infamous rivalry between Travis Tucker and Elijah Radford.

It all started when I woke up one morning being splashed from a bucket of cold water by Elijah and his goons. "Stay away from Heather... she's way out of your league and deserves someone who isn't a loser... or a fag," he said, looking me up and down with such misplaced contempt. Before then, I had rarely ever even talked to him so he had no real reason to hate my guts the way he did. I didn't understand how he had gotten the impression that I was a loser or a fag considering the fact that he didn't know me at all at the time. It took me years to find out the whole truth behind that mystery and it certainly wasn't what I expected.

"And you think she deserves someone like you?!" I retorted in an effort to spite him as he walked off, storming out of the cabin like an arrogant asshole. There was no way in hell I was gonna lose Heather to that psycho. As soon as she saw the mean and entitled side of Elijah Radford there was no way she would still be into him.

So that afternoon at lunch when I saw Heather again the first thing I did was tell her what Elijah did to me in the morning and how he threatened me to stay away from her. And the reaction she gave me was nothing of what I had expected. She laughed and said, "Oh my god, Trav, is this your attempt to win me over by telling me that Elijah's a jerk and that you're the one I belong with?"

"What? No, I'm just trying to warn you about what kinda guy he's like, that's all. I mean, he's conceited and he thinks he's entitled to you. If you ask me, I think that's a pretty big red flag."

"Well, that's why I'm not asking you. If Elijah really is the jerk you say he is, let me find that out for myself," she said, still unconvinced and rather annoyed at my efforts to defame Elijah. I just hoped that that alone hadn't just tarnished my own chances with her.

"I'm just tryna look out for you, that's all."

"I'm sure you are... thanks but I can take it from here, I'm a big girl," she said as she rose from the lunch table that we had been dining at. "I'll see ya around, Trav."

"Yeah, I'll... see ya around."

Well, clearly that attempt had failed miserably, but I wasn't done yet. Heather would just have to see for herself how much of a jackass Elijah really was.

Later that evening, I got my bunk-mate, Daniel, to help me with my plan to expose Elijah as a bully in front of Heather so that she would see for herself that he was a bad guy and that she was much better suited with me.

On the way back to the cabins after dinner, I personally confronted Elijah and pretended to make amends with him by saying, "I see that we've started off on the wrong foot and I was just hoping that we could..."

"Kiss?! Nice try, faggot, I don't swing that way!" he loudly interrupted me so that he could purposely embarrass me in front of his friends as they laughed at his pathetic attempt to insult me. Really? Kiss? Where the hell did that come from?

"What I was trying to say is that I was hoping we could call it a truce and put this bullshit rivalry behind us," I said, holding my hand out for him to shake.

His friends laughed at me as if I were some amusing circus clown before them. Elijah however didn't and just looked me up and down as he always did and just smacked the palm of my hand out of his way, mumbling, "Truce," with no sense of sincerity whatsoever.