Chapter 6
August 2004
~TRAVIS~
That night, Elijah and I were all alone in the cafeteria wiping down tables and mopping up the greasy floors, all while everyone else was out having fun at the lake. It kinda sucked that this was how I had to spend my evening but I guess I kinda deserved it for attempting to provoke Elijah to fight me. The two of us didn't say a word to each other the first half of the hour, but over time I couldn't bear the utter silence any longer and attempted to make nice with him (for real this time), just for the sake of breaking the silence.
"Look, man, I'm sorry for... trying to screw your chances with Heather..." I awkwardly began my apology, stopping once I realized that I had no idea of where I was going with this.
He didn't say anything right away and I assumed that meant that he didn't want to talk so I just gave up on him. If he didn't want to forgive me, he didn't have to, so...
Though, eventually, he ultimately spoke up and shocked me with his sudden change of heart. "It's fine, man..." he said with a hint of sincerity.
"It is?" I questioned in disbelief.
"Yeah, I guess... you know what, I should be the one who's sorry... for being a douche to you... for all these years... for no real reason," he said to my surprise and at the time I never thought I'd live to see the day that Elijah Radford apologized to me.
"You are?"
"Yeah... it was wrong of me to tell you to stay away from Heather. I was just afraid that she liked you more than me and I was just... really desperate for a girlfriend."
"You got that right! But I swear I thought she liked you more and only wanted me as a friend. She literally said that she thought you were cute and she sounded pretty excited when she talked about you."
"Did she? So much for that, huh?"
"Forget about her, man. Like, on my way here, I saw her chatting up some sophomore dude."
"What a hoe," he muttered, rolling his eyes in contempt.
"You can say that again," I chuckled awkwardly.
"You're such a loser," he attempted to laugh but stopped himself midway as if his pride prevented it.
"Well, I guess this makes us both losers," I laughed in an attempt to make him reciprocate which he inevitably did. And for the first time ever, it finally felt like he didn't hate my guts anymore. "So, why did you hate me so much?"
For some reason, Elijah didn't feel too comfortable answering that question. "I don't know, man..."
I guess I thought that he would have more to say than just "I don't know."
"Now that I think about it, I really don't know. I guess I'm just like that with people I feel threatened by." Yeah, how about you tell me the real reason now. "But I'm over it now, I promise. I won't bully you again. Truce?" He held his hand out for me to shake and for once I actually felt like the guy was being sincere.
I shook his hand and agreed as a smile formed on his face. "Dude, how are so cool with me after I practically just beat your ass?"
YOU ARE READING
Summer of '07
Romance[boyxboy] Travis Tucker, a paralegal who is unsatisfied with his life, is reunited with his former best friend from high school, Elijah Radford, after having not spoken to him in twelve years following an incident that occurred between the pair duri...
