Z. B
"Since you weren't here yesterday, Mr. Moore," Mrs. Neal tried to sound apologetic, but it wasn't working. "I had to put you with Zaid for our project."
I could not describe how hilarious it was when his jaw dropped through the ground, nothing but angry sputters coming out of his mouth. It wasn't like I didn't have anybody to work with in the class because everyone volunteered. It was a matter of I just simply didn't want to work with them and my reason for that was only known to Mrs. Neal.
It really didn't help with the fact that Sophia Neal was the third to the trio that my mother, Katrine Brooks, and Aaron's mother, Clarissa Moore made up.
"B-but Mrs. Neal, can you please reconsider that decision?" Aaron looked as if he wanted to jump out of the window, hoping that a tree would end his life, but Sophia wasn't having it. "No, now go sit down, Mr. Moore," She motioned, giving him that infamous glare and he glared back on his dreadful walk to me, probably promising himself internally that he was going to tell his mom to stop being friends with her because she obviously was plotting against him.
The trio loved us like we were their sons. Sophia probably loved me more because I confided in her about such things that I hadn't told my own mother, and she probably understood me.
"Fix your face, you look dumb," I pointed to the disgusted frown on his lips as he threw himself into the seat next to me, doing everything he possibly could to avoid eye contact with me. "Shut up, you fucking idiot," He snarled at me and I smirked, knowing that he couldn't resist rising to the bait. "So, are you going to work with me on this or am I going to do it all on my own," I lowered my voice for effect, watching his face redden as he rose in his chair to give me the evil eyes.
"Like I do with everything else?"
Aaron growled lowly before shoving his desk to connect with mine, snatching the project papers from me. "As if!" His eyes scanned over the papers and I used that chance to really look at his side profile, seeing how lusciously pale his smooth skin was under the light of the ceiling, how the glint of his eye deepened when he frowned, or the dimple in his right cheek that became even more pronounced when he chewed on his bottom lip.
Sometimes, I wondered what happened between us.
A pang in my heart distracted me from looking at the imbecile before me. "What the hell are you looking at, Brooks? Did I kick your ass too hard at practice yesterday?" He cocked a brow at me and I sighed, cutting my eyes at him.
"You wish, Moore. You and I both know that I was the one doing the ass-kicking, just like I do in everything else," His face darkened even more and I knew he was pissed and he went to retort, probably something really cruel about to leave his lips, but Mrs. Neal stopped us.
"Guys!" She snapped at us. "Get to work," She pointed to the paper in Aaron's hand and we ignored the fawning gazes from the females that were scattered around us in their groups. "Fine! So it says that we need to create a trailer of a movie that would describe the two of us. Then once we do that, we need to create a ten-minute screenplay of the movie to show to the class."
It made sense since this was a technical filmology that focused on the development of movies and as such, we had to learn how to make our own like we were the directors or something. "That doesn't sound too bad," I shrugged and he sighed heavily, opening his book bag to pull out a pencil.
"So what do we want our plot to be?" Aaron looked me straight in the eyes and I felt my breath get stuck in my throat. He raised a brow when I didn't answer in adequate time, giving me a face of annoyance and I cleared my throat, feeling like a fool.
"I feel like it would be much more effective if we told a true story about our lives and us growing up," I suggested and he stared at me with an unreadable expression. It was no joke if I said that we were the best of friends growing up. We had to be because our mothers practically raised us together.
But it all went wrong.
"Seems like you got some good ideas in that empty head of yours," He muttered plainly before writing down my idea. "If you want, we can ask our mothers to play a role in this trailer and have the kids on our block play as us, you know," Aaron bit his lip and I could hear the girls next to us swooning. "For efficiency," I nodded along, deciding to let him have full reign.
For those who didn't know Aaron like myself or Natalia or Owen, he was the most artistic and creative person. He hid it well but sometimes, I wished he didn't.
I was pretty confident that he could hear the girls all around whispering our names and giggling. I wanted to poke fun at him and tell him that they were talking about me more, but I didn't need to. I didn't want to.
"So if we want to work on this, we need to do it after practice, probably at one of our places," I nodded, coming up with a plan. "We can alternate every day and work on it for four hours each day so we can stay on the deadline," I threw out and Aaron pinned me with an evil stare. "Four hours with you every day, including my weekends? Zaid, are you stupid?" He pursed his lips and I rolled my eyes, liking the way my name sounded coming off of his tongue.
"We used to do it longer every day, no problem. What's the issue now?" He went to open his mouth but said nothing, so I figured that I won this conversation. "Good. I'll follow you to your house since our parents are having their book meeting at mine," I explained and he looked away like he was so uncomfortable with the plans.
Maybe then if I played Call of Duty with him, he'd stop being a bitch.
"And then you can cook for me," I smirked, watching his neck snap around back to me, his cheeks darkened as he glared a hole into my soul. "And why in the hell would I do that for you of all people?" He grimaced as if the idea left a raunchy taste in his mouth.
"Well, why wouldn't you cook for your king?"
My glory didn't last too long because all of a sudden, I felt a harsh pain in my shin. "God damn it, Moore!" I hissed, reaching down to rub my abused leg. "Say some useless shit like that again and you'll more than just a kick," He frowned, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was going to do it for me anyway.
See, if one was just looking into the inside from the outside, they would never get a glimpse into the real Aaron Moore. He was multi-faceted and he had a spare template persona that he showed everyone: the girls, people he just met, classmates, even our teammates, but if you were one of the elite, belonging to his friend circle, you'd realized that there was more to him.
Lucky for me, I was almost there in figuring him out completely.
When class was over and the bell rang, Mrs. Neal gave us both a look that told us to play nice with each other and Aaron just grunted before storming out of the class like the drama queen he was.
He'd come around though. I exited the classroom, having a lot on my mind. Upon my return from Australia, I had a lot to make up for. I had to think about college, where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do and how to work for it. I knew I had to make up for basketball as scouts were coming and I had to be on my game.
That was one of the many things Aaron and I had in common.
The only difference was I fell in love with the sport because of him. However, that was a deep secret I intended to keep to myself.
"Hey!" I felt a hand tug on my sleeve and I whirled over to see Kylene next to me, looking ever as happy to see me. I couldn't lie and say that I didn't feel the same. "How was class today?" She asked, intertwining her arm around mine. I knew the action would garner looks of jealousy from other females, but I found that I didn't care.
"It was alright. Aaron and I got put into a project together, so that's that," I explained and she raised her brow, smirking slightly. "Speaking of the king of Northvale," She tilted her head and I stared at her, pondering her next few words.
"What do you want out of this bet between you and Aaron?" She poked me in the side, her bug eyes gleaming up at me and I shrugged, knowing that I went through countless times in my mind. "That's for me to know and you to find out," I winked at her, ignoring the raise of her eyebrow. Of course, I already knew what the prize was going to be and a delicious prize it was indeed. "Who knows? Maybe it'll be us dating in the end if I sweep you off your toes?" I offered and she rolled her eyes as if she didn't believe me.
Well, I wasn't going to put any truth to that statement.
"Oh, a relationship?" She mused, chuckling slightly and nudging me as if we were sharing some inside secret between the two of us. If I didn't know now, I was going to know that I was going to come to consider Kylene as more than an acquaintance.
We heard footsteps from behind us long after we heard the voice. "Relationship between who?" I stifled the jump of my shoulders as I turned around to see that Aaron came out of nowhere, giving us a look of apprehension.
I decided to get to the jump before Kylene had anything to say, my eyes straying along his appearance before settling in on his cobalt blue eyes, liking the way that they stayed on mine too. "If I win this bet," I threw an arm around Kylene's shoulders, taking in the clench of his jaw. Part of me wished that he'd be mad that my arm wasn't around him, but that was my own secret to take to the grave.
"I get to date Kylene," I smiled cheerfully and he snorted like it was a joke. "Shut up, dumbass. It's obvious that I'm going to be the winner here, just like in everything else," He grumbled, running a hand through his black hair and I hated that my eyes followed along with every moment. He really wanted to fight with me about who was the king of Northvale, but it was evident that it was me because no matter what, he was the one who always tried to one-up me.
And like the idiot I was, I fed into it.
"No," Kylene removed my arm from around her and I raised my brows. "This won't end with a relationship between either of us!" She sighed, exasperated that she had to deal with this, but she didn't seem to fawn over the fact that she had two of the hottest guys in the school fighting over her. That made me impeccably curious about what was going through her mind.
"That sucks, Kylene. Who wouldn't want a relationship with you?" I murmured with a small pout and she hitched a breath.
This question was directed towards Kylene of course, but my gaze was inevitably stuck on Aaron, watching as his eyes narrowed and his cheeks traitorously reddened, the sputtering from Kylene's lips erring as mere white noise and the sight before me made me smirk deviously.
Well, I suppose it could be directed at anyone.
Score for Zaid Brooks.