"You guys, we're almost done with our project. We should celebrate when we finish." Beth says to James and I. Today was February 27th, and our project was due March 5th. "We should. We could go out for dinner or something." James said, agreeing with Beth. "We could invite some of our friends and you could invite some of you friends. We'd just have a good time." Beth adds.
We stayed afterschool today to work on our project but we haven't gotten any of our materials out. We've been sitting around and talking for the past 20 minutes. "Well, I would like to stay and help, but I have to go take a test for my Physics teacher. I was going to tell ya'll this morning, but I forgot." Beth says. "Wait, so you're leaving us?" I ask her. "Yeah, but i'll be back. I'll try to finish my test as fast as I can." Beth says. "No, take as long as you need. Physics is hard so you're going to need as much time as possible." James says to Beth. Beth smiled at him. "Bye ya'll," she says, "I'll call you when i'm done." she says to me. "Okay. Good luck." I say to her.
After she left, James and I sat around for a little while longer. "Do you really want to work on the project right now?" he asks me. "Not really. I kind of want to work on the board and not the project itself." I say to him. I pulled out some paper and markers and set them on the table. I handed a paper and marker to James and told him to start decorating. After hesitating for a second, he grabbed the materials and began to work. He sat directly in front of me and began drawing on the paper.
I thought about what I needed to draw but I couldn't remember what I needed to do. I looked at James paper to get a clue but he was just doodling. "James, what are you doing?" I asked him. "I was drawing a cat. See." he says showing me his drawing. "Thats not what your suppose to be doing." I say to him. "Well, I didn't know what I was suppose to be doing. Do you know what your doing? You don't even have anything on your paper." he says, pointing to my blank sheet. "Shut up." I simply say. "No, you shut up." he said, mocking me. "James." I say. "Elena." he says in the same tone.
Before I could respond, James' phone began to ring. "Hey Carly." he says answering the phone. "I'm working on my project..... No.....My friend Elena....Yes....Yes but.....No......Carly, chill out......Carly, i'm not about to argue with you.....You're being ridiculus.....No i'm not.....We'll talk later.....Hello? Carly?" He moved the phone from his ear and saw that she had hung up. "Wow. I can't believe she hung up on me." James says. "She sounds upset." I say to him. "Yeah. She was like, why do you spend so much time with those girls and blah blah blah." he says to me.
"Would you like to talk about it? The girls always come to me for advice." I say. "Sure. Carly's been a pain in the butt for the past month. She becoming so jealous. At first, it was kind of cute, but now it's so annoying. I can't do or say anything without her getting upset." he explains to me. "Have you tried to talk to her?" I ask him. "I've tried, but we always end up arguing. We've been together for about 7 months but she doesn't trust me. She's always accusing me for something. Right now, she was yelling at me because she said that I spend too much time with you and Beth." he says.
"Well, I can understand why she's upset. She's younger so she feels intimated. She thinks that you hanging out with us might change your feelings toward her, although, she seems very mature for her age." I say to him. "Well, even if she does feel intimated, she should trust me." he says. "True, but as a girl, I can understand where she's coming from. Since she sounds jealous, she might follow my philsophy on boys and girls." I say to him. "You have a philosophy? That sounds interesting. Tell me." he says.
"Okay, so basically, I believe that boys and girls can't be friends with one person developing feelings for the other. But this does not mean that the other person knows or that the feelings are acted upon. Either the person will keep in the feelings to protect the friendship or the person would let out their secert in hopes that the other feels the same." I explain to him. "Humm, your philosophy sounds interesting. But I don't believe it." he says. "So, you're saying that you think guys and girls can be friends, without all the extra feelings?" I ask him. "Yeah, guys and girls can be JUST friends." he says.
"I never said they couldn't JUST be friends. I just said that one person will soon develop feelings. I never said that the friends will try to date or anything." I say to him. "Well, give me some examples." he says to me. "Okay. Ummm, how about Hermoine, Ron, and Harry from Harry Potter. They were three best friends and Hermoine and Ron ended up falling in love. Now, I haven't seen the last movie, i'll watch it one day, but I know that Harry and Hermoine kissed, which means that there were some feelings there before." I explain to him.
"Okay, but they're just characters in a movie and a book." he says. "Are you saying you want another example?" I ask him. "Yeah." he says. "Okay. I'll use a personal example. I had a friend named Eddie. Eddie and I were friends for about 2 months before he asked me out. We were friends and then he developed feelings that he acted upon." I explain to him. "Humm, so did ya'll date?" he askes. "Yeah, but that was the shortest relationship ever. But there are some flaws in my philosophy." I say. "Like?" he questions. "Well, although Eddie and I dated, me and him are still good friends, and just only friends." I state.
"Hum, so if thats your philosophy, are you saying that you and I can't be friends?" he asks, taking me by surprise. "Well, technically, yeah. We can't be friends without one of us developing feelings for the other," I say to him. "Oh really?" he says. "Yeah, but that also brings up another flaw. I'm not sure if feelings before the friendship count or not." I say, hinting at my crush.
"So, you're saying that you and I can't be friends because eventually, one of us will develop feelings for the other?" he asks me. "Well, I never said we couldn't be friends." I say. "Okay, let me rephrase what I am saying. I mean, you're saying that if we become good friends, one of us will develop feelings for the other?" he re-explains. "Yeah, basically." I say. "Well, I don't believe in your philosophy." James says, looking me directly in the eyes.
"Oh, so are you saying that's never happened to you?" I ask him. "Yup." he answers without hesitation. "If you say so." I say to him, rolling my eyes a little bit. "You don't believe me?" he asks me. "Not really." I say. "Well, I'm telling the truth." he says to me. Instead of answering, I just shrug.
He opened his mouth to say something, but suddenlly stopped. He looked at me for about a minute before speaking again. "How about I make you a bet?" he asks me. "What kind of a bet?" I reply. "I bet that you and I can be best friends without one of us developing feelings for the other." he says to me. I looked at him raising my eyebrows. "I'm not sure what you mean." I say. "I'm saying that you and I can become really close and not develop any romantic feelings." he says to me.
"This sounds ridiculous." I say to him. "How would that even work?" I ask. "Well, we could spend a lot of time toghether, and get to know each other and stuff. Then at the end of the year or something, we could tell each other how we really feel." he explains to me. "But, we could always lie." I say to him. "True, but if we know each other really well, we can tell if the other is lieing. Plus, we could keep like journals or something and just exchange those." he says.
"So, basically, you're betting me that we won't have feelings for each other if we become best friends. So, what happens IF you win the bet?" I ask him. "Well, I didn't really think about that, but I guess, you would have to change your philosophy and you'd owe me a dinner and apology." he says. "So, what about if I win?" I ask. "Well, I guess I'd owe you dinner and an apology. Plus, if the feelings are mutual, then maybe the dinner would turn into a date." he answers.
"What about your girlfriend? I don't think she would be happy with you and I becoming best friends." I say, reminding him of Carly. "Well, I'm a big boy. I can handle her." he says. "Well, what if I win the bet and the feelings are mutual? What would happen between you and her?" I ask. "Well, I guess well figure out when the time comes." he says, smiling mischievously.
"Oh, god. I can't believe i'm actually going to accept this bet." I say to myself. James smiled at me and said, "How about we make this a little bit more interesting." "Oh gosh, what?" I say, scared of his new thought. "How about the loser buys the winner a present?" he adds. "What kind of present?" I ask. "I don't know. I guess it could be anything." he answers. "Could a kiss count as a present?" I ask. "I don't know. Depends." he answers with a grin.
"I don't know if I should take you up on this bet." I say after thinking for a moment. "Why? Are you scared that you're going to lose?" he says. "No, it's just, I don't know, this bet just sounds crazy." I tell him. "Stop being a scaredy cat. Live a little." he says to me. I pause for a second before answering him. "Fine. I'll take you up on your bet." James smiled at my reply. "Let's shake on it. It makes it seem official." James says to me, raising his hand.
Hesitantly, I shook his hand. I knew that this bet would cause a lot of turmoil but I was excited. Maybe this was my chance with him. Maybe I could possibly win this bet and get the guy.