this love is good, this love is bad [wenclair]

chapter 11: I know I felt like this before

"How. On earth. Aren't. You. Sweating."
I shrugged my shoulders. Enid leaned against the red light that finally made us pause for a bit. She was completely out of breath and the color of her face was almost as vivid the hot pink tie-dye shorts' I had to borrow from her. For fifteen minutes or so, we hadn't made a single stop.
"We're almost there", she said when the light turned green and she started running again.
Her plan for the day was for us to go run during the morning, then go to that cafe she had talked about for lunch and then head back to her house, running of course.
I honestly hadn't expected her to be that disciplined about her jogging. I never saw her run at Nevermore. Not even once. Never earlier than ten o'clock during PE, at least.
We ran into a dead-end backstreet and she started to slow her pace. And I did as well, of course. We walked further until the end of the street. There were some tables and chairs outside, I guess that's where she wanted to take me.
"Inside or outside?", she asked.
I looked up. The sky was grey.
Perfect.
"Outside."
"Okay, pick a table. I'll go inside to get the menu."
I nodded and headed to a table that was a bit secluded from the others. Not even two minutes later, she came back.
"Wednesday, we're all alone outside, did-"
"Yes, I really did have to pick this specific table."
She rolled her eyes as she sat down in the chair. I genuinely couldn't tell if she liked it or absolutely despised it when I finished her sentences without it being her initial plan.
Enid passed me a menu. I took a quick look and gave it back to her.
"What are you taking?", she asked.
"The steak tartare and a black eye coffee."
"Their tartare is good, but I don't know if I've mentioned it before; their paninis..."
"You did."
"...are to die for", she finished, giving me a killer look.
I was really starting to rub off on her.
"So what are you taking?"
"The chicken curry panini and an iced americano."
"So I could take a bite and taste one of those killer paninis..."
"Weird formulation, but yes", she answered.
"Weird formulation? Have you read your blog?", I teased.
"Ouch", she said, "touché."
Enid took her phone out and I did as well.
"And we ran for a total of... 74 minutes, pauses not included."
"Yeah, well, I won't do it again."
"Why not?", she complained more than she asked.
"I don't like doing it. You just run without purpose, I don't see the fun in that."
"It's nicer to do with music of course."
"I don't have headphones."
"I can lend you a pair. And you should really download Spotify, I can add you to our family subscription if you want to. But if you really don't want to, maybe next time while you write I go for a run."
"Fair enough."
A waiter came to take our order. He looked fairly young, so I supposed that that was his student job.
"Hi ladies..."
I already didn't like him. Too Tyler-ey.
"... have you made your choices?"
Enid greeted him as well and then placed our order. He nodded at every single teeny tiny thing she said and put on an exaggerated smile that was way too big for his face. The guy wrote it down in a little notebook, just for the sake of doing it when he easily could've memorized it. Then, he clicked his pen and put it behind his ear.
"Okay, thank you!", he said before walking away.
"Was it me or...?", Enid started.
"He was indeed courting you."
She whistled. "Damn, my first time getting hit on", she commented, visibly satisfied.
"Enid, what the actual fuck? He's like twenty!"
"Well, you can't say much", she replied. "Wasn't Tyler twenty something?"
"No he wasn't!"
"How old is he then? He doesn't look sixteen..."
"He's-" We actually never discussed his age. "He said he was a senior."
That I was sure.
"In college, yeah!", she burst out laughing.
I gave her a bump on the shoulder.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Actually, I know he's turning nineteen this year, Lucas told me."
"The mayor's son?"
"Yeah, that bitch."
I didn't dig into it. All I know is that she went with him to the rave'n and that he turned out to be the one 'ruining' the night. That was enough to understand her harsh feelings towards him.
"Did you know he and Bianca are low-key dating?", she asked.
"No."
Not like I gave a shit anyway.
"They like posted pictures with each other and Xavier told me that he asked her and, well, they're kind of together."
I fainted some interest in what she just had said just to make her happy.
"So you talk with Xavier?" That was what I retained of all that information.
"We had almost all our classes in common during freshman year and we still text sometimes, but nothing more than that", she explained. "Also, I've told him that you'll answer when you'll answer, but he still insists on-"
"I texted back this morning."
"Ow, that's why I haven't heard from him today", she joked.
And with that she closed the topic.
Enid laid back in her chair and sighed. "Boys."

"... and like she was such a bitch about it! When we didn't do anything wrong at all. Okay, maybe we did, but still, it wasn't against the rules or something. In fact, it wasn't mentioned in the school rules, but when Yoko and Divina did it on the scales' balcony it wasn't a fucking problem."
I couldn't remember how the conversation went there, but it just did. Since the food had arrived, Enid had been telling me about the prior 'dorm mom' of Ophelia Hall. Specifically about how she reacted when the girls had the great idea of lighting fireworks on the balcony for someone's birthday. The lady retired short after that.
"Do you know who the new dorm mom is going to be?", I asked her.
"I don't know. I honestly hope they're gonna be like Thornhill."
"Seriously?"
"Minus the psycho 'I wanna resurrect my pilgrim ancestor to kill high schoolers' part, of course", she added. "I mean, she was nice and not too strict. She didn't say anything when she caught Ajax in my room. It's weird to think she faked everything, you know, the smiles... all of that."
Actually, I didn't know. I shrugged my shoulders.
"I never trusted her."
"You don't trust anybody", she scoffed. "No offense."
"None taken. No trust, no disappointment, in general at least. Sometimes you don't trust, but still are disappointed; special cases like Xavier exist."
She laughed. I liked how she just went with it. People always look weird at me, which isn't unpleasant, but someone embracing everything about me felt really nice.
"So are you girls done?"
The waiter pulled me out of my thoughts.
"Yep", Enid replied for both of us.
The waiter took our empty plates and glasses and was ready to go.
"Where is the restroom?", I asked him just before he left.
"It's inside, I'll show you, follow me", he said.
Enid gave me the deadpan look, she knew exactly what I was doing.
The interior of the café was even more aesthetically pleasing, as Enid would say, than the exterior. Everything about the decoration had been tastefully chosen. Even the bathroom sign looked good. The door was to the left of the counter, at which I stopped.
"So how much is it?", I asked, already taking out my wallet from my pocket.
"Didn't you have to go to the-"
"Don't you know the toilet trick to pay?", I replied.
"I was going to bring you the bill to the table, I don't think that's fair to her", he said, pointing to the cash I just pulled out.
"She paid last time so it's my turn now."
"But-"
I started to lose my patience.
"Dude, she doesn't want your number written on the ticket. So how much?"
He let me pay and handed me the ticket.
"You're sure she's not interest-"
"She's sixteen", I said loud enough for the only other customer that was inside to hear. She gave him a dirty look.
I grabbed the ticket out of his hand and headed back to our table.
"I should've seen it coming", Enid said with a smirk on her face.

~~~

"Next match, I want Wednesday on my team, you can have Jared", Anthony said, without taking his eyes off the screen.
It took them some time to explain to me how the PlayStation worked and how to play FIFA 22. However, after one crash-test game, I already mastered all the different buttons.
"No thanks", Enid replied, while passing me the ball, making us score another goal.
"HA 5-1 SUCKERS!"
Even though both Enid and Tony were sitting between us, I could sense Jared's frustration and anger. To be honest, the neighbors probably could sense it as well.
We continued to play and soon enough Mr. Sinclair called us, which was good since it was just halftime. Enid's dad had come home earlier than usual and made an afternoon snack for us. That's why he called us.
Jared turned the PlayStation off.
"JARED, why did you do that?! We were in the middle of it!", Enid protested.
"Oopsie, done out of habit!"
The two brothers laughed as they put the controllers away and got out the door.
"Asshole", Enid mumbled.
We put our things away as well and headed to the living room.