Ezra

September was uneventful. I quickly discovered that Josh's threats were empty. He mostly left me alone, which suited me just fine, even if I would've rathered that we were friends.

I still couldn't tell what had possessed me to tie Josh's tie for him, that first day, even though I'd been thinking about it for the entire first month that we'd been in school. It might have been some sort of anger at his inability to tie his own tie, or it might have been this weird, tiny desire in the back of my mind to get my hands on him.

I'd needed to punch something, I decided. I'd just wanted to punch him in the face because he'd been a dick to me. It hadn't been anything else.

I'd made sure that Josh never saw me without my makeup. I woke up before he did, reliably. My makeup was on and I was usually halfway dressed when he finally dragged himself out of bed, though we were both managing to get to breakfast on time, regularly.

I still sat at the same table as him, but I might as well have been on a different planet from him and the other jocks. I wasn't included in their conversations about football, but I didn't really care.

"We're against another prep school this week," Ian-- the captain, as I'd come to understand it-- said. He looked over a lot of papers with some sports mumbo-jumbo that I couldn't understand very easily.

"We'll put them in the ground," Josh promised.

I smiled to myself at his confidence. It was... infuriating. My smile turned into a frown instead.

Kieran, ever the smart one, responded, "It's a prep school well-known for their team. They're the ones who'll put us in the ground, more likely."

"Not if we practise," Ian said smoothly.

Kieran rolled his eyes. "Wow. Who knew-- if we practise, we get better."

"Shut up, Littwick." Ian sighed. "We need to practise a lot. I'm doubling practise times, and we're going to have an extra practise this week."

"But, Ian, we have a quiz coming up," Josh argued, with wide eyes. He looked a little scared. "I need the study time."

"We're having an extra practise, Preston, but I'll make that one the normal length. That okay with you?" Ian raised an eyebrow at my roommate, and I got a little secondhand intimidation.

Josh nodded, putting his head down and staring at his ham-and-cheese scramble. He was silenced for a long, long moment.

"I can help you study," I offered quietly.

He shook his head. "I'll figure it out. I don't need your help, freak. I know what I'm doing."

"Okay..." I sighed and poked at my own eggs. "I just wanted to help, if you needed it."

"I don't need anything-- any help-- from you, Ezra. Leave me alone, okay?" He huffed. "And I don't know why you're even here. You seriously need to find somewhere else to sit."

"Okay, I'll sit somewhere else at lunch." I frowned into my food as I took my next bite. "You're really not even trying to be nice, are you?"

"'Why should I?'" Kieran mocked Josh before he could even say anything in response to me. Josh had said the phrase before, so I'd expected it.

Josh grumbled something that sounded like "Yeah, why should I?"

I finished my food and stood, then grabbed my bag. "Bye," I said, as I headed to the library, to get some reading done before class.