"You know, you guys should really figure your shit out," said Joshua, and he said it so calmly that Ethan almost fell from his chair.

"I'm sorry, did you just swear?" he asked, too shocked to even consider what Joshua said.

Joshua laughed it off and looked Ethan right in the eyes. "I meant what I said. You don't even know why you hate each other in the first place."

"I hate him because he had sex with more than one girl I've had a crush on and he tried to make my life as miserable as it can be."

Joshua shrugged and looked away, but Ethan had a feeling that the conversation certainly wasn't over.

Sure, that was a good enough reason for him to hate Lucas, but others apparently didn't seem to think so.

Ethan tried to pay attention to the teacher, but he really wasn't making any sense. Sure, he was saying words, but they didn't stay in his head.

Fuck philosophy, man.

Joshua cleared his throat to bring attention back to himself. "You never told me how the two of you went from being best friends to trying to rip each other's throats out. It seems like a drastic enough change to at least try to mention it to your best friend."

"I don't need a reason to not like someone."

Ethan's words were harsh, maybe, but they made sense to him.

He didn't need a reason to hate Lucas Hamilton because every single time Hamilton took a breath, he stole the air from Ethan. Every time he won a game, he stole a potential victory from Ethan.

In short, everything he did was just to spite Ethan, and so that was precisely why he hated him.

But if he tried to explain it to Joshua, he wouldn't understand. He'd probably tell him he was crazy or something like that.

"You maybe don't need a reason to not like someone, but you sure need a reason to hate someone as much as you hate Lucas. You go around acting like he broke your heart or something."

"No, he certainly didn't do that, but it's enough that he exists. He tries to bother me all the time and he made it his life's mission to steal every single girl I set my sights on from me."

"Has he ever even slept with any of your girlfriends?" Joshua looked at Ethan like he was a damn detective. "And that you know for a fact they actually slept together."

Ethan had to think hard about it.

Sure, there were rumors that things happened, but he never got any proof.

Sometimes Hamilton made jokes about it, and it was implied by a great number of people that he slept with Ava at the party, but besides that, nobody had any proof.

People liked to talk about him because they knew it made Ethan upset and apparently any drama was enough to spice up their boring lives.

"So?" asked Joshua, tapping his foot against the floor rhythmically. "Has he?"

Ethan shook his head. "I don't know of any for sure. But he's slept with girls that I had a crush on."

"Did he know you had a crush on them?"

"Probably. I mean, maybe he did. It's not like I'm great at hiding my feelings."

Joshua laughed at that. "No, it's actually that you're great at hiding your feelings and if someone doesn't know you well enough, they can't tell what you're thinking. Ever. Because you're very very bad at sharing your thoughts and feelings with the outside world."

"The outside world doesn't care about my thoughts and feelings, Joshua. All they care about is me winning the games or what drama I can cause. Not what I actually care about."

"I care about what you care about, Ethan, and you know that."

That was the truth.

In reality, Joshua was pretty much the perfect best friend.

They didn't spend as much time together as they used to, but they still cared about each other and there was a sense of respect between them that would never really disappear.

They trusted each other with things they never told other people, and it was years and years of consistently being there for one another that made them as close as they were.

"Well, Joshua, I know you care about me, that's why you'd never sleep with a girl I have a crush on, would you?"

Joshua burst out laughing but after a few moments he calmed himself down when he realized that other people in the class were staring at them. "No, that I wouldn't."

The teacher walked up to the two of them and cleared his throat. "Can I ask what's so funny, Mr. Bennett? If you don't mind, you can share with the entire class."

"I'm sorry," said Joshua and looked down, but the corner of his mouth was still turned up and that was enough to let Ethan know that he was far from sorry.

The two of them would never apologize to someone else for laughing, of all things.

The teacher walked back to the front of the class and Ethan tilted his head towards Joshua. "Teachers are calling you out so regularly people are going to start to think I'm corrupting you."

"No, don't worry, I could never be corrupted. Joshua Bennett will be the golden boy of this school forever and ever, and no football player can change that."

Ethan rolled his eyes and the two laughed, a bit more quietly this time around. "Back to the subject, I can't just back off and stop being mad at Hamilton. That would mean I'm admitting defeat, and I really can't do that. It'd be social suicide."

"Social suicide this, social suicide that. Maybe you haven't considered the possibility that social suicide could potentially be a good idea. People wouldn't constantly try to pry into your life without your permission, right?"

"No, it wouldn't be a good idea. If I want to be a professional football player, I need to start getting used to people paying attention to me and even in some weird way, get used to people wanting to bring me down."

Joshua snickered. "Ethan, I think if you just took a step back, you'd realize that this beef you have with Hamilton is not as life-threatening as you think it might be."

"You don't know Lucas as well as I do. He's not this perfect boy everyone else seems to think he is."

"Trust me, I really don't think that he's the perfect boy. All I'm saying is that you could try being a bit nicer to him or just ignoring him and things would probably become a lot better than they are right now. I mean, anything would be better than the situation right now, right?"

Ethan shrugged, not really thinking about Joshua had just said.

And yeah, maybe Joshua's advice was valid, but Ethan wasn't one to listen to ideas like that.

Actually, there were higher chances of him turning around and causing more beef than there was before, just because Joshua said that.

But Joshua meant well, and that was the point.

"Thanks for the advice."

The teacher started to walk towards them and so they kept silent.

Then, the teacher turned around and spoke loudly to the entire class. "I know you guys have a short lunch break today, so I'll let you go a little earlier than usual, but you have to stay silent. If I hear you making this much noise again, you won't get to leave early ever again."

Joshua and Ethan looked at each other with big smiles on their faces.

They knew what was going on.

The teacher just wanted to leave and go have lunch with the Chemistry teacher. The whole school had seen them looking at each other like two lovebirds, and it was very possible that he was letting them go early just to go have lunch with her.

However, they didn't complain and instead just stood up and started to leave the classroom along with everyone else.

"I'm annoyed that even Mr. Brewer can get into a relationship and I can't," complained Ethan as the two walked through the classroom door. "Why does the world hate me?"

Joshua shrugged as he approached his locker. "Well, maybe if you concentrated more on dating than Lucas Hamilton, you'd be successful at it. But I guess you'll be stuck with him forever."