Dense?

I am dense?

Me?

If only he said, out loud and out right, what bothered and angered him. What I’d done wrong. I already had my suspicions, to be frank, but I didn’t dare think about them for longer than a few seconds, only to have steam practically shooting out of my ears in embarrassment. 

Even the next day after the botched study group, Oliver’s mood hadn’t changed for the better. It had worsened, actually, with his usual, angry frown returned atop his eyebrows, and a frightening aura that told everyone to stay back. His annoyance and attitude was loud and clear, making everyone run wide circles around him to avoid him. 

He avoided me, too. Stared out the window like he’d done the first few weeks of school, took up more than half the space of the desk, and didn’t dare look at me.

Until a project for our current course was announced, that was, and the teacher asked us to find ourselves in groups of two. She didn’t care with whom we teamed up, as long as we did it swiftly. 

My eyes darted over to Oliver, and now, he looked at me. With big, puppy-like eyes, he stared, his mouth opening every now and then, but before a peep came out of it, Matt had already rushed over to my desk. 

“Let’s do it, Finn!” he grinned, snatching my pencil case off my desk, ready to return back to his own with me in tow. I had no choice. With Oliver in a bad mood, despite the way he looked at me, I could only choose Matt. Oliver didn’t even ask me, anyway, didn’t say a single word. 

I wanted him to ask me.

If he asked whether I wanted to group up with him, I’d say yes in a damn heartbeat, and wouldn’t even get to hesitate like I did now with Matt. 

But as soon as I got up to follow my best friend, I already felt fingers clawing at my wrist like a wild animal, yanking me back, making me fall back onto my chair. 

“He’s already in a group,” Oliver growled right at Matt with glaring eyes, and Matt stared, confused. With the way Oliver grasped me, everyone for sure thought he bullied me. 

His attitude didn’t help at all, and Matt, in an effort to save me, mumbled: “But Finn and I always do this stuff together—“ 

“Not anymore,” Oliver interrupted him with an angry hiss. “Piss off.” 

“Aren’t you just trying to get an easy way out? You’ll make him do everything, sit back, and get a good grade for doing nothing?” 

Being labeled as such, Oliver snapped. He’d been working hard for school, and I knew he had, and to be accused of such laziness was the last straw for him — not that I excused the behavior that followed. 

His chair screeched backwards, echoing through the classroom. Everyone gawked, speechless or whispering the gossip of Oliver who returned to his usual ways, his anger exploding out of him just like it did in every single rumor he carried with him. 

Reaching over the desk, me stuck right between, Oliver snatched Matt’s shirt, pulling him right into the desk’s corner. 

“Say it again,” he hissed. Somehow, it overcame me that all of this frustration Oliver carried wasn’t just for this one project, but for Matt in general, having built up over the course of weeks. 

“You’re just leeching off our class’ best student,” Matt grumbled, though I knew he felt intimidated. He wasn’t confrontational, nor could he fight. He was just a skinny boy that loved to game. 

“What the hell are you doing, then?” Oliver’s fist tightened. “You’re just hanging out with him so he gives you all the homework you always forget. What makes you any better, you—“ 

“We’ve been friends since kindergarten! You just waltz in here because you were too dumb to graduate the first time!” 

“Matt!” I proclaimed in a shock, already witnessing in Oliver’s face how he completely lost it. Our teacher was completely helpless, her voice barely even heard in the tumultuous classroom, and as I was stuck between them I only had one choice before Matt’s nose would end up broken and staining the classroom floor with his blood. 

I rushed onto my feet, my hands pressing against both their chests. 

“What is wrong with you guys? Stop!” How childish and ridiculous was this? To have them fight over me, over which one of them would get to group up with me? Seriously? “You guys need to grow up!” 

Oliver let go of Matt’s shirt, who immediately pressed against it to flatten the folds Oliver had created. He trembled all over, that idiot. Why pick a fight with Oliver if he was so terrified of him? 

I gazed over at Oliver with scolding eyes. “You can’t just throw your fists at anyone when you get frustrated, Oliver. Calm down,” I said loud and clear, making him jerk back and lower his gaze. Like a scolded puppy that tucked its tail between its leg, his shoulder’s slouched. 

“And you,” I turned to face my best friend, with whom I was just as furious. “You can’t just call someone dumb, Matt. If I hadn’t helped you last year, you would have had to repeat biology. Did you forget about that?” 

I tried my hardest to be Switzerland here, or something. I wasn’t happy with either one of them. 

“I’m not grouping up with either of you,” I said, leaving no room for complaints after I did. 

Snatching my pencil case out of Matt’s fingers, I went to group up with Sophie, his girlfriend, instead, who shook her head and was just as speechless as I was. 

“Do I need to send you two to the director’s office?” the teacher sighed towards Matt and Oliver, and both of them shook their heads.

“No, teach, all good here,” Matt sighed, but they both quickly realized that everyone else had already teamed up, and our teacher didn’t allow them to work solo, even after they pleaded and begged. 

Well, Matt did most of the begging, while Oliver appeared pale and completely taken aback, scolding himself for his own behavior. I watched him, as he sat back down, slap his own forehead and grasp a bundle of his hair so tight, he could have ripped it out of his scalp.