Since Forever Ago (23 page)

“Dude!” Max cried out at him once again, shooting him another annoyed glare.

“Go change your tampon or something, bro,” Evan said as he let out a snort of laughter. “Why are you in such a bad mood anyway?”

“Riley’s still avoiding me,” Max replied, lowering his voice so April couldn’t hear them. “I tried to give her some space before I finally caved, but now she’s ignoring my calls, my texts, my gchats. This is the longest we’ve ever gone without speaking to each other. I don’t even know if she’ll
ever
talk to me again!.”

Evan rolled his eyes at the mention of Riley’s name, which had become something of an hourly ritual as of late. “Why’s she so pissed anyway? That was Noah’s fault, not yours.”

“I don’t know!” Max hissed back. “You tell me!”

“Let’s ask them,” Evan suggested, gesturing towards April and Kara, who were both giggling like lip gloss-ed hyenas. “I bet they’d know.”

“What? How would
they
know anything? They’re
nothing
like Riley!”

“Bro, every single girl is the exact same person, just with different hair,” Evan insisted, rolling his highlighter in April’s direction. “It’s like they were all spawned from one mother spore.”

“Evan—”

“Ugh, even your writing utensils can’t wait to get away from you,” April remarked as she pushed the highlighter back towards its owner. “What do you want?”

“I’m having girl problems,” Evan began, a tiny smile on his lips as he glanced over at Max’s peeved face. “I thought maybe you two could help me try to figure them out.”

“What did you go and do
now
?” April asked as she raised an eyebrow at him.

“So Evan has this best friend from way back when he was a little kid,” Max blurted out, causing Evan to shoot him a quizzical frown. “She’s basically his best friend.”

“Um, no,” Kara firmly stated. “Boys and girls can’t be
just
friends.”

“Says who?”

“It’s, like, common knowledge,” April drawled out. “God, don’t you two know anything?”

“Whatever,” Max muttered. “Anyway, so this girl was dating Evan’s other friend for the longest time, when—”

“So she was a lesbian,” Kara deduced, nodding slightly for him to continue on.

“No, the other friend was a guy.”

“Oh, I just assumed that, since you thought that girls and guys could be friends, that Evan’s other friend was
also
a girl—”

“Dude, that would’ve been awesome,” Evan sighed out wistfully.

“Can we just get back to the story?” Max grumbled, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Why did all girls seem to possess attention spans that rivaled those of newborn squirrels? Maybe Evan was right—maybe they
were
all spawned from the same attention deficient mold. “So, as I was saying, his best female friend was dating one of his best male friends, when that male friend told Evan that he had this overwhelming urge to cheat on her.”

“Ugh,
why
do all guys have to be
such
assholes?” Kara groaned out before exchanging a knowing look with April. “That is
such
a typical move. It’s
just
like how Trent—”

“Back to the story,” Max repeated through gritted teeth as Evan stifled a laugh. “So that male friend asked Evan what he should do. Now, Evan here never told this to anyone, but he really, really, really liked that girl. Ever since they were little.”

“You got it wrong, bro,” Evan began, smirking at Max in amusement. “I didn’t like her. I
loved
her.”

“Oh my God, that is, like,
so
cute,” April gushed, her lips forming into a small pout. “Or, it would’ve been really cute if it was anyone other than Evan, I mean.”

“Yea, whatever,” Max mumbled as he shot Evan an annoyed glare. “So, then, Evan did something that he shouldn’t have done. But he only did it because of his feelings, so it’s not like he’s a terrible person or anything.”

“What did you do?” Kara asked, staring at Evan with widened eyes.

“I told him he should cheat on her,” Evan simply replied, at which Kara and April let out disgusted scoffs of disapproval. “And then he did. A lot.”

“Ugh!”

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“God, Evan, you are, like, the
worst.
”

“I can’t believe you did that!” Kara continued, a horrified look on her face. “That poor girl!”

“I know!” Evan sarcastically agreed with him, scrunching up his nose in distaste. “I’m horrible!”

“You really are!”

“It’s not
completely
his fault,” Max insisted in a hurried tone. “I mean, he only did it because he cared about her!”

“You are
so
selfish,” April told Evan, scowling at him as she did.

“I know, right?” Evan moaned out, trying his best to hold back his laughter as he caught Max’s eye. “What’s wrong with me?”

“But then,” Max began, drawing back the attentions of the two girls who had been preoccupied with glaring daggers at Evan. “Something happened.”

“Ooh, what?”

“Evan eventually told her about how he felt and she... well, they sort of got together,” Max explained, feeling his cheeks grow warm as he thought back on the night he had confessed everything to Riley.

“Oh my God, that’s
so
adorable!”

“So you finally hooked up with your childhood crush after all of these years?” Kara whispered out, her face softening as she did. “That is, like, Disney movie material.”

“I
love
Disney movies,” Evan mockingly cooed out, at which both girls nodded their heads fervently in agreement.

“I know, right?”

“Okay, enough about... whatever it is you guys are blabbering about,” Max interjected in frustration. “So after all of that happened, everything was going great. But then the girl found out that Evan had
merely encouraged
her ex to cheat on her—”

“No!”

“Yes,” Max grumbled under his breath. “And now she’s fucking pissed at him!”

“Well,
I
would be too,” Kara flatly stated, crossing her arms across her chest and wrinkling her nose at Evan once again.

“Why?” Max blurted out in response. “It’s not like it was
his
fault!”

“Of course it was!” April disagreed. “He broke her trust!”

“But she’s not even that mad at her ex!” Max told them, letting out an exasperated sigh. “She seems to be more pissed at Evan. Why would she be angrier at Evan than at the guy who did the actual cheating?”

“Really?” Kara squeaked out. “Do you really have to ask?”

“God, guys are
so
dumb,” April muttered under her breath with a slight shake of her head.

“It’s, like, totally obvi,” Kara said, rolling her eyes at the confused looks on the boys’ faces. “She’s in love with Evan.”

“What?”

“If she was still in love with her ex, then she wouldn’t have even
cared
that Evan had said that,” Kara explained matter-of-factly. “But the fact that she’s mad at
Evan
shows that she cares more about
him
than her stupid ex.”

“So... does that mean that Evan still has a chance?” Max quietly asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Um, duh.”

“Well, then. That settles it,” Evan began with an amused smirk. “I guess I can finally stop bitching and moaning and complaining and whining and crying and—”

“How would he go about doing that?” Max curiously inquired, ignoring Evan’s taunting gaze. “How should he try to fix this?”

Kara let out a tired sigh, shooting Evan a bored look. “You two are utterly hopeless,” she sighed out. “Haven’t you watched any movies? Go beg on her doorstep. Go hold signs while standing on her front lawn. Go write her a love poem. Go do
something
. Anything!”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

––––––––

“O
h fuck, Max is here!”

“Well, it
is
midterms week and we
are
in a library,” Liz reminded her in a bored voice as she dropped her books onto the tabletop.

“Why do we have to sit here?” Riley hissed, shooting Liz a pained expression. “Can’t you pick another table?
Any
other table?”

“Riley, this is the first empty table we’ve come across in the past twenty minutes,” Liz replied, a tired look on her face. “You can crawl underneath it and study from there if you prefer, but I’m staying right here.”

“After all of these years of friendship, I never thought you’d betray me like this,” Riley whispered back before turning her lips downward into disapproving frown.

Liz rolled her eyes as she pulled out a chair and settled in, ignoring her crazed friend as she took the empty seat beside her and craned her neck to glance in the other direction.

“I can see him through the gap in the bookshelf.”

“Riley, you’re being really creepy right now,” Liz muttered in warning.

“He’s with that April girl,” Riley announced in a low whisper, her eyes narrowing as she watched them from afar. “I can’t believe he’s been begging me to talk to him this whole time, and then he shows up at the library to have a private study session with
her
!”

Liz shot her an incredulous stare before taking a look for herself. “And like 10 other people,” she pointed out flatly.

“I don’t like her,” Riley mumbled to no one in particular. “I don’t like her one bit.”

“As I’m sure.”

“She’s ridiculous,” she continued, letting out a tiny scoff. “You can barely see her shorts! Isn’t she cold?”

“Why do you even care?” Liz asked in exasperation. “I thought you said that you’re over Max!”

Promptly after stomping into the living room after her tête-à-tête with Jeremy the previous evening, Riley had boldly declared to her roommates that Max
was
indeed an asshole who
wasn’t
perfect for her. “I’m over
him
, over
boys
and over
all
of this bullshit in general!” she had shouted while storming into the kitchen in search of strong, dark liquor. “Bring on the cats!”

Instead of responding to Liz’s question, Riley merely cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Anyway, I wonder if it hurts her brain to make her voice so nasally. Why do girls even
do
that?”

“I don’t know,” Liz muttered under her breath, distractedly flipping through the pages of her textbook. “Ask Audrey.”

“Ugh, and did you
see
her nails?”

“What?” Liz asked, furrowing her brow in confusion.

“She has nail art!” Riley blurted out, her face scrunched up in disgust.

Liz stared back at her with a blank expression. “So?”

“What kind of person takes the time to decorate each individual nail?” Riley demanded in a loud whisper. “A crazy person, that’s who.”

“Shhhhhhhhh!” a peeved nerd seated at a nearby cubicle hissed out.

“Thank you,” Liz whispered out to him with a grateful nod of her head.

Unfortunately, Riley didn’t seem to get the memo. “Oh God, he’s smiling at her,” she groaned out, tugging at the end of her ponytail in frustration.

Liz glanced over to survey the scene. “I think that’s a grimace.”

“No, it’s a smile,” Riley insisted through gritted teeth.

“Why do you even care?”

“I don’t!”

“Sure,” Liz replied with a defeated shake of her head. “Okay.”

“...I bet she got a blowout just to come to the library.”

“I’m sure she did,” Liz mumbled, barely even listening to Riley’s commentary at this point.

“God, her eyebrows are straight.”

“Riley!”

“Ugh, look at her!” Riley continued, ignoring Liz’s cries of annoyance. “She’s talking on the
phone
! Who talks on the phone at the library?”

“Who
talks
at the library, period?” Liz hissed in response.

“Why is she even here? She’s not even studying!”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Liz said, shooting her a pointed stare.

“Oh shit! He looked over in this direction!” Riley suddenly cried out in a hushed tone, ducking her head low to the tabletop. “He didn’t see me, right?”

“He can probably sense that you’re eye fucking them,” Liz mused sarcastically.

“Am not!”

“Riley,” Liz firmly began. “You are acting like an insane person. Now, shut the fuck up, open your book and study.”

“Thank you,” the nerd loudly whispered from behind the cubicle’s wall.

“Fine,” Riley grumbled, clearing her throat obnoxiously before opening up her laptop. Just as she had positioned her fingers atop her keyboard, however, her phone let out a series of loud beeps.

“Dammit, Riley, silence your phone!” Liz hissed at her, glancing around to deliver apologetic smiles to their neighbors. “I don’t know if you understand what a trip to the library entails, but—”

“Oh shit!” Riley gasped out as she glanced at her screen, shoving the entire thing in Liz’s face. “Look! Noah just texted me!”

“‘Hey,’” Liz read aloud. “How cryptic.”

“What do I say?” Riley asked, her eyes widened in confusion.

“You’re kidding me.”

“Is ‘hello’ too formal? I’m going to go with ‘hi.’”

“Dude, don’t respond to him,” Liz said as she pulled a face.

“Why?” Riley inquired with a bewildered expression, her thumbs still hovering over her screen.

“Riley, stop,” Liz calmly whispered back as she plucked the phone from her crazed friend’s hands. “An ex is an ex for a reason.”

“I never said I was going to
marry
him! I was just going to exchange a polite ‘hello’ with an old friend!”

“‘An old friend’?” Liz repeated in a mocking tone. “Why don’t you just go and have a chat with your old friend who’s right over there?”

Riley stared back at Liz as if she had sprouted another head. “Are you crazy? I’m not going to go up to Max!
Especially
not when he’s with another girl!”

“I don’t get it,” Liz muttered under her breath, shaking her head in defeat.

“All I’m saying is that
Max
doesn’t seem to care about
me
, so why should I care about him?”