Keily

“Keily,” Lucas, who was sitting right next to me, whispered.

I turned my head to look at him and raised my brows to ask, What? We were in Calculus, and Mr. Penson, our teacher, was droning on about the differentiation of trigonometric functions in the front.

After this, only one class was left before school ended.

It was my fifth day, and I had already made some good friends, Lucas being one of them.

Being related to Addison had played a great part in that because never in my life had I expected to be friends with such a popular group.

Lucas threw a note at my desk, and it landed right above the textbook. I picked it up and unfolded it. We’re going to the ice cream parlor after school. Wanna join?

The first question that sprung up in my head was, Who are “we”?

Even though I sat with popular kids, I was still not immune to judgmental gazes; in fact, being with them put me more in the spotlight.

I hated attention because I’d never gotten any that was good, especially since that day.

I didn’t want to be in a crowd who’d leer or snicker among themselves, pointing at me, and some people who Lucas and Addison hung out with tended to be that way.

I looked up, and my eyes unconsciously drifted to James, who was sitting on Lucas’s other side. His narrowed eyes were already aimed at me, displeasure at my mere existence seeping out of them.

Unable to take the intensity of his gaze, I looked down, back to the note. I knew whoever was going to be “we,” it’d definitely include James.

He and Lucas always hung out together, and it baffled me how a kind person like Lucas was best friends with the spawn of Satan himself.

I don’t know. Addison is my ride back home, I wrote on the back of the paper and slipped it on Lucas’s desk. Once again, my gaze moved to James, and his glare was now directed at Lucas.

The word uncomfortable barely began to describe what I felt whenever I was in calculus class with them.

Lucas had always tried to include me in their conversations, but James’s offhand insults had shut me out.

The last time, Lucas asked for my help to solve a problem from an assignment that I had already finished at home.

But the moment I picked up my pen, I became hyperaware of James’s eyes on us—as he casually leaned against the desk right in front of me—and every coherent thought vanished from my mind, leaving me staring at the sheet with a complete blank.

“You're fat and dumb,” James said with a condescending smirk, “like a pig. I should call you Piggy.” And just like that, the name Piggy stuck.

I wanted to snap back and tell him he was the dumb one because pigs were actually the most intelligent domesticated animals.

But that wouldn’t have made it any better; he would have come back with a crueler insult. However, Lucas, like the great guy he was, stood up for me, but the damage had already been done.

A slip of paper fell onto my lap, bringing me back to the present. Ask Addison to come too. It’ll be fun. Pleaaaaaase. I turned my head and saw Lucas giving me an exaggerated pout.

I had to bite my lip to stifle a laugh. I never expected the big quarterback of our school to pout like a child and look so cute.

I began to scribble on the note when the bell rang. Lucas hovered by my side as soon as Mr. Penson left. “You guys have to come,” he said, his thumbs fiddling with the straps of his backpack.

“I’m not sure.” I finished packing my things and zipped the bag. I stood up and turned to Lucas. “Addison has practice after school, and I’ll be in the library to work on my English assignment.”

“If Addison’s not free, then at least you should come. It’s not just us guys; Lola and Sadhvi are coming too.”

“But my assignment.” I made another attempt at passive refusal.

“It’s the start of the year; don’t dig yourself into studies right now. You’ll have plenty of months for that. For now, you should enjoy your last year.” Lucas didn’t back down.

“So, you’re coming. Right?” He looked at me eagerly.

“Okay.” I relented under his big eyes.

“Be at the parking lot after school.” He grinned when I nodded.

“Piggy,” James called, standing up from his seat, “don’t you have a computer class, or is flirting with Lucas more important?”

My face fell at the accusation, and a strong blush coated my cheeks. Lucas glared at him.

“Don’t waste your breath, though. He’ll never go for a girl like you,” he finished monotonously.

It was like James was on a mission to ruin everything good in my life, including my friendship with Lucas.

I had already been reminded countless times by him that I wasn’t good enough for his friend, not that I was interested.

I never mistook Lucas’s kindness for anything more than friendship.

“You know what, James?” Lucas began—Oh no—and I saw his nostrils flaring.

“I wouldn’t mind being with Keily. She’s beautiful, smart, and most importantly, not an asshole like you. In fact, I’ll be lucky if she ever dates me.”

I gaped at him, horrified. What did he just say?!

I looked at James and visibly flinched at the glare he was giving Lucas. As if he knew I was looking at him, he turned to me, a vicious smirk marring his face.

“Don’t expect me to pull you out when you get crushed under the cow,” he snarled, his eyes running over my body contemptuously.

“Goddamnit, James!” Lucas yelled, attracting the eyes of others who were still in the classroom. “You’re taking it too far—”

“I need to go,” I muttered, and stormed out of the room without looking back. The second other students had looked at us, it had become too overwhelming. I can’t face this humiliation.

I heard Lucas calling me from behind, but I was too vulnerable to face him right now and kept my pace until I reached the computer lab.

I sat at my assigned system and took deep breaths. My hands and legs felt shaky, and my vision blurred a little, warning of oncoming tears.

Don’t you dare cry because of that asshole. Don’t!

I bet James didn’t realize how much words hurt, especially when you heard them again and again. Fat, cow, pig, flab, whale, fatty.

There came a time when you couldn’t ignore them, and they started sticking with you, eating away at your self-esteem. And now, his every insult has started to stick.

The way he degraded me in front of Lucas... It was too much.

I took long breaths, looking at the ceiling to stop the tears from falling. I wasn’t going to lose it in the middle of the school lab with others around.

I heard the chair beside me move and a large body slumping on it lazily. I didn’t look at him, refusing to acknowledge his presence, and glared ahead.

“At least turn on the computer if you’re planning on glaring at it.” His tone was casual, as if the last few minutes hadn’t happened.

My cheeks flushed when I realized I was staring at the blank screen.

Just kill me right now.

Immediately, I pressed the power button and switched on the stupid system to avoid embarrassing myself further because James fed on it.

I felt his eyes on me, like always, trying to pin me down into a sweaty, fidgeting mess. But right now, I was too angry to give him the satisfaction of seeing me self-conscious like the other days.

Suddenly, my skin tingled, and I knew his gaze had intensified a thousandfold, almost making me squirm. I guessed it ruffled his feathers to not get any reaction from me.

Good!

“Looks like my Piggy is angry with me,” he said, and I could already imagine the stupid smirk on his stupid face.

“Can’t say I don’t like it when it makes you blush. Pink suits you, confirms my theory that you’re indeed a pig.”

I blushed harder. God, I wanted to grab his head and smash it into the screen in front of him. Instead, I took out the notebook from my bag, pretending he wasn’t there.

“Ignoring me, are we?” James drawled, finally getting the hint. “Well, suit yourself.”

And I suited myself, ignoring him as if he’d never existed. Strangely, he decided to do the same with me. A few minutes later, our teacher arrived and started her lecture on web design.

My bad mood was set aside temporarily as I listened to her attentively, already well-versed in the HTML tags she mentioned.

I had worked with my dad many times, helping him design and develop websites for his clients to kill time and lighten his workload.

Mrs. Green was covering the very beginner-level basics, and it stroked my ego a little bit that I was already light-years ahead in this topic.

When the last fifteen minutes were left, she gave us a small project to design a table. I wrote my code within two minutes.

I thought about adding colors to the text and rows to pass the time, but decided against it, as Mrs. Green hadn’t started CSS styling commands, and it was better not to act overly smart in front of a person who graded your reports and tests.

“Shit!” A faint curse came from my side, reminding me that my nemesis was still here. The absence of his stares and my focus on our class had almost made me forget about him.

Alas, good times don’t last.

I couldn’t resist but sneak a small glance at him. He was glaring at his computer screen, lips pursed in concentration as his eyes moved up and down the monitor.

Even though I hated him, I couldn’t deny that he was gorgeous. Too bad. Such good looks wasted on a rotten personality.

I turned my head toward his monitor and sneakily went through his code. He hadn’t written the closing tags on each row entry, had used simple data tags for headings, and hadn’t written span tags in the correct places.

I internally gloated at his blunders. Before he could catch me sneaking up on him, I turned back, biting my cheeks to stop the sly smirk.

Asshole and stupid. Stupid asshole.

“You need to work harder, James,” Mrs. Green frowned, looking at James’s monitor. When only five minutes remained, she had started to go to everyone’s seat.

“Go through your textbook at home,” James only nodded with a scowl.

“Good work, Keily,” she complimented as she reached my place, looking at the web page and notepad code, both tabs placed side by side.

“Thanks,” I smiled, relishing the small humiliation that James went through and feeling his death stare.

She moved on to look at others' work. Soon, the bell rang, and school finally came to an end. I immediately picked up my bag and rushed out the door, not wanting another encounter with James.

After locking up my things, I sighed and leaned my head against the locker. I didn’t want to go out for ice cream with the others.

I was drained after the whole fiasco in calculus, and I didn’t want to face James again. Heck, I didn’t want to see Lucas either after all the things he’d spouted.

He’d probably said all that to spite James, but his words had left a greater impression on me than I wanted.

I groaned, my temples throbbing. I just wanted to go home and sleep on it.

I didn’t know whether Lucas was still planning on waiting for me in the parking lot. I decided to text him that I wasn’t coming, go to the library, and sit it out there until Addison was ready to go home.

With that, I dug my cell phone out of the bag and started walking toward the library, scrolling for Lucas’s name in my phone at the same time.

Suddenly, I was dragged back, almost slipping on the hard floor. An embarrassing squeak left my mouth.

“Where are you going, Piggy?” James held the top strap of my backpack. He leaned closer, his breath brushing against my ears. “The parking lot is the other way.”