Hate Me. [A Bapa Story]

chapter two

Bose wasn't exactly the party-goer type. He never had been and probably never would be. It wasn't exactly that he hated parties. He hated large groups of people. Bose was able to narrowly avoid triggering his anxiety in the hallways at school, but the overstimulation he received from standing directly outside of a party was enough to make him want to scurry home. Just thinking about it- being shoved around by a crowd of drunk teenagers, bright lights, blaring music, overwhelming smell of alcohol- made him want to vomit into his hands.

And yet he found himself on the way to one now.

He hated himself for saying he would attend. He knew he would be miserable, but it was just so difficult to say no to his friends sometimes. He said that he would arrive early to help set up out of hopes of being able to slip out just as soon, but as he drove, he found himself pulling over into a gas station. He didn't need gas. He was already overthinking about the event, and it hadn't even started yet. What he really needed was to settle his nerves.

Bose marched into the building and immediately found himself gravitate towards the sweets. Sour candy helps with spiraling thoughts, right? He shuffled through the sugar before grabbing a bag of sour patch kids. He was tempted to rip it open right there and then, but he almost wondered if he should save it for later when he would inevitably need a cool down from the gathering.

"... God I hate my friends," Bose groaned, frustrated. It was supposed to be barely a whisper, something he mumbled to himself alone. But the way he grumbled as he said it made the words spill from his lips a bit louder than he had hoped.

"I hate your friends too," said someone from behind him. He spun around and saw it was the girl from earlier. Same messy hair, same jagged leather jacket, same kicked up doc martens. Except there was something new about her. She had a band-aid over her nose, and her knuckles were red- injuries which he assumed came from the fight. She had a slushie in her hands which she was using as a scuffed way of icing her bruised hands.

Bose grimaced and couldn't help from looking at one injury to the next. He really didn't mean to stare, but it was a little hard not to when he knew the context. She chuckled, "I can't believe I was the one to get detention when I was just standing up for myself,"

"I can only imagine how that must've looked to a teacher, walking in and seeing you just-" Bose cut himself off as he jabbed at the air, mimicking the way she punched the jock despite the way he was already down.

"At least I looked cool," She smirked, a lazy sort of smile as if she was testing to see what kind of response Bose would give, "Some help you were though, just watching it happen,"

Ah. The one point he was praying she wouldn't make, "I mean- you seemed to have that under control," he stuttered, "You literally had them both on the floor with a single food tray. Plus I'm a horrible fighter-"

The girl nodded slowly, and Bose wasn't sure if that was the right answer. He had a feeling it wasn't. She took a long sip from her slushie before speaking again, "Why are you friends with them anyways?"

"I'm... really not sure-" Bose stammered. Geez this girl was good at asking tough questions, "They were nicer when we were younger, I guess?"

"And now you can't leave the group without falling to the bottom of the food chain, got it," her expression hadn't shifted when she said it, but she slowly broke eye contact, "You're probably about to hang out with them now, aren't you?" it seemed to be a joke, but when Bose didn't answer she sudden got serious, "Oh shit, you're actually going to hang out with them?"

"I kind of accidentally said yes-"

"-How do you accidentally say yes?-"

"-And before I knew it the texts started flowing in asking if I could help set up and bring snacks and what not," Bose continued without answering her, "To be fair I don't really want to, but I don't really have anything better to do,"

The girl tilted her head to the side, "All I'm hearing is that you're a massive pushover,"

Bose frowned. He wished he could've come up with a clever come back, but there was only so much he could say considering she was 100% correct.

She paused, taking another sip from her slushie. As she started to talk again, he noticed her tongue started to turn a light shade of blue, "If you have nothing better to do, you could always come with me,"

"I, uh..." Under normal circumstances, Bose would've turned down going with the mystery girl god knows where, but compared to his other option, he was a little more excited than he cared to admit. Still, his logic got the better of him, "I don't know. We just met- I never even caught your name,"

She clicked her tongue, "I didn't throw it,"

Damn.

He rolled his eyes and tried again, "I don't know anything about you, aside from the fact that you like fighting and blue slushies,"

She snorted at this, "I don't like fighting, they quite literally had me in a corner,"

"Sure didn't seem that way. You're eyes kind of lit up each time you hit them,"

"Ok fine, maybe I like fighting a little," she seemed to toy with this idea, before she continued speaking, "Extremes seem to make a good first impression,"

Bose squeezed the bag a little tighter, but immediately let go as he didn't want the candies to spill everywhere, "So far we seem like opposites. Except we both hate my friends and we both like blue slushies,"

"Those are good things to agree on," She smiled again, before patting him on the shoulder, "Well, have fun at your dumb party Mr..?"

"Bose O'Brien," he smiled back, and extended his arm for a handshake "And you?"

"Chapa De'Silva," She took his hand, returning the shake. Her hands were cold from holding the slushie, and he tried not to glance down and stare at how her knuckles were red from the earlier fight. Before he got the chance to stare for too long, she let go and turned down the isle, "See ya,"

"Yeah," Bose replied quietly, though it was more to himself as she was too far to hear him. A small part of him regretted not agreeing to go with her, as he still was bummed he'd have to go to the party. He tried not to think about that too hard as he watched her pay for the slushie and walk into the parking not. He pressed his lips into a thin line, hoping he made the right choice, "See ya,"