LANCASTER AND MAXWELL ( ✔ )

chapter eleven.

Chapter Eleven.

ARTHUR'S girlfriend is named Zara Felicity Phillips. She was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, and her parents are the famous Gregory and Connie Phillips who own the little coffee shop and boutique on the corner of Saks Street in the city. Her birthday is February twenty-first, has three brothers, and her blood type is o-negative. How does Sullivan know all of this about a girl he's never met? Well, he tells Judas that it's for a class project and that he needs to know everything about his partner for communications class. Jude believes it — of course he does because a Maxwell can do two things very well: smile and lie — and allows SJ to do a (extensive) background check on her. 

Sullivan goes around school and asks about Zara because how the hell can he have a whole girlfriend and he not know about it? He figures that there must be something wrong with her since Artie never told him about it, and the young man ends up being very disappointed in his findings. Because not only is she captain of the tennis and pom-pom squad, she's also a very active member of the Fellow Christian Athletes, Spanish Club, Debate Team, National Honors Society, and the Knitting Club. All of her leading had gotten halted when she left to go on a fucking missionary trip to Guadalajara. As it turns out, she's so busy that Zara barely has time to fucking breathe properly.

He doesn't find anything bad about her and he can't — that's not the worst part, either. 

The worst part out of all of this is that Sully tries his hardest to hate her, he really does. Since finding out about her, he's spent more time than he'd like to admit studying her every move around Regis High School so he can catch her slipping up so he can have a plausible reason to hate her guts. The Maxwell heir has harbored the false truth in his mind that she can't be perfect, that she's been lying and playing Arthur this whole time and she isn't who she says she is. So he goes about his day, giving her looks of indifference when Arthur tells him to speak to her, or scowling whenever he can catch her flowery scent. Maybe if I catch an attitude with her, he ponders to himself, she'll throw it back. 

She never does. In fact, it's almost as if she doesn't even fathom the possibility that someone doesn't have her best interest in mind, that they're actually trying to be rude to her. So he tries with all of his might to hate her, but the accomplishment is very hard to achieve when Zara won't hate him back. 

How inconsiderate of her.

Sullivan's aware that he's grinding his teeth so hard that the inside of his mouth is imitating a cheese grater; he just doesn't care. He only cares about the opinion of one person at the Round Table, and his tongue is currently shoved down the throat of his significant other. 

"Hey, some of us are trying to eat here," says Teddy with a mouthful of chicken — it seems like the only time Sullivan ever hears Teddy talk is when his mouth is full. "Go get a room, or else I'm going to have to report you two to the school cop for indecent behavior." 

The couple part with sheepish smiles and unapologetic looks on their faces, and Zara wraps her arms around Arthur's neck to pull him close. Meanwhile, Sullivan tries to ignore the way that the older boy's lips are red and slightly swollen; he also tries to make it look like he hasn't been staring in the first place. "Oh hush, Theodore," she says, whimsical. "You'd be the same exact way if you hadn't seen your girlfriend in forever." 

"Which one?" He teases and earns a round of laughs and applause from the table. Sullivan has the feeling he isn't playing around. 

Though, he isn't as tuned in to the conversations at the table as he'd like to think he is. Even if it's a nice day outside, he doesn't remember a time he's felt so miserable in his entire life, and it's not even a result of his allergies. (Although, that doesn't really help, either.) SJ is making himself feel so bad, and the horrible part about it is he can't seem to stop. He could've moved easily to another table, knows for a fact that Diggy and Britt would've accepted him with open arms; he doesn't have to sit here and watch it. But he does. Sullivan sits and watches Arthur smile, wink, laugh, and nuzzle the neck of someone that he doesn't belong with, someone that doesn't know him like he does, someone that isn't him—