Discovering Everley

04 | the proposition

CHAPTER FOUR - The Proposition

I blinked.

"What?"

I had definitely heard wrong. After all, there was no plausible reason as to why Xander Myers would make a good candidate, absolutely no-

"Xander is the best and most suitable person for this plan." Iris stated.

I hadn't heard wrong. Iris was just crazy.

"You're not actually serious, are you?" I asked in disbelief, refusing to believe her words.

This had to be some sort of joke. I expected her to laugh and tell me that she was just kidding, but she didn't say anything at all. The silence told me that she was, in fact, serious.

"Do you even know who you're talking about here? Xander Myers!?" I reprimanded.

"You said you trusted me!" she argued.

"Obviously I made a mistake!"

"Hear me out, at least - don't you want to know the reasoning behind this?"

I rolled my eyes in response. There was no good reasoning behind this, but I wanted to hear her justification of how she would convince me otherwise.

"Enlighten me."

"Everley, think about it! Caleb hates Xander. The two are practically rivals."

I scoffed, "That's your reasoning behind this?"

"If you went out with him, Caleb would be furious. He'd try to break you two up."

"That doesn't prove anything. He'd break anyone up if they were dating Xander."

"But, you'll at least get a reaction from him. There's no certainty that he'll do anything if you're with Cameron because they're friends. You know, the whole bro code." Iris continued.

"Plus, you can tell Xander about the plan. With Cameron, you won't be able to tell him anything because he's Caleb's friend, meaning you'd have to pretend all the time."

"That's beside the point - have you completely forgotten he's Xander Myers? In case you haven't noticed, he's not exactly the nicest person to talk to."

"But he is definitely the hottest." Iris muttered under her breath, causing me to give her an unamused look.

"The point is it's him. What makes you think he'd even agree to the idea?"

"It benefits him too. Xander hates Caleb, so if this all works out - which it will, Caleb will be really pissed off. And I bet Xander would love to see that. So in the end, everybody wins."

My mind was having a hard time wrapping itself around the idea. It sounded way too simple for an idea that involved the most complicated person ever.

"Remind me why we can't just stick to any other person instead?"

"Because, Xander Myers is a catalyst. This way, there has to be a reaction."

* * *

I was nervously playing with my pencil, tapping it on the desk. Homeroom didn't start for another ten minutes, and Xander usually came five minutes after. That gave me around fifteen minutes to decide whether or not I would be going through with the plan.

I had thought about it yesterday, after Iris - and I reluctantly admit, made some rather good points. She was right, Xander was the perfect catalyst for this plan. However, that wasn't what was hanging on my mind, it was something else.