Game Over

"Why don't men just go extinct? The world would be a much better place without them." Jessie declared her rosy dream, while Georgia approached, running her fingers through her blonde hair, which had pink-tipped ends. "Then there wouldn’t be that Italian actor with the deep, masculine voice who makes your heart flutter." Georgia smirked, tugging at Jessie’s hair with annoyance, and Jessie grumbled in response. I threw my Spanish book down in frustration. Why don’t we just learn Italian instead of this nonsense? This language ties my tongue in knots. "Tom is dating," I announced out of nowhere, ignoring the book I had tossed aside. Jessie and Georgia exchanged shocked looks before Jessie shrieked in disbelief. "You mean that guy who always sits at the back of the class__" I cut her off with a disgusted tone. "Of course not, why would I be upset about him dating?" Georgia folded her arms on the table, leaning in closer with curiosity. "Then who? You can't just drop a bombshell and leave us hanging, girl!" I sighed in despair. The one who had stolen my heart since childhood was dating. What misery. "Tom Holland is dating Zendaya. They make a stunning couple, but I want Tom all to myself." Jessie’s face crumpled as she wailed in frustration, trying to deny what she had just heard. "Peter Parker? Spider-Man? My favorite Avenger?" She clung to Georgia’s arm, continuing to whine until Georgia shoved her away in annoyance. "Sometimes I wonder, why didn't they name your brother Peter? He'd be famous by now just for the name similarity." Georgia started one of her nonsensical trains of thought again. What? Change my brother’s name from Noah to Peter? "I could just marry Tom and have a kid. He’d have honey-colored eyes like his dad and red hair like his mom, which would be me. Then, I’d name him Peter, and boom—we've made Peter Parker." I stared at her blankly, waiting for her rosy fantasy to end so I could crush it. "My brother’s already dating." I smiled stiffly, met with her sticky sweet smile in return. "I found their pictures—oh my God, they’re gorgeous, I want to eat them up!" Jessie suddenly screeched, throwing her phone onto the table and interrupting our conversation. Georgia flipped through the photos, scrutinizing the couple with a frown. "I swear, if my future boyfriend doesn’t look at me like that, I’ll kill him and find someone else who will." We all sighed in exasperation. We knew we'd only find men like that in our fantasies. "Congratulations on your lifelong bachelorette status, redhead." Jasper jumped onto the table, addressing Georgia, making us groan at his toxic words and abrupt entrance. "Screw you, Jasper," Georgia snapped, trying to shove him off the table, but he didn’t budge. Instead, he put his feet up on the chair and sat on the table, leaning back and gazing at the ceiling, his wavy hair, with its blonde tips, falling back messily as his sculpted jawline came into view. Basketball players sure can take your breath away, but that’s a lie. In the end, they’re all just jerks. "Come on, girls, we’ve got practice, and we don’t need any more crap sticking to us," Georgia grumbled, grabbing her book, and Jessie followed suit, still on the verge of collapse as she stared at the couple’s photos. I grabbed my Spanish book and whacked Jasper with it. His face scrunched up in fake pain, and he glared at me with irritation. "Screw you, Jasper," I growled, not really meaning it, but watching his annoyed expression was fun. He threw his hands in the air dramatically. "Seriously? You too, Sol?" I smiled to myself, ignoring him as I walked off with the girls, who clapped proudly once we were out of earshot. Jasper was always the joker, and we always ignored him. He might be the guy for difficult missions, but he was still a jerk. "Couldn’t Tom wait until you graduate? I won’t be able to watch the new Spider-Man season now," Jessie whined, continuing her lament over her hundredth actor crush who was dating someone else. I was about to push open the locker room door when I stopped, hearing the boys in the room across from us. Those jerks were still inside. Their voices were so annoying, my God. "Solene! Is this girl serious?" My body froze at the mention of my name. I exchanged uneasy glances with the girls. Who the hell called me crazy? And said it loudly enough for me to hear from this distance? Georgia rushed to press her ear against the door to hear more clearly, while Jessie and I did the same. Yes, we were eavesdropping, obviously. After all, they had mentioned my name. And forgetting, too, that we’d left the girls’ locker room door open, causing some of the girls inside to yell out some choice curses. "Afraid of losing." "Come on, she’s just a tiny girl; she can’t do anything." Their voices grew louder as they tried to convince someone to do something to me! I was about to burst in and confront them, but Georgia and Jessie held me back with their arms.