Chapter 4: Boycott

Behind Dana was one of my two best friends, Leon.

Leon is a complicated person to live with since he most often does not know when he overdoes his pranks and jokes. Unlike Greg, who is funny and naturally amusing, Leon tries to be but ends up failing most of the time.

Often, he exaggerates in his pranks, which makes others easily hate him. To become friends with him, it was difficult. At first, he made jokes about how I looked, or about other things that bothered me, and I thought he was making fun of me.

I always ignored him, so that was it. I felt like he was an asshole.

Things started to change when the biology professor put us together on an assignment. I was very dissatisfied and tried to talk to the teacher several times to change my work partner.

The teacher didn’t accept it, even when I said that we didn’t get along. He believed that work would be a good way to bring us together.

And incredible as it may seem, this is what happened, although not in the way he expected.

The flashy, pretentious, and arrogant boy was completely different in his home. At school, he acted in a way, but at home, he looked like someone else.

When I arrived at his house, the way he treated me, with respect and kindness, was completely unexpected. I believed that I would be insulted and would have to put up with his bad attitude, I didn’t expect to meet someone else, it almost seemed like a dual personality.

After that, we did the job quietly and spent time together at his house, playing videogames and watching movies. We quickly became friends when it came to that.

When we finished the job, he became one of my best friends along with Jeff that I have known since I was little.

He may seem arrogant and pretentious, but deep down, he’s a nice guy and loyal to friends. I never asked why he acts differently at school, but I believe it is a desire to look different on the outside.

Maybe he doesn’t like who’s out of school.

Honestly, I much prefer the real him, but I don’t plan to say anything. If he wants it, let him do what he wants.

Leon was a very good-looking guy, although not at the level of being a movie star, more or less as handsome as my brother Max. In my memories, he had dirty blond hair, greenish eyes, a small nose, and thin lips. His height was just slightly below mine, but unlike me, with my athletic body, he is thinner.

Today, his appearance was completely different. His dirty blond hair was completely dyed brown. His face was darker than usual, with dark circles under his eyes. He had some pimples on his face, and his lips were very dry.

His body looked smaller than what I remembered in my memories, and he was fatter, with a huge belly. He was wearing a white tank top showing his fat arms, and on his chest, he had a large tuft of hair.

It took me a while to realize it was him, but since he was sitting behind Dana, and the face looked more or less the same, I ended up realizing it.

Leon has a crush on Dana, although he never admits and always tries hard to deny it. Because of this, he always sits next to her and the two of them talk constantly in class, although Dana doesn’t seem to like him.

When I realized it was Leon, I was so shocked that the world around me seemed to spin. With people like Greg or Dana, with whom I am not very familiar, it seemed that my mind did not register what I was seeing.

I saw them daily, but they are people I don’t pay much attention to.

Leon, on the other hand, I see him every day, one of my best friends. When I saw him completely different, it was like I was punched. What I was seeing was so unbelievable that I just didn’t know what to think.

The shock was too great.

I stood looking at him in silence, watching each change, my heart in turmoil.

Am I dreaming?

It was too unreal.

The class started, but my mind was not following. I kept watching Leon and the other people in the room, trying to understand the changes, and looking for reasons for that.

One thing I realized, however. On more than one occasion, Leon noticed my look, but always avoided letting our eyes meet, he seemed to be avoiding me. One more strange thing.

I only noticed the end of the class when the students got up to switch rooms. I followed Leon with my eyes as he stood up, I thought of following behind him, but he left the room quickly leaving me completely disconcerted.

We have more or less the same classes most of the time, so we always went together to the next classes. This time, he didn’t even wait for me, it looked like he was running away.

“Ethan, aren’t you coming?”