The Boyfriend Rivalry by Milana Spencer

3

Curtis: Road Trip

I stand on the front porch of my house, watching the time ticking down on my watch — 9:58, 9:59, 10:00.

Nervous energy runs through me, and I shift from foot to foot. I hope Erin and Bonnie like me. I hope the drive to Lonsdale Bay won't be too long or awkwardly silent. I hope this holiday goes well.

A red car turns onto my street and parks in front of my house. I walk through my front garden and the front gate as the car doors open.

"Curtis!" Kennedy says, stepping out of the back. Behind her, Liam appears.

He's wearing a black t-shirt that makes his lean body look even slimmer and his dark jeans are ripped. A part of me hoped that everything he said yesterday about coming was a hallucination. Before I fell asleep, I imagined him getting sick so he wouldn't be able to come. Not deathly sick — I'm not a psycho. But a mild cold would be nice.

But no. He's here.

"Bonnie, Erin, this is my boyfriend, Curtis." Kennedy continues, bouncing up to me. "Curtis, Bonnie and Erin."

I wave at the cousins with one hand, my other clutching my heavy duffel bag. They're the same height, so I can only tell Erin's the older one since she got out of the driver's seat.

"It's so nice to meet you," Erin says as they walk over.

"Kennedy's told us so much about you," Bonnie adds, closing the passenger seat door behind her.

"Thank you for letting me come on your holiday." I stick my hand out, and Erin and Bonnie look at it in surprise before shaking it.

"That's Curtis for you. He's a hand-shaker kind of guy," says Liam.

Kennedy looks at him, and a second later, he smiles at me. Liam never smiles at me unless it's mocking, but this one looks almost genuine. What a weirdo.

"It's no trouble," Erin responds with a smile. "Come on, we'll put your stuff in the back."

Erin opens the trunk and I push my bag in amongst three suitcases and a small black trunk covered in stickers of anime characters. Guess which one belongs to Liam?

Afterwards, I get into the backseat with Kennedy in the middle and Liam on the other side of her. He catches me looking at him and shifts slightly away from Kennedy. I twist my lips. If he thinks that's going to throw me off his scent, he's mistaken.

"This is a pretty neighbourhood," Bonnie says, looking through the window. "It's got a nice name, doesn't it?"

"Victoria Boulevard," I say.

"I wouldn't mind living in Easton."

"That's because you've only seen the pretty parts," Kennedy says.

She's right. While Easton has wealthy areas and a nice private school, there are also crumbling suburbs with tiny houses and hunched over fences. On the outskirts are several factories and farms, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it doesn't align with the shiny image Easton projects. Besides, several people who work in the factories and on the farms are paid little for hard labour — many workers are backpackers or new immigrants.

My parents always try to keep me informed about people who are less privileged than me, and I've seen a lot through their work with the council. Kennedy always tells me about the local politics too. I appreciate it because living in the shiny parts of Easton can make you forget.

"What is living in the city like?" I ask.

"Hmm. It's hard to describe because we've lived there all our lives," Erin says. "Louder. Busier. More convenient because there are shops everywhere and public transport."

"There's always something to do," Bonnie agrees.

"I want to live in the city," Kennedy says.

"You all will move there for university, right?" Erin asks.

Kennedy, Liam and I make sounds of agreement.

"Do you know what you want to study for uni, Curtis?" Erin asks.

Before I can answer, Liam speaks. "Commerce, right?"

I look at him over Kennedy's head, but his expression is free of malice.

"Yeah," I answer. "How did you know that?"

"Anyone could have guessed," Liam says with a shrug and turns to the cousins. "Curtis takes all the money subjects, like accounting, economics —"

"Ooh," Bonnie replies. "You must be good at maths to do those subjects."

"Not really—"

"He takes Specialist Maths," Liam answers. "He's also read every finance book you can think of."

I furrow my brows as I look at him. "What are you doing?" I'd think he's making fun of me, but his voice isn't quite dry enough. Maybe he's trying to do it subtly, so he doesn't look like a dickhead in front of the cousins.

"Telling them about you," he answers.

"I can tell them about myself."

Kennedy, sensing the tension in my voice, jumps in. "Curtis, why don't you tell everyone what you're reading at the moment?"

I hesitate because it is a finance book. "It's called Investing for Young Australians."

"Oh, I think I've heard of that," Erin says. "I need to get on learning more about personal finance."

"Me too," Kennedy adds, although I know she has no interest in the topic — I've bored her every time I talked to her about it, and while I appreciate her pretending to listen, I'd rather not bore her at all. "What about everyone talks about the book they're reading?" she asks.

"This is like an ice-breaker your English teacher forces you to do," Bonnie giggles. "I'm not reading anything at the moment."

"I'm reading The Goldfinch," Erin answers.

"That's one of those fancy literary novels," Bonnie says, turning in the passenger seat to roll her eyes at us. "You're making the rest of us look bad."

We chuckle, and I notice that the landscape outside has changed from Easton to the grey highway that slices through farms filled with lazy sheep.

"What about you, Liam?" Kennedy turns to him.

"I'm not reading anything. Unless fanfiction counts," he says.

"Fanfiction?" I say, brows shooting up. That's the last thing I'd expect Liam to read. Unless it's fanfiction of some obscure TV show because that would make sense.

"I know, I'm such an intellectual," Liam replies.

"I'm reading Hippolytus," Kennedy jumps in. "For English class. Bonnie, are you reading that at your school too?"

"What kind of fanfiction?" I ask Liam.

"No, we're reading a Shakespeare play," Bonnie answers. "We don't start it until next term. I forgot the title, but people say the main dude is in love with his mum. I don't know why schools make us read such weird books."

"Why do you care?" Liam snaps.

"Hippolytus is worse," Kennedy answers, voice rising. "Basically, Aphrodite curses this chick to get crazy horny for her stepson, this guy called Hippolytus. But you know what? I don't mind it. I'd rather read something entertaining than something boring."

"I'm just trying to hold a conversation," I say to Liam.

"Maybe you could study Classics at university," Erin says.

"No, you're not," Liam replies to me.

"I don't think my mum and dad would go for it. They'd think it'd be a waste of a degree." Kennedy shoots me a sharp look that says stop arguing with Liam.

But we're not arguing.

"Hey, Curtis," Liam says, and Kennedy stiffens. "Didn't you want to go to the University of Melbourne? Erin, maybe you can tell him about it."

Liam's voice, which was previously growing cold like the weather in autumn, is now polite, almost bored. Kennedy's shoulders relax, but I'm still suspicious.

However, Erin jumps into talking about the university, and I'm too interested in what she has to say to keep paying Liam attention. Our conversation continues for ages, discussing other universities and the best suburbs to live in. The conversation leaps from living expenses to the best shopping centres to trendy restaurants they want to go to.

Now and then, I glance at Liam. He answers when he's asked something, and he's polite as he can be — even to me — but mostly he looks out the window or fiddles with his phone.

There's something about his behaviour today that unsettles me.

At one point, Kennedy gets tired and snuggles closer to me, dozing on my chest. Usually, Liam would shoot me an annoyed look when Kennedy gets too close to me, but he doesn't even glance over. Strange.

While we're discussing what studying in Sydney would be like, Erin pulls into a service station for a toilet break. Once she parks, I nudge Kennedy awake.

She yawns. "I think I need to get myself a coffee."

"I'm going to get one myself," Erin says.

Everyone climbs out of the car, and it beeps when Erin locks it. We all head to the service station, and I follow Liam into the men's toilets.

He doesn't acknowledge me, and when we wash our hands, he blinks tiredly.

"Hey," I say, watching him through the mirror.

He meets my eyes in the reflection. "What?"

I hesitate. "Are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem… off."

"Okay." He pulls a handful of paper towels from the dispenser and wipes his hand.

"You're acting weird," I say, leaning over to get some paper towels for myself.

"Weird?" Liam echoes. His voice is so toneless, it almost doesn't sound like a question.

Almost nice. Almost friendly. Almost polite. But I can't say that, because right now, he's looking at me like I'm an insect he wants to squish. "Yeah, weird," I say.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Look, whatever you're up to, drop it. I just want to enjoy this holiday with my girlfriend, okay?"

Liam chucks his paper towel into the bin, accidentally touching the back of my hand in the process. He flinches, eyes flashing. "I'm not up to anything, Curtis. Piss off."

With that, he storms out. I watch the door slam behind him and rub the back of my hand. It feels like it's been burned.

When I get back to the car, everyone else has already returned. Kennedy and Erin sip coffees and complain about the taste. Kennedy offers me a sip of her coffee, but I shake my head. Liam shares a packet of lollies with Bonnie, and despite the fiery expression on Liam's face minutes earlier, he laughs easily now.

As everyone gets back into the car, he says to Bonnie, "Hey, would it be okay if we swap seats? My legs get pretty cramped in the back."

Bonnie looks down at his long legs. "Oh, sure!"

Liam gives her a wide smile and offers her his bag. "Take more lollies as my thank you."

"You don't need to," Bonnie says, but Liam insists and she takes a handful.

We take our seats. Before, I was behind the passenger seat, but I move to the other side so I'm as far away from Liam as possible. Erin starts the car and soon we're back on the highway. After a couple of minutes, Liam leans over his chair to replenish Bonnie's supply of lollies. He catches me looking at him and gives me a look. A look to emphasise why he asked to move seats.

I narrow my eyes at him.

I get that Liam and Kennedy are best friends. In fact, when I first started dating Kennedy, I was looking forward to getting to know Liam better. Sure, I'd shared a few classes with him throughout the years, and there were things about him that irritated me. But I also thought there was something compelling about his reckless confidence, the way he said whatever he wanted whenever he felt like it. The way he was completely himself like he wasn't pretending.

At the beginning of Kennedy and my relationship, she invited Liam to hang out with us, and he was as warm and welcoming as the ocean in winter. I didn't understand why he was so mean, because I'd tried to be polite. But the answer was obvious.

He hates me for being Kennedy's boyfriend.

He hates me because he's secretly in love with her.