Get Over It

[parallax23]

Get Over It

Episode: 5x01

Summary: Vicky helps Roque with his math homework and life’s other problems.


There were two precise knocks on the boys’ door to announce Vicky’s arrival.  She had offered to help Roque with their trigonometry homework, since two heads were better than one when tackling tricky triangles, circles, and squares.

“Come in!” Roque shouted from his desk.  His gaze was fixed on his notebook when Vicky opened the door.

“Hey.  Ready to go over the math homework?” she asked Roque, but her attention was on Ivan and Julia, who were reclined together on Ivan’s bed.  Julia was reading this week’s literature assignment, The Lord of the Flies, while Ivan toyed with her hair and read along over her shoulder.  They looked up and greeted Vicky, then went back to their business.

Roque sat with his back to everything in the room, and he didn’t turn to see Vicky enter or take the seat beside him.  He acted as if no one else was in the room, but refused to look anywhere except at his books.  When she sat down, she gave him a concerned look and turned to look at the couple behind them.  Poor guy, he didn’t stand a chance.

“Have you gotten very far?” asked Vicky, opening her notebook.

Roque shook his head.  “This is all nonsense.  When in life am I going need to find the area of a triangle in a square, then find the area of the circle in that triangle?”

Vicky shrugged.  “Well, right now I need to find it so I can keep my scholarship.  So let’s start with the square and work our way in?”

“That’s our cue to exit.  I’m still having nightmares about Pythagoras trying to kill me with those plastic triangles thanks to Mateo,” said Ivan, as he got off the bed he pulled Julia with him.  “We’ll see you later.”

“Have fun studying,” Julia said, picking up his copy of the book with hers as they left the room.

Vicky nodded and smiled politely at her roommate.  Roque turned to watch them leave, but didn’t say anything.  While the pair hadn’t officially declared their relationship status, it was obvious that they were together.  They had stopped hiding the fact that they were hooking up, and just started acting like a couple over the last few weeks.  Most people took their public displays of affection at face value.  It was nauseating.  Vicky didn’t need superpowers to know how Roque was feeling.  Some days he seemed over Julia choosing Ivan, and other days it burned him to see what he couldn’t have.  Today seemed like the latter.

“This is still my room,” Roque said defiantly.  “I have just as much right to be here.”

“Of course,” Vicky replied.  Then she paused.  She and Roque were never very close.  They were both close to Carol and Cayetano when he was alive.  Their mutual rejection seemed to be a strange thing to finally bond over.  “I know how you’re feeling.”

“I don’t think you have a clue how the hell I’m feeling,” Roque hissed, throwing his pencil in frustration.

“Oh, really?  Julia knew how I felt about Ivan, and she went after him anyway.  I was such an idiot for telling her anything, but I thought she was my friend, you know?  Then let’s not forget that I watched Carol choosing between Ivan and Marcos, knowing she’d break his heart,” Vicky told him. “No, I have no idea how you’re feeling.”

Roque let out a defeated sigh.  She had a point.  Julia was just as to blame as Ivan was.

“And you know what I’ve realized lately?” Vicky continued. “It’s not worth it.  There’s no point in chasing someone who doesn’t want you.  Save yourself the pain and move on with your life.  Meet someone new.”

“That’s easy for you to say.  You could walk out into the hall right now and get a guy to ask you out,” Roque replied.  “Julia is the only girl at school who’s given me the time of day.”

“So you’re not even going to look at the other girls here while she’s making out with Ivan?  Yes, I’m sure that’ll end well for you,” Vicky said.  “Are you going to live like a monk waiting for them to break up?”

Roque shook his head.  “She’s crazy about him.  I’m sure she’ll be sick of it one day, but not soon.  Not with the way he looks at her.  Here I am, still stuck in Ivan’s shadow with the one girl that ever meant anything to me.”

“Roque, there will be other girls.  Girls with better sense not to overlook you.  You just need to step up and be yourself, and remember that life at this school isn’t forever,” Vicky said.

Vicky was right.  And he wasn’t referring to the math homework.  Roque was fooling himself if he thought Julia would look at him the way she did at Ivan.

“I know.  Everyone says that.  But right here, right now?  I feel cheated,” Roque told her, knowing that she would understand him best.  “I don’t have a best friend and I don’t have a girlfriend.”

She nodded knowingly.  She thought had lost everything for a week when Julia let out her secret make out session with Ivan, but Carol had forgiven her.  Vicky understood that Carol had done it for her own sake as much as her friend’s.  “I’m sure you and Ivan will patch things up.  He didn’t care when I caught them.  But you’re the only person he wouldn’t admit it to.  You know he was trying to keep you from being hurt the only way he knows how – denial.”

Vicky was right again.  Roque had already known Ivan hid it because he was trying to spare his feelings in the beginning.  He also knew that Ivan was really in love with Julia, which made him even more upset.  Ivan could pick any girl and she’d fall for him.  Vicky was way too smart for Ivan.  But if she could get over it, so could Roque.

“You’re right.  Just answer me one thing... why him?  Carol, you, now Julia? Is there something in your room or what?”

Vicky’s somber expression cracked into a smile.  “I’ll have to ask Jacinta check for asbestos and mold to be on the safe side… But I guess it’s the same reason you’re friends with him.  He’s exciting and fun and he usually has your back when you need it.  I don’t think he meant to hurt you, but you were also hurting them by keeping them apart.”

“He couldn’t just stay away from her?  Marcos managed to stay away from Carol for Ivan.”

Vicky nodded.  “That wasn’t the same, and you know it.  You and Julia were never together.  You knew they liked each other and you kept them apart. That was also pretty selfish.”

“Like you didn’t want them apart?” Roque shot back.  “You and Julia couldn’t be in the same room for weeks.”

“And eventually I realized that I had a choice.  They chose to be happy.  I can choose to make myself happy too,” Vicky explained.  “The world looks different when you realize that you can.”

“How much different?”

“I have a date tonight with a great guy that I overlooked until now.  I had a choice – stay mad at them and be miserable, or get over it and move on to better things.”

Roque leaned back in his chair.  “You know, this is why you’re the smart one.  If you can do it after everything, I could give it a try.  It’s probably less painful than this math equation.”