We're All Lost

Four: Hottest Gossip

"So, how have you been?" he asks, as we make our way to homeroom. I have a feeling that, that's not really what he wants know. "Good, you?" I say, trying my best to be as minimalistic about my words as possible. "Uhm," he clears his throat, "I've been good too..." the ground beneath him suddenly gets interesting.

"Look, Andrew, I know what you want to know. So let's just skip the act. No, I haven't told anyone, because as far as we are both concerned – nothing happened" I say it all under a breath, it seems as though I caught him off-guard, so we just stand there, "Uhm, yeah, right – nothing happened" he looks everywhere but at me, he somehow looks disappointed for some odd reason. Now I feel awful about myself. He scrunches his eyebrows, as though in deep thought. God, he is BEAUTIFUL. "The class is this way" he points down the hallway, quickly feigning indifference

We enter the class and there's chatter everywhere, the teacher hasn't arrived yet. The boys at the back holler at Andrew and he leaves me, just like that. I scan the class for a seat and the are so many open desks, I settle in the middle of the class, "Omg, you look much better in person" the girl next to me says. She has brown skin, her coils fall on her shoulders. "You're Jay's brother, right? Jonathan?"

"Uhhm..." I'm confused,"You're like the hottest gossip right now" she says, as though she read my mind"We hardly get newbies in senior year. The newbies are usually freshmen, andyou know, nobody really cares about them. Lana, the girl responsible for thiswhole gossip blog" she says, giving me her phone. There's a picture of me andJay that we took this morning at Getty's for the gram with the headline"Jayllin Saville has a brother, Jonathan Saville", that was really fast andthere's a lot of engagement for a blog posted an hour ago "Says that she sawyou at Andrew Walkers party a few weeks back. You're so cute" she continues,adjusting her glasses "I'm Melissa, by the way. But you can call me Mel" shesticks out her manicured hands for a handshake. "I'm so excited" she says, in achirpy tone. "Well, that it is quite evident" I chuckle, "You can't blame menow, can you? We are literally two of the eight other black students in ourgrade and there's like, twenty-three black students in total" she says. Well damn,Uncle T wasn't joking when he said this is a white school. "The otherscall us the 'reforms. Of course they'd never say it to your face, though –consideringthe fact that you're Jayllin Saville's brother and obviously now acquaintedwith the Andrew Walker. And with my father being a business tycoon andthe major donor of the Redress Bursary Program (which he basically founded),they would never try that shit with me either. We're some of the lucky ones"she's a talkative one. The homeroom goes by in chatter and Mel telling me allabout herself, the ins & outs and the dos & don'ts of McArthur's. Fromwhat I gather, Mel comes from a well-off family, she's been at McArthur's sincefreshman year and that we have the same classes. "C'mon, we'll walk to English Littogether" she says, as the bell rings for first period. "I honestly feel likewe'll be the best of friends, sit with me" I smile at her, I think I like her.I mean, she made it easy for me to be her friend and I didn't even break asweat trying to come up with conversation, she basically carried theconversation.