𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧. riki

twelve

TWELVE
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

the hallway was slightly packed as jonah and talia walked. talia was in leggings and a oversized hoodie while jonah had on a skirt and sweater vest over a collared shirt. "hey so... you and riki still not dating yet?" talia suddenly asked, eyes on jonah as the girl sighed. "no. but we're loyal to each other. no other guys or girls..."

talia narrowed her eyes. "so y'all are dating, but not dating?" jonah sighed again. "yeah... it's been three months since we started talking."

"i was wondering what's been going on. why has that boy not asked you out yet? y'all started talking forever ago." talia scowled.

jonah could only shrug. recently she had been asking herself the same question. why were they not dating? how long did he think the talking stage lasted? was he just playing this whole time?

she was a little unnerved as she questioned what his intentions truly were.

jonah sat in the cafeteria with talia, eating the yogurt parfait for breakfast. "zayne is driving me insane, i think i'm finally going to kill him." talia groaned. she was mad at the boy for talking about something she had wore, comparing her to a "hoochie".

in his exact words, he texted 'my little hoochie😫'

"i see nothing wrong." jonah snorted, moving away to avoid the hand that was aimed at her from an annoyed talia.

"it was a fashion statement!" talia roared.

jonah continued to laugh, finding her annoyance amusing. "he was obviously claiming you, you're his little hoochie."

there wasn't a reply from talia, she just moped in her seat as she watched students walk by with their bags of school breakfast. she suddenly noticed a boy walking over to the table, brown and dread headed. she raised an eyebrow as he got closer to them.

jonah looked up at him after noticing talia's stare. the girls were both curious now.

he took at seat at the table, one directly in front of jonah. "hey."

jonah felt awkward all of a sudden. "hi..."

he was very attractive too. "you and riki date? or..." jonah was at a loss for words. what was with this question today? talia did nothing but stare at the girl, very curious as to what she would say to the boy.

"we talk." jonah replied to him, putting down her plastic spoon as she continued to look at the dread head. "why?"

he licked his lips before responding. "i wanted your number, but i guess you got something goin' on." he was looking directly into her eyes.

"oh... well yeah..."

there was suddenly another presence.

clad in a baggy pants with a large shirt and jacket, riki stared over the table. he practically glared at the other boy before sitting next to jonah and placing his bookbag on the floor. "what y'all talking about?"

"nothing. i was just leaving." the brown boy deadpanned, not an ounce of a care in his voice as he regarded the other. he glanced at jonah once more before he looked back at riki and walked away.

talia was enjoying every moment of it.

"damn! he don't play about his, huh?" she spoke, catching the attention of both jonah and riki, who bit the inside his cheek as he looked at jonah. "what did he want?"

jonah shook her head. "he just asked if we were dating because he wanted my number." she grabbed her plastic spoon again to eat her yoghurt.

"what did you say?"

"i told him we were talking."

"oh."

riki didn't let up with the questions. "well how did he ask it? did it seem like he really  wanted to know or like someone asked him to ask?"

"it sounded normal i guess."

talia intervened. "why does it matter?"

riki didn't answer that right away. "i don't understand why people are asking like they don't see us together everyday."

"we don't have a label though, so i get why they ask." jonah replied, a little annoyed now.

riki didn't reply to that.

jonah let out a sigh and looked at talia. luckily, the warning bell rang. "you ready to go?" the girl nodded. "yeah, but i gotta wait for zayne, apparently his bus driver got stuck by a train."

"come on jonah." riki said to her. it was usual for him to walk her to first period. jonah didn't want that today, though. "i gotta stop at guidance, so you don't have to walk me."

riki furrowed his eyebrows. before he could tell her he didn't care about waiting, she left the table to walk out the cafeteria door, blending into the crowd of other students.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃