"You heard what happened?" Caren asked me as soon as she met me in front of the school. I watched the rest of the high schooler's leave in their cars or start the journey to their homes.
"What?"
"Felicity got suspended, but Tara was let off since she was tryna break shit up," Caren informed me. I asked her what the worried expression on her face was begging me to ask. "And what about Nolina?" I sighed.
"She got a concussion and she's sore as hell, but she's fine. She's at home. She'll probably be suspended too if they don't think her being out because of her injuries is enough," she stated.
"Mm."
"Being fake to us or not, she was once our friend and she's still a person," Caren scolded me. "You should be more sympathetic right now."
"I don't care. You lose my trust, you lose my empathy," I shrugged, "It just makes sense."
"That's coldhearted, Gi."
"Then let it be," I shrugged again.
"I didn't expect for Tara to take up for you like that today," she said softly, starting to walk alongside me as we headed for our complex.
"She didn't take up for me," I corrected her, "She just hindered me from beating Felicity's ass."
"Hindered, really?" Caren chuckled.
"Maybe my mom's right. I gotta stop all this fighting," I sighed, running my hand over my face.
"You just now realizing that, Gi?"
"No. It's just sinking in fully, you know?" I looked over at Caren. "You a real one, you know?"
Maybe if I kept reminding her, she'd act like it.
"Yea. I know."
"Looks like she's talking about us," Caren commented. We sat in the cafeteria, enjoying the fumes of sloppy joe's and stale air.
"I don't care. We can fight," I shrugged.
"I thought you and Tara at least had a truce, after yesterday," Caren stated, eating some fruit snacks she bought out of the line. We were at a small corner of the table, just chilling in our own world while Tara and Nolina sat around their crowd of friends not too far away. Matter a fact, not far enough. I'm surprised shawty decided to show up to school today. Not only was Nolina not suspended, she was sporting her new bruises around school like she was proud of them.
"Truce? Please. She stopped me from beating her little side hoe's ass at the end of the day. That's nothing commendable," I told it like it was, shrugging, "If anything, I didn't get my round with Felicity and that makes me hate Tara even more."
"If anybody knew what I knew occurred between the two of you," Caren said slowly, "they'd think there was something more going on between y'all now."
I gave my friend a look. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It looks like y'all are obsessed with each other," she shrugged back.
"We're not. I'm not," I told her in a final tone, "And nobody else is gonna know. Right?"
"Right," Caren frowned, looking over at Nolina sitting on Tara's lap.
I caught where Caren was looking and let out a bitter chuckle. "No way she'd expose her own girlfriend. Plus, it'd only make Tara look worse since she's the one who kissed me and not the other way around."
