fallin' out of love (stemxstud)

7

Valentine

For the rest of the day, when I wasn't cleaning up after these dirty, no-home-training ass kids, I tried to follow behind Pouty and her friends. From the little I knew about the whole Pouty situation, I had assumed the girl had moved and had settled in Russia. So why was she back here in Houston all of a sudden? How long had she been here? And why was there something slightly off about her?

"Let's meet at Mayah's," I heard Pouty saying as I cleaned out a garbage can in the boy's restroom out of their view, "Well, my old place," she chuckled a little.

"Okay. Cause we needa talk about this," one of them said, her voice dropping a little as I eavesdropped from the other bathroom. "If Anaela's back in town, she needs to know that she can't be our friend anymore. She's gonna get that beat down she missed that day in the club parking lot."

"Ay. I gotta catch up with my lil cuz. She needs me to bring her a pad across da building," someone else said out of the blue.

"Ight, Ria," I heard Pouty say, "Ight, Sissy. Tell Raneah I said hey."

Ria and Sissy, two more of their friends, I'm assuming, left the other bathroom.

"What are we gonna do?" I heard someone quickly whisper.

"I don't know...but we shouldn't talk about it here," Pouty hissed. I curiously stopped fumbling with the trash can, standing still.

"Nobody can find out," I heard the other person whisper. "Nobody."

"...you're the one who urged me to go along with it. I was willing to wait for it to naturally happen," Pouty hissed.

"If anyone finds out what we've done, we're both going down, Pouty."

"Nobody told you to get involved," Pouty argued.

"I had to. I- I love you."

"I should've never came back to Houston. I knew this," Pouty grunted. I heard someone stomping, the sound slowly fading away, then shortly after another set of feet. I peeked my head out of the boy's restroom and saw Pouty and a stud leaving out.

There was definitely something...more to that conversation. I was willing to bet that this Mayah who's house they're going to after school had been in that bathroom at some point of the convo. And if I want to know of Anaela's whereabouts...I should keep a close eye on Pouty and her lil friends.

As soon as school ended, I shoved my shit into the janitor's closest, signed out with the head janitor, and made my way outside of the school. Granted, I don't know where this Mayah stays at, but chances are likely that the entire friend group still resides in the Sunday Breeze complex, where Anaela used to stay.

And bonus for me...I remembered Anaela's old apartment...and the fact that her friends didn't live too far away. It was amazing how she had went from an anxiety-ridden girl to a gang leader, cut off from me because our family didn't want us to stay in contact because of a very obvious reason.

I entered the complex in my black car, looking for any signs of Pouty or her friends. Would they have went straight to this Mayah girl's house? Would they have walked there? The school is literally across the street. Were they already there?

I got my answer when I saw the group of them standing by a door, clowning on the front step.

I parked my car and waited for them to go in, quickly slipping back into old Valentine, as I discreetly moved my way around the apartment. I squeezed myself between a space of two buildings and laid down an old stool I had in the trunk of my car to get into the bathroom window.

I peered in, seeing no one.

I got the window open with some skills I had learned from Dom through casual conversation on our way to Wisconsin a few months back. My heart panged a bit, wondering how the girl was doing, but then it hardened again, remembering the way she betrayed Anaela. Not telling Anaela that Sissy had forced Pouty to plant those papers out of jealousy and dislike on Sissy's part. Info like that, had we had known sooner, might not have ran us all out of Houston.

I got inside, and left the window cracked, pressing my ear against the bathroom door. It sounded like everyone was heading to another part of the house, but I could still clearly hear their voices.

"Anaela might be back in town. What's the deal?" I heard someone sigh.

"It's a big deal. She hurt Pouty, remember? She made her feel uncomfortable. She threw herself on her," someone added in.

Huh.

So everyone must not know that had all been a lie.

"True. But after her little secret spill at the club and her running off, she should know better than to step foot in Houston again," I heard someone say venomously. The amount of hate in the girl's voice had to belong to that Sissy girl.

"Look. It's fine. I'll be fine, guys," I heard Pouty sighing.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

I pulled it out. A message from Teece, asking how my first day of work at the high school was. I left her on Read, grimacing as I tuned back into the conversation.

"If I see her at school...I'm gonna shove her face so far into the concrete in the damn main hall that they're gonna think she's our new mascot."

Definitely has to be Sissy.

"Why do you hate her so much, Sissy?" I heard Pouty murmur.

A long stretch of chilling silence covered the place.

"We should probably...go. I got some homework to catch up on," someone broke the silence.

"Yeah, me too."

"Alright, guys," I heard Pouty say, trying to bring some cheer into the air, it sounded. "Let's all stay safe, huh?"

"Pouty, I needa talk to you and Mayah," the voice I now recognized as Sissy's stated lowly.

"Alright," Pouty said unsurely. "Lemme, um, just pee first."

I started making my way back to the window, honestly disappointed that I wouldn't get to hear their conversation. So Pouty, Sissy, and Mayah were in on something big. But what was it? I wonder if Dom would know about this too...if I could just get ahold of her.

Hmm.

I closed the window softly as I heard the bathroom door unlock. I grabbed my stool, hid out of the view of the two girl's leaving Mayah's, and made it back to my car. I drove off, throwing the stool in the backseat and texting Teece that my first day had went fine.

What would Teece even think if she knew I was looking for Anaela? And how was I going to contact Dom to see what she possibly knew about this whole situation?