Accepting You

Chapter Five

"Has she gone?" Olivia whispered to Asiya.

Asiya crept her head closer to the narrow window in the brown oak door. There was no sign of Mrs Wilson in the corridor.

Asiya turned back to Olivia and gave her a thumbs up. "She could be in one of the side corridors, though," Asiya quietly warned.

"Well, that's a risk I'm willing to take," Olivia said as she patted her stomach.

Even though Olivia was on her last leg with her sixth form tutor, she had suggested to Asiya that they skip their study free and get an outside lunch. Asiya, in desperate need of a break, had agreed.

Asiya pressed her finger to her lips before she started mouthing a countdown. 

One. Two. Asiya placed her hand around the handle. Three.

Asiya pulled the door open and moved quickly, nearly knocking Adam down.

Adam jumped backwards, his eyes wide and alarmed, before his face relaxed into a sloppy grin. "How many more hoodies are you going to ruin, Asiya?"

"Excuse me?" Asiya's tone was flat and uninterested.

Asiya had known Adam long enough to know he was a joker. He loved winding people up like a jack-in-box and revelled when they popped. 

His teasing had been funny distractions when they were twelve, but at seventeen, the comic element had expired.

Most of Adam's jokes were dead and couldn't revive anything more than pitiful smiles from people.

"I'm not a gossip," Adam smirked.

Asiya felt her body begin to heat.

Are people talking about me?

Her insides liquefied at the thought. She could feel herself wanting to melt into the floor and turn into something wet and soluble that didn't take up space or have any shape for words to hit and effect.

"Neither is my friend," Adam continued. "Nothing was said really–"

"Then you shouldn't have anything to say," Olivia snapped beside Asiya. "Just shut up and move."

"Fine, but if I did shut up, I wouldn't be able to tell you that Mrs Wilson is at the bottom of the corridor waiting for you," Adam said smugly.

"Us?" Olivia and Asiya said simultaneously.

"Well, not you guys specifically," Adam clarified. "Just people like you. People like us. People who want to spend their study free frolicking in the sunshine, breathing in fresh air, living out what is meant to be the best years of our lives!"

"Get on with it, Shakespeare," Olivia said impatiently.

"I've been given a prison sentence." Adam slapped a green A5-sized detention slip against the air in front of them.

"But if you give me permission, Miss Olivia," Adam winked, "I can tell you the best route out of this school so you avoid yours."

-

Asiya and Olivia skipped into the restaurant with linked hands.

Lunchtime on a Thursday afternoon meant the restaurant was practically empty, but the atmosphere was full of the damp smell of sticky rice and heat from Wok's frying takeaway orders.

"Table for two?" a waitress who looked like she should also be in school asked Asiya and Olivia.

"Three, please," Olivia corrected.