The Tales of Flesh and Blood

I Talk To A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom

If I was being honest, school was never my best subject on a good day, which was rare to come by on their own. In fact, the only reason I ever bothered attending instead of skipping was because Hadi threatened that she would get another job if I dropped out of school, even at my insistence that I would be the one getting a job with all the so-called 'extra' freetime. And while I was doubtful that the older woman could find time in her already tightly-packed schedule to get another job, I wasn't quite eager to test her. It's such a strange threat to get me to comply, but I made the grave mistake of arguing with her to get her to quit one of her three jobs and let me take one instead.

Hadi may never have made it into secondary school, but if the cause was morally right in her eyes, she knew the right things to say to get others to listen. Or, in my case, to back off.

So, here I was. Dozing off in the back of a biology lab while the teacher played a two-and-a-half hour long introduction video on the reproduction of cells and bacteria. In fact, I was almost completely asleep, events from the morning long forgotten, when I felt something bump into my leg, followed by noises that you would only expect to hear in the back rows of a movie theater.

I opened my eyes and suppressed an annoyed sigh, instead inching back to glare down at the inappropriate couple locking lips underneath my lab table. I recognized the girl - blond hair with dyed black tips, wearing a loose brown blouse and black tights. Semi-tanned skin, and the best friend to the only girl that I've ever punched in the face while on school property. Fayette Jator. Figures.

Her guy friend, however, I knew not, but it didn't stop me from giving him a rude shove in the shoulder with my foot.

"Hey," I hissed. "Take that somewhere else."

The boy looked up, momentarily dazed, before giving me a sheepish smile. But before he could say anything, his girl of the day sneered up at me.

"Oh, Tria, please. You're just jealous because your own mama wouldn't so much as touch you."

I raised my eyebrows at the remark.

"Okay, let me make this clear. If I have to listen to your bad life's decisions, I'll make what I did to Jorden two years back look like sophisticated art. Wanna see how many boys will kiss you with a swollen face?"

Fayette glared at me, trying to judge if I was being plausible or not. It was foolish on her part; she's known me long enough to know that carrying out threats was a special skill of mine. Finally, the boy grabbed her arm.

"Let's just move down there," he gestured to a space further down from underneath the table. Fayette took one look at me and followed suit after the boy, but not before quickly sticking her tongue out at me - to which I ignored. If I threw punches at everyone who tried mocking me with petty insults, my knuckles would never get a break.

Annoyed and wishing to be anywhere other than here, I leaned forward, rested my elbows on the table, and pulled my arms back to massage the base of my skull. A few strands of my hair fell forward, appearing paper white in the light casted by the projector hanging on the roof. I needed to get some air.

Sighing, I shrugged my weightless backpack over my shoulder and slid my legs over the stool. Mr. Horten was a middle-aged man who only worked as a teacher because he wasn't smart enough to go into other fields concerning biology. So, naturally, he wasn't one who really gave a piece of snot towards his students unless they showed interest - or, if you're me, managed to make a name for yourself.

His desk was on the far left of the classroom at the front. After dodging legs and bags tossed in the aisles, I stared at the dozing Biology teacher with all the impatience and restlessness a pushy teenage girl might have. I cleared my throat. He sat up with a start, eyes wide, and pushed his narrow glasses up his nose.