Land of Z

4

"You and I, we could be great allies. Or worse!"

Jayden had Gia cornered in the library. Smiling brightly at the girl, who was clearly uncomfortable. "But listen listen. Don't assume I'm here for the worst okay? Im actually here for answers because I love Geo. I also love Brenda. But.. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to you. I just wanna talk about what's happening with Brenda." He said pulling out a chair and sitting in front of her.

Bystanders watched quietly, passersby were whispering, and Gia was now ultimately about to get pissed.

"Why haven't you tried having this conversation with Brenda herself?" Gia shrugged her shoulders as if that was his key. "Tried to, she freaked out and declined." He shrugged back, because that was not in fact the key.

"Well- if Brenda didn't tell you, what makes you think I will? I don't owe you anything, Geo's friend or not." Jayden just looked at her with sad eyes. "Cmon Gianna don't be like that- I wouldn't even have approached you if I didn't think this was concerning. You know she'd kill me if she saw us together right?" Quickly and carefully he scanned the area to see if any cameras were recording.

He sighed. "I just wanna try to make things better for you. I don't think it's fair that Brenda's being such a dick to you, and no one even knows or remembers why! Geo can't be happy either, and he constantly talks to me about you." He tried to explain himself again, because that's all he could do at this point.

Gia wasn't budging and he was running out of dialogue options really fast. Lunch was almost over after all.

"Gia please. I really need you to help me here. I just want things to be peaceful and you deserve to have friends. Riley's awesome but you could have multiple Riley's, lesser cool ones. Just...give me an idea of what happened." He begged, damn near getting on his knees for an answer.

This was starting to get embarrassing for them both. "Okay don't do that for one. You're too noticeable for us to have this conversation here. You're gonna have to wait until there's an even quieter time." "When will that be?" He whispered. She sighed, "Dude I don't know. You're busy, and I am too after school. We'll figure it out on a better day, I'll give you the idea you need, just wait okay?" She rubbed her head in irritation.

Jaydens smile was radiant. "Thank you Gianna. Can I call you Gia too? I feel like Gianna is too formal cause Geo calls you Gia, yknow?" She sighed heavily again, "It's fine just leave me alone before this gets worse. I'll let you know when a time is good." She waved him off and buried her head in her arms.

Hopefully the rest of the day can stay normal.

———

It didn't stay normal, but Gia ditched the rest of the day so she wouldn't know.

Rumors flooded fast about Jayden's supposed secret meet up with Gia, and word reached Brenda reallll quick. So she was pissed. But lunch happened an hour ago, and she wouldn't see Jayden until after school ends.

There's two hours left.

"Im sure it's all fine! You know how Jay is! He's friendly maybe he was talking to her for my sake.." Geo tried to reason with her, hoping to ice her rage. "Geo, be so fucking for real." She spat out at him, and he retracted his words mentally.

Geo let out a cautious breath. He hadn't really been able to be great friends with Brenda, she did cause a lot of trouble for his twin sister their freshman year of high school. Gia was honestly the only reason why he even considered trying to move past it, she's the one who claimed that she wasn't bothered by the rumors Brenda made. Yet it still bothered him. He sticked around for Jayden mainly but to his luck he had a class where Jay wasn't there to save him.