Pita, continued

Chap.9, Valentines Day.

January had been uneventful for the most part. My crushes were Haris (obviously), RJ, Colten, and Sebastian. The only thing that really happened was the new semester. Haris was in my PE and computer classes now. In our PE, we played speedball. One time, Haris kicked to ball right next to me and his shoe flew off. We both laughed and looked at each other. Another time, these two girls were running after the ball, when they collided and flew backward. Me and him both had the same reaction of slapping our hands over our mouths. My friends and I had a habit of playing Roblox every day after school. One time, we invited Colten to play with us, and he surprisingly said yes. While we were playing, I saw something that reminded me of Haris. We all laughed, then Colten asked,

"Do you want me to talk to him? Like, put in a good word for you?" 

Woah, I thought. I had never actually considered that before. 

Of course, I said yes. It would be dumb of me not to. I almost forgot about that whole thing, but...After RJ broke up with his girlfriend, he was really sad about it. I felt terrible, but at the same time, I was kind of happy because that meant he was available for me. In English that day he was crying, and I almost cried too. Seeing people cry just makes me cry. It's a natural reaction, I guess. There were tears in my eyes, but I kept furiously wiping them away because I had my contacts in. I was really emotional that day for some reason. I couldn't stop looking at Haris. He just looked so fine that day. I mean, to me he did every day, but still. Towards the end of class, our teacher introduced a new writing activity. The first prompt was "Family traditions". While explaining she said, "Think about traditions you might want with your future family", I immediately turned to Haris. My heart stopped when I saw he was ALREADY LOOKING AT ME. We held eye contact for a few seconds before I got too flustered and turned away before he could see me smile. I told Colten what happened. 

"I did say I would put in a good word for you." 

That sentence sent me spiraling. He remembered?! Did he actually say something?! (I eventually learned that he hadn't, but still.)

Many other things happened towards the end of January. For one, a girl named Emilia, who was a childhood friend of mine moved to our school for second semester. I was worried she would get swept up by the popular kids, but she actually had more in common with me and Adriana. The three of us bonded instantly. Unsurprisingly I started to develop feelings for her. It was my first crush on a non-straight girl in a while. But I decided not to acknowledge me feelings because she said she didn't want to date anyone, and because of what would happen next. 

One of my main friend groups was now Adriana, Emilia, Michael S, Humza, and occasionally Colten. Pretty much immediately after Emilia joined our class, Michael admitted to having a crush on her. It was cute at first, he would talk about how nice and pretty she was and how he would dress up to impress her. Our friend group was pretty tight by then. Toward the beginning of February, we went to the mall together. We had a really good time; Adriana's family came too. Along with Adriana's cousin's friend Macie. We ran around the mall the whole time, separating, then coming together again, then separating again. I bought my first band T-shirt that day (slipknot) and swore I would be buried in it. All the girls, me included, also went to Macy's to try on prom dresses just for fun. I may have sent a few pictures of me in the more revealing dresses to the group chat with Colten on purpose. He was the first one to respond so I would say mission success. That was the day after Emilia rejected Michael, however. It's not really easy for me to say what happened since it's none of my business. But basically, even after he was rejected Michael couldn't take the hint and kept making Mimi feel uncomfortable. Adriana had felt uncomfortable too since he had said weird things to both of us in the past. 

February 12th, Superbowl night, was when it all started. I was watching the game when I got a text from Adriana.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah sure, and thanks for feeling like you can talk to me."

She proceeded to tell me about how a certain person in our friend group was making her feel uncomfortable. I thought she was talking about Michael because I had been feeling that way about him recently. But she actually said it was about Humza, which I could also understand. We continued to rant about them and eventually came to the conclusion that we had to do something. We agreed to tell Emilia about it and decided what to do afterward. So, on the next day, February 13th, we talked to her in science class and decided to talk to Michael and Humza at lunch. Originally the plan was to do it on Friday, and I wonder what might have gone differently if we did. It all came crashing down after that. We had gotten into an argument over it at lunch and our friend group basically split in two. Me, Adriana, and Emilia, then Michael and Humza. Except Humza was still talking Emilia, and Michael was still talking to Adriana. A lot more drama came after that and I'm sure it's not the last of it.

The next day was February 14th. Valentine's day. Needless to say, it didn't go the way I'd hoped. I planned to give Haris a Valentine's Day bracelet that Alexa had bought for me. Me and Alexa were Valentines since we were both single and she decided not to be Valentines with her Ex. Oh yeah! I guess I had forgot to mention but Alexa and her boyfriend broke up. There was a lot of drama around that too. Apparently, he had never liked her in the first place! What a piece of-

Anyways. Since Alexa was heartbroken, naturally I was her shoulder to cry on. Which I didn't mind at all of course. She had been mine many times before. Valentine's day was a flop, something always has to go wrong of course. 

Something else had happened that February I forgot to mention. I was actually pretty happy that day. I was chilling in English, talking to RJ and Colten like I normally would when RJ said...

"Hey, did you know that Haris has a girlfriend?" 

Wait, what?

That's what I wanted to say, but safe to say the woman was too stunned to speak.

"Yeah, I heard someone say it in the hallway. Sorry."

My heart dropped to the floor and then shattered. I started denying it. Obviously, Haris couldn't have a girlfriend. But could he? The more I thought about it the sadder I got. I was trying so hard not to cry but when Allie asked me what was wrong, I broke down. I told her what RJ said.

"Oh honey, don't worry. I really don't think he has a girlfriend. I can ask him if you want?"

I nodded. I was too chocked up to speak. When RJ asked me if I was okay, I ignored him for the rest of class and Allie did the same. I held back my tears the whole bus ride home, and as soon as I ran into my room I started crying again. This time it was a lot. Deep down I knew it probably wasn't true. But I loved him so much that the mere thought of him with someone else was painful. Allie texted me and said that she asked him...but he gave no response. 

"What? What do you mean?" I asked.

She told me he didn't say anything when she asked, and just stared at her! It's not like they never talked to each other either. 

The next day RJ told me how he was sorry, and that he didn't mean for it to hurt my feelings. I told him it was okay, even though it really wasn't. As I said, that was before Valentine's Day. And I later confirmed with Tarik O that he didn't have a girlfriend. But thinking about it now, why wouldn't he say anything? I mean, he knew Allie would tell me his response, why wouldn't he just lie? He could have lied and said he had a girlfriend so that I would stop liking him, but he didn't. Why not? And why not just say no?