Bubblegum (Brustoff)

//one

"And then he took me back to his place and he brought out a tub of ice cream and all we did was eat ice cream and watch some tv until it was 2am," Kellin began, reciting his date last Saturday to me.

Kellin had been going out with Vic for just over a year now, their anniversary just the other month. They still talked about each other the same, even after all that time. They got together by mistake; Kellin had liked him for a few months, and apparently, so had Vic. Neither said anything, and knowing Kellin, he wouldn't have said anything. It was only because Vic's friend, Jaime, setting them up. He'd called Vic to meet him at this cafe that he knew Kellin was at. Then the rest was history.

I've known Kellin most of my life. He's never been happier than he has been this last year, and I'm praying it lasts.

"You two are cute," I smile brightly at Kellin. I was happy for them. They were cute together.

Kellin opened his mouth, only to be cut off from an argument happening the other side of the cafeteria. It was come from the "popular table", unspoken by all but everyone knew it was. Something about secondary school higher-archy and social status. I, myself, don't put myself in any category. I was friends with most the girls from that table, spoken to their boyfriends (the long-term ones, that is) and we were good friends. At the same time, I was still good friends with others that didn't sit there, who didn't do sport and instead sat in the library. I was friends with mostly everyone, somewhere in between the social construct of school.

"How the fuck can you do this to me, Ben? I gave so much to be with you, and now you're turning your fucking back on me? God, my parents were right about you, I wish I never met you!"

It was Ciara, I liked her. She was nice and we got a long. Stupid, but nice. I did tell her at the beginning that Ben wasn't with her because he liked or that she could change it. He was in it because she was a pretty blonde. That's all he ever was in it for. And people call me naïve.

Ciara hadn't given any time for Ben to reply, leaving quickly. She was crying, I noted. I felt sorry for her.

Ben had shrugged lightly, laughing along with his friend Danny. The two were just as bad as each other.

I frowned, "What happened?"

"Apparently, Ciara tried to get Ben to stop going to all them parties because she was worried about his health. He told her to fuck off and went anyway. And there he cheated on her from some girl from Brighton."

Kellin knows everything about everyone. It was one of his favourite things; gossip and rumours. Drama was one of the things that was really only caused by Ben. He was against monogamy.

"Brighton?" I ask. That's a few hours away. Why these girls travelled all the way up here just for some party, I'd never know. Perhaps I was bias. I wasn't much into the party scene myself.

Kellin nodded. The bell went a few moments later and everyone stood up from the cafeteria. The people loitering outside in the cold had started moving to their next lesson. Mine was English. My worst lesson. The subject itself was a favourite, but the teacher made it insufferable. He didn't like me. He was quite old, probably in his late 50s. He was good at teaching, good at English. Throw in some homophobia, sexism and racism and there you had Mr Slater.

He didn't like me because he didn't approve of my dress sense. The school was accepting of what I wear, they won't let me get sent to Heads of House or talk to the head teacher about it, because there wasn't anything wrong with it. I wore the uniform; the plain blue blazer, white shirt, tie and black, pleated skirt. Tights in the winter. And there was nothing against me wearing that. Mr Slater didn't agree, and would work had to make sure I was punished for it by saying my skirts too short or I'm not wearing my house badge correctly on my blazer. The latter was stupid as it was sown onto the pocket, a small strip of red showing what house I'm in.