The Tree's Girl

Chapter Twenty Seven

"It's them."

"I saw them walking to school together. Maybe it's true."

"What would Maria like about him?"

"Maybe working together on that tree project made her realize something?"

"Wow, Joseph is so lucky"

"Or is Maria just stupid?"

"Well, at least we all know they're together."

"I think holding hands in the hallway bluntly stated it."

The last time I was at school was the day when my father came to get me and brought me to the house so he could persuade me, which ended brutally. Anyway, on that day a girl saw Maria and I kissing which was probably a big thing because Maria was a star student and I was a student who recently had a bad name, so seeing two opposites making out was not something she could just let go. She probably told her friends about our little scene, then her friends probably told their friends and their friends probably told theirs. The early morning whispers didn't surprise me at all, I mean other than putting up a show like that, going to school with Maria holding my hand was a frank move, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. I already predicted that something like this would happen, so what's to hide?

"Are you okay with the gossip, Joseph?" she asked and I just nodded. "I'm used to it."

We finally got to our classroom and still the whispers didn't stop. In fact, it got louder once we arrived. As you already know, Maria and I have sits very far away to each other and, well, it somehow became the subject of the whole class. Annoying, how people make things significant when it originally wasn't.

They started off like: "Too bad they are not sitting next to each other." and it went on and on.

"Too bad? Isn't it something good? We could still knock some sense out of Maria."

"Are you totally against Joseph? I think they look fine"

"What? No. I think Maria and I look fine."

"You're disgusting. I think there's nothing wrong with them."

"Well I won't trade my sit so he could sit closer to his girlfriend."

"Who said you had to? I would be willing to trade with him if he asked me."

Opinions were separated in three groups: those who hated the thought of us together, those who loved the fact we were together and those who just didn't care. I salute the last group.

I just faced Maria and she looked very irritated at what she was hearing. I would think that she liked the whispers about us saying that we looked good together, while she despised the others saying we were disguting. I even saw her seatmate, a girl sitting behind her, whisper something and she immediately gave her a death glare. I'd guess that that girl uttered something along the lines of: What do you like about -insert my name here-? or Are you serious about -insert my name here-, you could do so much better.

I just chuckled at my thoughts. It gets on my nerves and funny bone all at the same time. Hearing people say bad things about me now didn't really mean anything compared to back then. Maria glanced at me to see if I was okay, and surely there was nothing wrong with me.

Being in a relationship with Maria didn't change my life that much, she's been kissing me long before we were together, she's been touching me from the very first day we met in this school again. The only thing that changed is that I now let her do it to me willingly. The gossips? It's nothing new, I probably hear them everyday, maybe not about me, but it's still inappropriate no matter what or who the topic is. The hate? Who cares what other people think. I, for a fact, sure never did.