It's Complicated

1. Big News

1. Big News

"Riya, would you please hurry up? This is urgent!" I exclaimed for the third time, flustered by the fact that my stupid best friend was taking forever to get her books out of her locker.

"Fine," Riya grumbled, shutting her locker. "What's up?" She opened her vocab book and stared at the page intently, muttering the words and the definitions quietly under her breath.

"This is big," I said meaningfully.

Riya looked up from the book with a wary but questioning look, unwilling to waste her precious last minute studying time. I swear, my friend was the biggest procrastinator in the world - but even I had to admit, her method worked incredibly effectively for her. If I tried to memorize those words in five minutes, I would probably fail every vocab test.

"Bathroom big?" Riya asked, a smile spreading over her face.

"Bathroom big," I confirmed, returning the smile. We shared a knowing look and grinned at each other.

Our gossip was either bathroom big or not too important. If we had to go to the bathroom, you knew the following words were very important and too risky to be said in the hallway.

We took a detour to the bathroom and I quickly made sure no one was in there. Unfortunately, Madame Chateau was doing her business so we had to wait until she was done.

I studied my reflection since Riya and I couldn't actually talk while Madame Chateau was using the facilities. Standing at 5'3, I was about average height. My ears were filled with diamonds in their second piercing, sparkling brightly against my peach skin tone. My thick brown hair was inching down to my waist, much to my surprise since I'd just cut my hair a few months ago. I stared back at my brown eyes trying to put my name on their exact shade, but I snapped back into reality when I heard a toilet flush.

Riya and I shared a look after two more minutes, wondering why Madame Chateau was still in the bathroom. Talk about awkward.

Finally, the cranky teacher left after giving us a lecture on how short are skirts were and how being promiscuous would not get us anywhere in life. Just so you don't the wrong idea, our skirts were barely two inches above our knee and Madame Chateau's skirt was higher than ours. Yet, because Madame Chateau was the scariest teacher at our school, neither of us dared to talk back. No one messes with that intimidating French lady if they value their lives.

"Okay, tell me now," Riya said, looking away from the mirror. She waited patiently while I smiled like a fool.

"Come on," she grumbled after a couple of seconds. "I'm going to get late for English!"

"Who cares? Mrs. Lee comes ten minutes late like every day," I pointed out, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, but I need to cram!" She twirled a strand of her thick, curly black hair around a finger as she waited for me to continue. I noticed that her hair was growing pretty long, too. It almost reached mid back for her.

"Okay, okay," I grumbled, raising my hands in surrender. "I like someone."

Riya smiled and her eyes twinkled mischievously. "I think I know who it is."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I had given no intimation of my crush to anyone, especially not to Riya.

"Who?"

"You like Allen, right?" Riya asked, giving me a disapproving look, though her smug smile kind of ruined the effect.

"No!" I exclaimed, sending her a dark glare. "I do not like Allen! He's in a relationship for crying out loud! And he's my best friend. That is disgusting, Riya."