Time for School

Confrontation

I entered the opposite side of the cafeteria from where my friends and I usually sit. I waved to them as I walked by from a distance, but they seemed preoccupied with talking to each other. I shrugged it off and headed into the line to get my lunch. When I walked back out, my friends seemed as though they were on the lookout for me. I snickered to myself, realizing they were probably ready to poke fun at me nonstop for my kiss with Nora. I sighed happily as I approached them.

"Hey guys," I said in a merry tone. All of them were staring intensely at me as I placed my tray of food on the table.

"Don't sit down," Frank insistently said. "Just go—quick."

I looked at him in confusion, grinning and scoffing. They were most likely playing some kind of trick on me.

"What?" I asked. "What are you talking ab–"

"There you are!" a boisterous, male voice exclaimed somewhere behind me. I turned around and my jaw hung agape in shock at the sight of who was marching straight toward me, flanked by a couple of his friends.

"I'm sorry, Anthony," Nora quietly said, causing me to quickly turn my attention to her. She had an incredibly worried look in her eyes. "One of my boyfriend's stupid friends saw us kiss. ...He knows about it and he's really upset."

"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered under my breath as I turned my attention back around again.

I could not believe who Nora's boyfriend was: none other than Nick's aforementioned douchebag cousin, Jason.

My mind suddenly became a cauldron of mixed emotions. I was as ready to confront Jason over the issue at the same time I wanted to just walk away and avoid a scene. Instead, I stayed put and kept my eyes carefully trained on him.

Jason's eyes narrowed, sticking his head out to me as he approached.

"You?" Jason asked in disbelief. "You're the punk that had your lips on my girl, little boy?"

I stared at him with a contemptuous sneer. Immediately I wondered where the hell all my confidence went? Just seeing his face made me want to ram my fist through it as hard as I could. The fact that he wanted to confront me over something as harmless and miniscule as a kiss between friends irritated me.

However, I took a deep breath and found my cool again. I looked him squarely in the eyes as I quietly responded.

"Yeah. What about it?" I asked. Behind me, my friends looked on with worry.

Jason scoffed as he turned to one of his friends with an amused shake of his head. He then stood up tall, trying to intimidate me with the size discrepancy of a good few inches between us—but it wasn't working. I stared at him, unimpressed.

"You really shouldn't be kissing other guys' girls," he said. "I mean, you wouldn't know shit about that since you never had a girlfriend ever." His friends laughed.

"Look," I calmly said, "Nora and I are just friends, that's it."

"Good," he replied with a smirk. "I like hearing that. You just saved your own ass, little punk. And shit better stay that way or I'm gonna have to beat your ass like I used to do every day in middle school. Nora's my property, bitch—don't forget it." He then patted both his friends on the chest before turning away from me. "Come on, let's go," he said to them before they began to walk away.

Needless to say, I didn't like this guy at all. He was an unrepentant asshole to everyone and everything in middle school. Good to see some things never change.