Almost Friends

Chapter 4- Mia

Chapter Four

Mia

Back to School

I slam my car door shut and run a hand through my hair before shaking it out.

It's only the first day of school and my boyfriend has already managed to piss me off. I swear to God, if Ran weren't so perfect in nearly every other freaking way, I would have killed him by now.

I stomp all the way through the parking lot and up South Louisiana High's front steps. A half a dozen randos say, "Hey, Mia, how was your summer" and, "Blah, blah, blah ..." -but I don't reply, I'm too angry.

At SLH's large front doors, I pause to collect myself.

I need to calm down. I mean, sure, Randall Hawke is a horrible boyfriend for ditching me to bring his loser friend, Lanie Russell, to school on our first day as seniors. But so what? I run this school.

Yeah, Ran might call Lanie his "best friend" and yeah, Lanie might have spent nearly every day of her summer vacation with him while I only got to hang out with him three times- but none of that matters because now we're back at school and SLH is my turf. Here, I have first dibs on whatever or whoever I want, and I want my freaking boyfriend back.

I toss my hair and reach for the door.

"Let me get that for you," a breathless male voice calls from behind me.

I turn around and an unfamiliar pudgy brown kid—Middle Eastern, Indian, half-black? Whatever, I can never tell—is bounding up the stairs behind me. His eyes shine as he looks at me in awe, a half-smile on his lips.

I glance at his feet—Nike running shoes. They're identical to a pair my cousin, Mark, bought last week. If Mark has the same shoes, then I guess it's okay to be seen with this kid.

I return his smile. "Thank you."

Beaming with hormonal glee, the kid puffs out his chest and holds the door open while I glide through. He asks me something, which I pretend not to hear and, without breaking stride, I survey my domain.

The school skank, Via Nguyen, is to my right, standing with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Heath Remington. Actually "standing with" is the wrong phrase, it's more like she's "leaning on" her boyfriend as they make out.

I roll my eyes. By next week Via will have cheated on the poor idiot with at least seven other guys and the two of them will be fighting about it.

Just beyond them, Josh Phillips—tall, dark, and handsome—is joking around with a few boys from the football team.

Josh is an all-state wide receiver, so we run into each other a lot. He's super hot and we flirt hard, but since he's black nothing's ever going to actually happen.

Josh catches my eye and grins. I toss my hair and wave as casually as I can before looking away. I don't even have to look at him to know he's checking me out. I bite down on my bottom lip to hide the pleased smile that's crept into my expression.

My gaze goes to Mr. Brown and my smile fades. As usual, he wears a brown suit jacket over a mustard colored shirt and khakis. He looks ridiculous. The STD ridden douche ducks out of the principal's office and heads for the stairs, his laptop and briefcase in hand. He glances in my direction and nearly stops in his tracks, the color draining from his face.

My stomach turns and I look away.

How and why did I ever hook up with that?

I take a deep breath, dismiss a sudden urge to punch Mr. Brown in his stupid face, and shift my focus to a huddled group of our youngest members of the cheerleading team- Meagan, Rose, and some other girl whose name I can never remember.