The Snitch

(xiii) 1

"Can I braid your hair?" I asked Ray hopefully. He didn't look up from his book when he said "Can I punch you in the throat?" I sighed and went back to reading 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' while burrowing further into his stomach. Many people thought having a boyfriend with toned-ass abs could never have a downside, well nuh uh! You can't sleep on rock hard abs. I would have moved to a pillow ages ago but, bitch was warm as the soda sold at the supermarket.

We were sprawled out on the floor in my room, reading classics like we did most afternoons. Sometimes, I would fall asleep and curl up to him like a cat. Most of the times it was bickering about characters, real people and which Doritos flavor was the best. Of the two weeks we had been together, Ray and I spent about 1 and a quarter of a week arguing. Maybe that was unhealthy, but it wasn't mean fighting. It was all bad jokes and weak punches. Sometimes, it were peppered with lengthy discussions on social issues and reading anything in sight.

It had been obvious from the moment he walked into that library that day, we were happening. "What are we?" I had asked him after the kiss, "What do you want us to be?" He had said with his eyes closed, "Because, we are both above stupid terminology. I can't keep up with the new names, what do they call it now? My girlfriend? Bae? High school sweetheart?" He had tucked a strand of hair escaping my bun behind my ear as he went on, "My girl? My woman?" His voice had lowered as he opened his eyes, "All I know is that I want to be with you."  And that did it.

I smiled at the memory and cuddled up closer to him, holding the book with my fingers. "You're thinking about something. Spill." He closed his book and looked at me, pointedly. "Nothing, just.. us." I immediately stood up as the words left my mouth and looked around in devastation. "What's wrong?" Ray was like full on ninja mode in a second, but I was too busy hyperventilating to appreciate how hot an alert Ray was. "I can't believe I just said that." I said in a mortified whisper. "Said what?", Ray was starting to realize there wasn't an immediate danger, "Morgan, what's wrong?" He didn't realize what was wrong?!

"What's wrong is that, Ray Shen, you just asked me what I was thinking." He had stopped caring a few seconds ago, "So? You offended by that or something?" How could he not realize it? "Focus, Shen, you asked me what I was thinking and I said.." I stopped in embarrassment and continued in a high fake voice, " I said 'about us, Ray!' Like a fucking girl!" He held his hands up as to pray to the almighty for help, "Are you not originally a girl? I mean not that it changes anything, but, I would have liked to have been told, Morgan." Why was I dating this punk? "Anyway, if you're ashamed of showing how you feel about me, it's kinda disappointing. Because believe it or not, I think about us, too. A lot."  And he went back to reading like nothing had happened. Except a smile was tugging at the corners of his lips now. "Ray!" I hissed, just a weak, 'hmm?' in response. How was he not paying attention to me? I snatched his book away, he grabbed it back and hit me lightly on the head with it.

"You don't care, do you? Is it because I'm short?" I launched into the pity party I threw 10 times, every day. He looked downright bored at my drama but, I could tell he was trying not to smile. "Is it because I'm brown? It is, isn't it? I'm half Indian so you don't think I deserve your attention!" I said with a theatrical gasp and unnaturally high voice. He gave a tired sigh and said, "Morgan, my last name's literally Shen, you sure you wanna go into the nationality issue?" "Oh yeah," I went back to my normal voice "yeah, that makes sense."

I realized that I was still standing, unfortunately, he realized it at the same time. He grabbed my arm and wrapped his vine-like arms around my shoulders as he pulled me down next to him. "You're so stupid, Morgan." He whispered in a tone that can only be called endearing, because let's be real, I was many things but with an 130 IQ, stupid was not one of them.   "Stupid Morgan.", he whispered as he started falling asleep. "My stupid, stupid Morgan.", he mumbled for a last time and started taking deep breaths as he fell asleep. Man, I was such a girl.

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School was starting to get much easier, Ramona and Habib rarely left my side after the Monica incident. People were starting to process the snitching and were on the mend, meanwhile the Ray thing had taken up most of their brain space. They were expecting (maybe, hoping) for a breakdown after the intercom incident but, when later Ray came into the cafeteria holding me by the hand, you could almost hear the disturbance in the school's force because of the sheer amount of blown minds. For the first time in my life, I remembered being reluctant about something. He had said it was only for today, to make a statement. Then, we could go back to the library during lunch.

Everyone had gone quiet when we came in, Ray stared them down as if daring anyone to say a word. Nobody did, The Girls pointedly looked away and were ignoring everything with spectacular talent. Habib had looked like he was about to burst into a thousand gay bubbles. The acceptance (or simply non-objection) had made me so happy that Monica's stupid blow-job impression didn't even bother me. Apparently, I wasn't the only person that noticed because Ramona had stood up and said, "Okay, Monica, just because the only reason you had 'boyfriends' is because of your excellent tongue skills, doesn't mean that everyone does that to make people like them. You're special that way." As the laughter and the 'ooh's had taken place, I felt safe after a long time.

                                                                                         ***

"You know, The Girls don't shoot you looks, anymore." Habib said to me as we walked into the school the next day. "Yeah, I've noticed." I sighed, "They hate me so much, they think I'm not worthy of their Lydia Martin stares." He rubbed my shoulder soothingly but, didn't say anything. Even Habib knew a lost cause when he saw one. I felt an arm around my shoulders and immediately smiled at the familiar touch, "What's she stressed about today?" Ray asked Habib nonchalantly, "The Girls. She's still not over them." Habib said gleefully. Whenever Ray and I were in the same vicinity, Habib lost his shit. Ramona, on the other hand, was always shooting me a glare that said 'if you guys do anything couple-y in front of me, I will dissect you both and feed your intestines to stray dogs.' She didn't have anything to worry about, though. The most conventionally couple-y thing we had done was when we were finger-painting last week. I ended up making dick drawings all over his house. When together, both of us were half fresh-minded intellectual youth and the other half behaved like 5th graders that laughed at 'Uranus' jokes.

Habib and Ray talked all the way to the gym where Ray tugged at the end of my hair "We need to get to class and leave you alone for a few hours now. Do you think you can manage to not cause a 'Real Housewives'  episode till then?" He talked to me as if I was an oversensitive toddler, like a matured person, I blew a raspberry at him and walked into the gym with my middle finger high up in the air.

***

A/N

There is a second part of this chapter, people! Trust me, I  will not end a chapter without giving you some juice! But, mama's tiiiired!

Votes and comments work like energy drinks for moi! Next update out tomorrow!!

-Love, Tannaz.