Little Talks

.: Chapter Thirteen :.

"I never thought you'd be one to confront someone like that."

"I act differently around different people."

"Yeah, I can tell." We both laugh and jab each other in the stomach.

"Hey lovebirds, where are you guys going?" a familiar voice says from behind us. It's Jace.

"Oh my God where have you been?" Kita asks, spinning around and running up to him. I follow, but I try not to look so eager. Jace looks like he's been crying. His eyes are red and his shirt is wet and wrinkled.

"Are you okay?" Kita asks.

"I'm fine. But Erica broke up with me."

"That sucks, man. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yeah, but I need to sit down first." We walk over to the right side of the hallway and have him sit against the wall, with us sitting farther out in the hallway, facing him.

"I need to rant, so can you guys just listen?"

Kita and I nod.

"So as soon as Erica and I got out of the cafeteria, she told me that 'We need to talk.' I already knew that but she wouldn't talk until we made it to the south library. We didn't go in the library, we went in the little nook by it. That's also where we had our first kiss.
"She sat me down and sat in front of me and took a deep breath. I didn't know what she was going to do, but I had an idea. She told me 'I'm really sorry about this Jace. I've been cheating on you for a while now, and I've decided to come clean.' 'Who was it?' I asked. 'August.'"

Kita's fists clench again. "That asshole." he mumbles.

"I started tearing up, for whatever reason, and she told me 'I know I shouldn't have, but he was so nice to me and he liked me for who I am.' So I said 'I love you for who you are! I've always tried to be with you and help you, what did I do wrong?' 'You loved me for who I was. I'm not some geek anymore. I'm popular. I've changed.'"

"That's harsh." I say.

"Well, she's right. I didn't like her after she had changed. I've been holding on to the hope that she was the same person I met last year. She's not."

We sit in silence. I look at Jace and try to characterize him. He has brown hair and deep drown eyes. He usually wears an open flannel shirt with a white T-shirt underneath and skinny jeans every day. Today he's wearing a dark red and white flannel and lightwashed skinny jeans, paired with a pair of white and black Adidas. He kind of looks like a fashionable nerd.

"I'm so sorry about that." I say, patting his shoe.

Kita nods along. "Yeah, she shouldn't have done that to you. Especially not with that ass August."

After a couple of minutes of talking with Jace, Kita and I start walking back to the cafeteria. Jace wanted to go to the bathroom.

"What took you guys so long?" Cam asks when we finally sit down.

"We were just looking for Jace and it took a while." I say, which isn't a complete lie.

"Well you aren't telling me everything. Didn't you see August? I've been texting him and he says he saw you two and now he's got detention for the rest of this week."

It feels like everyone is connected to August in some way. Weird.

"Yeah, we did." Kita looks annoyed. "We had a little run in but Ms. Luina took care of it for us."

"What an ass kisser." Cam taunts, and they argue playfully back an forth.

I look down at my tray and notice it's empty. Cam must've eaten my food. "Excuse me Cam, but do you know what happened to my salad?"

He clasps his hands over his mouth in mock horror, his eyes opening wide. "The boogyman. He came and took it."

Kita punches him in the arm. "Don't say that! I'm not- I don't-"

"Kita believed in the boogyman when we were younger, and he was terrified."

"No I wasn't! Shut up, Cam!" he turns pink and he tries to bury his face into his light blue shirt that reminds me of a Smurf.

I smile. I hope I can have friends like them.