“Don’t touch me.” I say coldly, pushing Gabe’s hand off. He sighs and rubs his temples in frustration.
“What is your problem? If I tell you nothing was going to happen, nothing was going to. Whitney even apologized several times. One moment you’re wanting to invite her to come with us and the next you’re doing this? What do you want?” he asks quietly, angrily.
I ignore him. Whitney got just what she wanted. Gabe paid attention to her, telling her I was just in a mood and would come around. Then he told me it’d probably be best if I was just moved to another group and our teacher readily agreed. So now i’m working with Susan who also agrees that I overreacted, from what she heard. There isn’t even anything I can say that won’t come out bitter and angry.
“Don’t start with this crap, Kendall. You either talk to me and apologize to Whit or you can eat lunch alone.”
“Whit? So now she gets a pet name too?” I spit out.
“You’re being ridiculous.” He grinds his teeth and gets up, leaving the table to go sit with others. I watch him go, fed up enough to fight with him, but not wanting to give her the satisfaction. She’s getting exactly what she wants.
Gabe walks across the lunchroom and sits down next to ‘Whit’ without looking back at me. I don’t know if he’s trying to make me mad or if he’s really just looking for a place to sit. Doesn’t matter, i’m already furious.
“I saw what happened in English.”
I look up and see Tessa standing with her lunch, watching me. Immediately I wipe of the expression from my face. “What do you mean?”
“You know, the exchange between you and Whitney. Her smug look while you were in trouble with Gabe.” she sits down next to me, talking. “I knew there was something off about her from the moment she sat next to Gabe, first period. Those types of girls will take your boyfriend away without any guilty thought.”
“Gabe wouldn’t leave me for her.” I shake my head.
“He didn’t side with you this morning either, when nearly any other guy would’ve gone with what his girlfriend was saying. Nope, not him. He told you that you were out of line.”
Tessa squints a little, looking at me, probably trying to decide how much this conversation is affecting me.
“He isn’t like that.”
“Okay, whatever you want to think. Moving onto another subject, I guess, were you cool with what Susan came up with for English?”
I remember that Tessa’s in our group. “Uh, yeah. What did they do again?”
“Well, while you were busy fuming over what had just happened and ignoring Gabe to the best of your ability, we were working from the last chapter of the book. Very dramatic.”
“Oh. I don’t care what we do, as long as i’m not standing up and performing for the class.”
“Nah, you don’t have to do that. You can sit and shoot Whitney death glares.”
“Death glares?” I ask.
“Yeah. I’d want to kill that girl for trying to steal my boyfriend and possibly managing it.”
Tessa points over to Gabe’s table and turns my head so I can see. Whitney’s touching his arm and laughing, sitting closer than necessary. He’s not even moving away or pushing her arm off.
