The Stars

Regret

Fuck

What am I doing?

I need to think of something. Fast.

There is no reasonable way out of this. Maybe say it was a joke?

Say it was a joke

I dropped the knife.

"Oh my God, you should've seen your expression. " I said while dying of laughter.

"That wasn't fucking funny! " he told me. He then immediately regretted it. "Mind my language. I'm stressed. "

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you would give that reaction. " I said, acting like I was sad.

It worked.

"Where did you even find that knife from? "

"Well, everyone likes eating sandwiches on a picnic. Want to sit? The view is beautiful. "

He grabbed his jacket, and sat next to me.

Oh my God!

"Have you ever had a girlfriend? " I Straight-up asked.

"Nope. Never. Also, Eleanor... if you are thinking something like that, I need to say that I can't. It's not you, it's me. "

Fuck.

"Is that Arthur and Adeline? " he asked. We greeted each other, and Arthur sat next to us. Adeline was still standing. "Hey, Eleanor, can we talk for a minute? "

I saw Arthur grab Andrew's hand in my peripheral vision. I was ready to get up, because I thought they needed to talk. But my phone rang. It was Zeynep.

"Hello? "

"Ma'am, your friend has been found injured. We saw you as the most used in the contacts. Please come immediately. "

I was shocked. I didn't know what to do. We all got up, because they saw how panicked I was. I ran to the principle. A little later, we were getting interrogated by the police. One by one.

"What do you know about Zeynep? "

"She's a Palestinian immigrant. She's a woman, and she's a muslim. A strict one. But I respect her and her religion. "

"Are you good friends with her? "

"Yes, she is constantly bullied by others because of her hijab. I'm not a good friend, but presumably her only friend. "

"Do you know who could've done this? "

"There are many conservatives down the road. It could be any of them. "

"Thanks, ma'am. You're free to go. "

She woke up in her hospital bed about an hour later. Arthur, Adeline and Andrew went back, but I stayed there.

"Tell me everything, Zeynep. " I said to her.

She started telling:

"I was walking down the road. To buy bread, nothing more. That's when they showed up. They called me a terrorist, and said I should go back to Arabia. I tried to ignore them... but they harassed me. I remember passing out. I'm happy I'm not dead yet."

I was so angry that I had forgotten about Andrew.

"I'm so sorry, Zeynep. These will all end soon. I promise. "

She knew I was lying. A single teardrop escaped from her eye.

I knew that Andrew and Arthur were gay most likely. Sure, I wasn't aware of many things. But I knew about Adeline. She is the school's gay network. She helps gay people find partners without getting bullied. But who cares? Andrew is mine. He always was mine. And also, Zeynep is more important to me than anything else now.