Love Him

Part 2

"So, you weren't gonna tell me where you went?" Despite all the noise, I managed to hear Mariah's voice. My eyes found her and I left Joshua's side to go speak to her.

I smiled. "Hey. Nah, we just hung out."

Mariah raised her eyebrow. "A secret hangout?"

What? "Yeah right."

"Well, I mean, you didn't answer any of my texts."

"Oh, you texted me?" I checked my phone. Three texts from Mariah. About ten minutes ago.

"Mm-hm."

"Oh, well..." I looked at her. "My bad. What did you need?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. Nick finished basketball early and wanted to know where Josh was."

"Why didn't he text Josh?" Ha, I already knew the answer.

"He did. He looked around the school and didn't see you guys."

No wonder. My mind went back to my alone time with Joshua in our secret spot by the auditorium. Ha. Oh, our secret spot... Was I supposed to tell Mariah about this spot? Was I supposed to tell anyone about this spot? I started to speak, not even sure what I was gonna say. "I don't-"

"Okay everyone!" Save! My head turned around in sync with Mariah's as Ms. Banji captivated our attention. Other people started to turn around too. "Come on, quiet down guys! I need your attention!" It didn't take too long for everyone to quiet down. Ms. Banji was that type of teacher who knew how to take control of a class and everyone was smart enough not to try to push her to her limits. At the same time, she was also chill. I watched her speak. "So, today we're gonna be doing an activity in groups, as you can see from how the desks are set up. Don't worry too much about the seating. Just sit as close to your assigned spots as possible. So, the people in your groups should be the people you normally sit around."

We took a few minutes to set up and get seating and groups right. It went pretty well other than some people who tried to sit with their friends, but of course Ms. Banji caught on. Josh was in my group, sitting across from me a couple desks down. Popular, player, Kevin, scored a seat next to me. Just like he wanted, I would bet. Three of his friends were in our group. He eyed me with his cool, brown eyes and smiled.

Ugh. It took everything in me not to roll my eyes at that very moment. What was with him in thinking that we were still cool? Especially after the events from last year. We almost dated, well, officially - but he was not only talking shit about my new close friend that year, he was also entertaining her over text and leading her on. The same way he led other girls on. So, of course I ended it. But, for some dumb reason, he was still stuck on my ass even though the latest girl he had been leading on - a girl from our class named Alicia - was literally obsessed with him and did anything he wanted despite the fact that he treated her like shit. So what did he want with me?

Rather than returning the half-assed cocky smile, I looked at Josh. He had his eyes on me. I smiled. He returned a grin and I lowered my eyes, all of a sudden feeling shy and vulnerable due to what had happened literally a few minutes ago. Oh my gosh Carm, stop thinking about that! Ms. Banji gained everybody's focus again as she explained the goal of the assignment she expected us to complete in groups. "In your groups, I want you guys to come up with a model bus that can fit as many passengers as possible. Remember, we're talking about a city bus, and the location is India. I need a drawing of the modeled bus and your detailed group explanation on separate sheets of paper. I'll let you start today and have you guys finish tomorrow in our last period class."

As we were given the green light, everybody started right away. In my group, this one girl, Kat, contributed to most of the ideas. Including some of Kevin's friends. I was extremely quiet, like usual, kind of. I hated big-ass groups like these because most of the time, not all ideas got to properly circulate around the group. And that brought problems and conflict. Which was exactly what happened in my group.