Love Him

Part 5

The next day, was the last official day of school. A lot of people from my grade only showed up at lunch so they could be present for the two history reviews being held in the afternoon. I was at my locker just as the beginning of lunch started. Mariah, of course, was with me. "You know what you're gonna get at the caf?" I asked her.

"Mm, I don't know." Mariah grimaced. "I'm not even sure if they have any good meal options."

I tried to be optimistic. "It's the last day of school. They gotta have something good. We'll have to go check it out." Mariah laughed. I checked my phone, which had been on silent. I was surprised to see that I had one missed call and one message. They were from Josh. Pick up your phone, the message said. Suddenly, he was calling again. I accepted. "Hello?" Mariah looked at me with curious eyes.

"Yo, where are you?"

Hey to you too. "At my locker with Mariah. Why?" I looked at Mariah. "It's Josh," I said. I put him on speaker.

"Hey Josh," she said.

"Hey. Nick wants to go to KFC. We wanted to know if y'all wanna come."

Mariah stared at me. So I answered. "Um, yeah. We're comin'."

"Alright. Come meet us down at the foyer."

"Gotcha." I hung up and turned to Mariah. She didn't seem too enthusiastic. "What? You don't wanna go out?"

"You don't even eat KFC." True.

"Okay. I'll bring my lunch there and just hang out."

"Mm." I could read her too well.

I stared at her. "Really. What?"

"It's just- y'all have been hangin' out a lot. Like, can't y'all go a minute without each other?"

I laughed. "Aw, come on. I hang around you 24/7!"

"But that's different. I don't have a crush on you!"

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know that."

She laughed and hit my arm. "Oh, stop it."

I smiled. "Come on. Let's go out. It'll be fun. And... better food options."

She sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

We met up with Nick and Josh by the school entrance. Lance and Trevor were there too. On our short walk to KFC, we came across Crystal and Ned, who were headed to a nearby pizza place. KFC only had a few people in it. We picked out the biggest table available in a corner by the windows. We placed two extra chairs around it. I headed for the seat in the corner. Trevor made a whole point of pulling my chair back for me. It was kind, but I remembered how Josh felt. I patted the seat next to me. "Josh, come sit here." He got a big grin on his face as he joined me at the table. Trevor took a seat right across from me. Nick, Lance and Mariah went up to order.

After a couple of minutes, everyone had ordered their food. I was the only one with a packed lunch. Josh took a sip out of his drink. "Yo, this is good!" he exclaimed.

"I told you!" Nick said.

Josh turned to me. "Carm, you gotta try this."

"Want me to get you guys a straw?" Lance offered, since he was at the end of the table.

"Yeah, just one," Josh answered. "So I could share with my girl."

My girl, huh? I noticed Nick give Josh a little nudge while Trevor just stared at us. Mariah was busy eating away. Lance came back with a straw and I tried the drink. It was cold, creamy and tasted like vanilla. "Mmm," I said.