Petals and Thorns / l.h ✔️

8

~Juno's POV~

"Juju!" Reba grinned at me as I walked up to the lunch table where she and Knox sat side by side, each giving me smiles of their own. However, I noticed that our other friend, Esma, wasn't yet sat at the table. "Where's E?" I asked as I sat down in a chair, not even thinking to respond to either of their greetings.

Knox pouted. "Well, then." He muttered with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hello to you too." He grumbled, clearly upset that I had not greeted either of them. I rolled my eyes and shook my head in amusement, scooting my chair in underneath the table more. "Ah, yes." I said with a dramatic sigh. "It's nice to see you too, stinky pete." I teased, a big grin growing on my face as he blushed bright pink and looked down at the table in embarrassment. I couldn't help but to giggle along with Reba, grinning widely at his embarrassment. I didn't call Knox that because he stunk, as much as it may have seemed like it. Knox was actually quite hygienic and smelled nice all the time. However, I had known him as a kid.

Hell, the way that Knox and I had met was because my older brother used to have his friends come over all the time, and Knox was the little brother to my brother's friend, Isaiah. Anyways, Knox ended up coming over one day with Isaiah to our house and, at the time, we were both six years old or so. I remember that he had gone into the guest bathroom that we have downstairs and he was using the restroom, taking a shit. Evidently, he had ended up using all of the toilet paper but still needed to wipe. For some reason, he refused to ask any of us for some toilet paper, which was obviously the answer most people would come to. That was just logical, after all. No, instead of asking for toilet paper, he grabbed one of my dad's socks off of the floor in the bathroom and decided to wipe with that. Not only that, but then he left it there for my dad to find, who freaked out because it smelled so bad and then promptly started to laugh so hard he cried.

That was why I called Knox stinky pete. He still wasn't very fond of the nickname, but I found it hilarious.

"You suck." Knox sighed deeply, shaking his head as he looked up at me, tan cheeks still tinted pink a little. I snickered and took off my backpack, hanging it over the back of my seat. "At least I haven't wiped my ass with someone else's sock." I teased, making another deep blush surface in his cheeks. "Shut up!" He scowled, glaring at me and Reba as we laughed some more. Reba hadn't been our friend yet so she hadn't been there for that, but she knew the story after I had told it so many times. It just cracked me up, and her too. It was just funny, especially considering Knox's only reaction when my dad confronted him was to shrug his shoulders.

When we were young, Knox was a very wild child. Like, incredibly wild. He had even peed on the tree in our front yard once, dropped his pants and all. That was when we were thirteen, but still. It had certainly scarred me, having to see that. Knox was definitely still very...wild, but I could honestly say that he had toned it down quite a bit by now.

Still grinning slightly, I looked over at Reba, since Knox was now sulking, and spoke. "So. Esma? Where is she?" I asked again, curious. I hadn't even seen her today, come to think of it. Reba paused and cocked her head to the side. "Oh, right." She remembered, nodding her head to herself. "Esma got sick yesterday. She's at home with the flu." She answered, making me frown. I hadn't even known. "Damn." I sighed. "Hopefully she gets better soon." I said, beginning to eat my food.

The three of us ate our food and then began to talk, having ten or so minutes left before we were to be dismissed to go to fifth period. After I had tossed all of my trash into the can and sat back down at the table, I looked up at Reba only to find that she was already looking at me with this thoughtful look on her face. A frown formed on my lips as I cocked a brow up at her, confused. Why would she be looking at me that way? As far as I knew, it wasn't like I had done anything. I waited for a moment to see if she'd tell me why she was staring at me the way that she was, but she just continued to stare, never speaking on the uncomfortable staring that she was doing. It was odd. I couldn't help but to frown at her, my brows furrowing together. "What?" I asked in confusion, looking back and forth between Knox and her, both of which were looking at me now. However, Knox was clearly just as confused about what was going on as I was, so his stare was much less concerning to me.