His Flower [DISCONTINUED]

25: Mean Girls

The following week at school, Tabitha located me at lunch.

"Rose," she shrieked over the deafening cafeteria noise.

No one glanced her way, unphased by loud shouts at this point—this was public school after all. Though, I halted my conversation with Lily and looked up at the sound of my name.

"How are you friends with Tabitha?" Lily whispered in shock. "Everyone loves Tabitha!"

I almost laughed but managed to muster a straight face.

"Hey, Tabby," I said when she finally arrived.

"Hey, girl," she sat down beside me. "Didn't think you could get rid of me so soon, did you?"

"Of course not," I brightly smiled, glancing at Lily. "This is Tabitha. Tabitha, meet–"

"Lily," Tabitha finished for me. "We've met! I sit behind you in Chem."

Lily looked stunned that she even recognized her. "Yeah," she said.

"So, not that you're not welcome, but what brings you to our table?" I peered at Tabitha curiously.

Tabitha grimaced. "Any chance to get away from the popular table."

The three of us glanced in the direction of the table in the center of the cafeteria.

"You don't like sitting there?" asked Lily.

"Hell no," she quipped with no hesitance. "They're all so shallow. I only sit there because of my boyfriend, Benny."

"Speak of the devil..." I muttered in amusement.

Benny came strolling through the cafeteria doors and was making his way over to his girlfriend. He looked perplexed to see her sitting with us.

"Why are we sitting here?" he asked bitterly, plopping down next to her.

"No one forced you to come, grouch," she playfully teased.

He huffed like a baby though didn't object. I supposed he simply wanted to spend lunch without his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Tabby snatched off his backwards baseball hat and placed it onto her box braids.

"Where's your little boyfriend?" she teased him.

Benny frowned in confusion. "What boyfriend?"

And just before I could ask Tabby who she was talking about, Antonio slid over in the seat next to Benny. The two boys were practically attached at the hip.

"That boyfriend," Tabitha answered.

I snickered and Benny glared at me through slits.

"I'm not kidding," Tabitha said in amusement, glancing at Lily and me. "When I first moved to this school in freshman year, I thought the two of them were boyfriends. They're never seen apart, I swear. Did you know there's a photo of them having a bubble bath together?"

"Jeez!" Benny facepalmed, looking embarrassed. "We were babies."

"Where's the photo? I wanna see," I said giddily.

"Over my dead body," Antonio huffed.

"Not you too," Benny groaned at the same time.

Tabitha proudly outstretched a hand to high-five me, taking the boys' annoyance as a success. Lily giggled.