Tweetie

45

"Tweetie, you look beyond confused."

"...I... am...?"

"What happened?" Leo asked as she dropped down at the table, sinking in thought. She dropped her bag, her head to her shoulder and slowly sank in a mess of confusion until she was barely visible above the table. She couldn't decide.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded up to Oscar before pushing herself back up in her seat to sit up, her hands landing on the surface of the table.

"So," she started, "I was walking, minding my own business," she scrunched her nose in thought, forcing everyone to listen carefully to her words, intrigued by what it was that had her so confused. "But then I started feeling weird, like I was being followed-"

"I swear to God, if you were attacked again-"

"I wasn't," she interrupted Ryan before he could go into a fit of rage over something that never happened. "But, it was Ricky who was following me. So I stopped, and he came up to me, then he told me to meet him at Wicker Street. And then he left. And that was it. No punch to the face. Just, 'we need to talk', and then he was gone."

They all fell silent, glancing between each other in confusion.

"For as long as I have known that dude," Ryan breathed out, "I have never heard of him being civil."

"Maybe he has a thing for Tweetie," Oscar suggested, forcing everyone around the table to stiffen their faces in frowns.

"He better fuckin' not," Ryan snapped back, shaking his head frantically. "If that prick lays one finger on her, I will rip his damn-"

"Ryan," Hazel turned to him. Admittedly, the fact that he was so bothered about it was nice but she couldn't actually say that. She continued to speak, her voice calm and steady as she caught his attention. "He won't."

"How do you know?" He argued, "That prick has been weird to you since the day he saw you. Rumours, threats, attacks, now weird cryptic meeting requests."

"...Uh, that doesn't sound like things a person would do if they like someone..." Fox noted. Yet, Ryan shook his head.

"I wouldn't put it past him. Ricky's a creep," he announced as if nobody knew this fact already. "Tweetie, if he shows any signs of liking you, tell me and I'll beat his ass."

She shrunk at the thought.

"I hope he doesn't..." Hazel admitted, fiddling with the hem of her plaid skirt. She wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of Ricky having a thing for her. "He said he'd hunt me down if I don't go..."

"Wait, what?" Ryan turned to her, tugging his shirt sleeve that had been risen up his arms down slightly.

There was a single beat of silence.

"...Ricky is really creepy towards Tweetie," Oscar announced, fiddling with a strand of his hair as he kept his gaze low and distracted, "I remember seeing him follow her through the corridors once when she was leaving for lunch. I was gonna help, but then Mr Davins called me back to detention..."

"...What...?" Hazel turned, her skin paling slightly at the thought of being followed without any knowledge.

She wanted to think about it more, to put two and two together, but, she was distracted too soon.

"-What the fuck!?" Ryan stood, immediately seeing her wash over with worry. "Why the fuck can't he just leave you alone!?" He marched towards the counter, his left leg hobbling slightly until his march turned into a limp which Hazel couldn't ignore. Why was he limping? And why did he have such a big bruise on his arm? How did she miss this? "I swear, this time I'll actually- gah! The fuck is wrong with people!?"