best friend | zdj

ten

i can't believe i told richard i'm dating zabdiel. the way a girl turned towards us with wide eyes told me everyone in school would know it by tomorrow morning. oh my fucking god.

richard didn't say anything else after that. i didn't know if i liked it, or if it was worrying me even more. i ended up doing my math homework just so i could distract myself. it did the job, the time to go home came sooner than i expected and i hurried to shove my things in my bag.

"i'm sorry for being a dick." richard mumbled.

i looked up to answer him, but he was already gone. add that to the list of the weird things happening to me: richard apologized.

"is it true that you're dating annabelle?" i heard a high pitched voice say when i walked out of the school. i furrowed my eyebrows as i glanced around. "i heard her talking about it with richard."

oh shit.

my eyes landed on a mop of curly chocolate hair. there were three girls in front of him, the smallest one was the one talking to him. she flipped her dirty blonde hair over her shoulder as she waited for him to answer.

instead his eyes found mine and he smiled. i bit my lip as i shyly walked over to him. the girls turned towards me. zabdiel kissed my cheek and wrapped his arm over my shoulders like he always does and pulled me to his car, leaving the girls frowning.

"was that a yes?" i heard one of them say, most likely between themselves but we were still close enough that i could hear it.

once we were inside his car he smirked at me. "so we're dating?"

i groaned. "you have no idea the fucking day i just had."

"tell me about it over a cup of tea?" he asked as he drove out of the parking lot and made his way back to our houses.

"you mean your mom will make me her amazing tea while you drink plain ol' coffee?"

he laughed. "do you want your tea or not?"

i bit my lip and nodded. we stayed quiet the rest of the ride until he pulled into his driveway. we walked up to his room after asking his mom if he could make us our drinks and take them upstairs.

"first, joel asked me if we were dating. i avoided giving him a straight answer and he ended up dropping it. it was quite funny, laur was trying so hard not to burst out laughing."

zabdiel smiled, but it seemed almost forced. "so he hasn't seen the letter?" i shook my head. "see? i told you he wouldn't see it for a while. he's probably gonna delete it without noticing."

"forget joel, richard saw his!" i cried out and dropped face first on his bed. "and christopher's been strangely nice to me. thank god his girlfriend doesn't go to our school, can you imagine the scandal?"

"i think you're focusing too much on everyone's opinions but yours."

i sighed. "my life is ruined."

"my point stands." he chuckled.

i sat up. "you don't get it. this morning everyone thought we were dating, right? then on my last class richard pinned me up against a wall and now everyone thinks we got detention because we were making out in the hallway! i told christopher and laur about the letters. don't ask why i told christopher, i have no idea. are you sure i can't skip eleventh and twelfth grades? i'm sure people in college are way better than high schoolers."

he pulled me to sit between his legs and hugged me. he buried his head in the crook of my neck. i giggled at the feeling of his scruff. it was very light, you had to be up close to even notice it was there, but it could still scratch my neck and shoulder.

"i also may have told richard that we were dating so he would leave me alone in detention..." i closed my eyes, ready to hear his screams.

however, the scream that startled us came from the door. his parents stared at us, his dad putting a hand under the cups that his mom had, probably afraid that she would drop them.