The Two Middles

Chapter 23: I Walked Away Like A Still-Developing-From-An-Ape Human

“Oh my god, I’m so proud of you!” I jumped on his back, screaming into his ear.

Shane chuckled, let my feet touch the floor, let go of me, turned around, engulfed me in a bear hug and said, “What for?”

“You kissed Tiara! What else?! I want details!”

“Well, at first she didn’t respond, but when she started to kiss me back, oh sweet baby Jesus, was it the best ever. She did this thing – ”

“Not of the kiss you nitwit! Of what happened later!”

“Well, okay. She ran away.”

What?

“What?”

“She ran away.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE RAN AWAY?! DIDN’T YOU STOP HER?!”

“No, I was too busy banging my head on the locker, wallowing in self-pity.”

“YOU IDIOT! WHAT HAPPENED THEN?!”

“Nothing at all. We haven’t talked since.”

“THAT’S HORRIBLE!”

“What’s horrible?” another voice said, from behind me.

I turned around to find Tiara standing there. She smiled at me, walked over to Shane and hugged him. Wait, what is happening here?

I waited for them to finish their innocent display of affection, much unlike other certain someones I know *cough* Melody *cough* Dean *cough*. Then, I said, “Shane, you are such an idiot! Why couldn’t you just tell me?!”

“I like riling you up.”

“An idiot and a sadist.”

“What didn’t he tell you?” Tiara asked. I turned to her and started to describe the situation to her, when it abrutptly struck my mind that this girl wasn't innocent, either, “You missy, have not been answering any of our calls, and I haven’t heard from you since the day before yesterday. You,” I pointed to Tiara, “and you,” I pointed to Shane, “Have some serious explaining to do. To all of us. At lunch. Don’t you dare ditch.”

And I stalked off like the biggest boss with the biggest sense of authority in the goddamned world. Well, not really, but yeah. In addition to my wanting to look awesome, I stalked off because I spotted Jaden walking down the hall, probably heading off to his locker before first period.

“Jaden!”

He stopped and turned around, grinning as he spotted me. I started to make my way towards him, looking nowhere but at him, as he did the same for me, grinning.

“Hello!” he said as I reached him.

“Hey,” I said. “Wanna carry my books for me?”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because you’re a gentleman who cares about his friends’ feelings?”

“Nah, I’m not. But okay, I’ll carry your books, if it makes you happy,” he took the books from my hands and started to walk again. It really seems like Jaden and I walk a lot, don’t we? Hmm, we even made a stupid walk. Though, we haven’t used it yet. Except for the time we made it, of course.

SLAP CLAP!

And my books attacked the floor. “Oops,” Jaden said in this not-so-innocent innocent tone of voice as he shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I’m not fit to carry books around.”