Johnny Baby

💙6💙

Johnny

    A couple baby carrots fly across the table as I take my seat, my eyes shifting from my phone to my friends who are currently sitting across from me. 
    “Jeez you guys never settle down, do you?” I asked, plopping myself down onto my seat.
    “Okay Mr. ADHD you don’t get an opinion on when to settle down, okay?” Joey laughs, making me gasp in playful offence. Markus, being the guy he is, doesn’t hesitate to smack Joey in the arm for insulting me.
    “Wow. Dick.” I laughed.
    It’s only after he makes his comment that I realize my knees are bouncing under the table.
    Wow, he’s right I do fidget a lot.
    I tried not to let it distract me too much as I looked up at them again.
    “Whatever. What were you two arguing about this time?” I asked, grabbing my carton of chocolate milk off the table.
    “He’s just mad that I have a better animal crossing island than him already.” Markus answers with no hesitation, only for Joey to throw baby carrots at him again.
    “It makes no sense!” You just started! How can you  have a better island than me already?!” He rages, the hairs by his face falling into his eyes. He aggressively blows them away before focusing on Markus again.
    “Listen, it’s not my fault you aren’t nice to the villagers!” Markus exclaims, laughing as Joey tries to reach over and mess with his curly hair, resulting in some awkward bending and shoving from their side of the table. I can faintly feel them move the table, causing me to plant my feet a bit more firmly in the ground.
    “Okay okay okay!” I call over them, grabbing their attention for a minute. “Settle down before you guys get thrown into detention again.” I laugh, watching as they make eye contact for a moment before going back to their normal positions.
    “Whatever. I don’t know why I’m saying yours is better when mine is obviously better.” Joey chuckles, taking a bite out of his mashed potatoes.
    “Excuse me? Don’t be a sore loser. We both know mine is better.” Markus responds.
    “Yeah? What makes you say that?”
    “Uh, the fact that you just tried to kick my ass after trying to figure out why mine is better.”
    The little argument makes me laugh.
    I want to keep watching, but I find myself getting distracted.
    The sight of a boy with messy black curls and a dark leather jacket pulls my attention away from my bickering buddies and towards him instead.
    I watched as Nico happily greeted his friends at their usual table. He grabs onto his friend Ramous and ruffles his hair before plopping himself into a seat next to Anthony.
    Nico, from what I’ve seen, has always been very fun and loud and definitely very playful with everyone. He’s like that with his friends, with random classmates, and even with teachers. He, just like Markus, can be obnoxious in class but won’t get in trouble for it simply because he’s so funny and nice that the teachers can’t get mad. Even though he can be totally inappropriate.
    His friends roll their eyes at his antics but even they seem pleased with his sometimes obnoxious behavior.
    Nico definitely stands out from his friend group. Out of the five of them, only two of them are as open and loud. Those two are Nico and his friend Ray. I’ve seen her in some of my classes. She has a bit of a temper sometimes but, so do I so I can’t really judge.
    Even though most of his friends are either really aggressive or quiet, he still manages to fit right in with his group. Usually in some groups like that, you can tell if one is the odd-one-out or not. Nico stands out but still fits right in. He might even be the sort of “ring-leader” of their group.
    I don’t realize how long I’m staring till a pair of bright blue eyes almost meet mine. Before they can, I’m quickly turning around and staring at the table in front of me, trying to hide the embarrassment on my face.
    “Chill Johnny, we get it, you simp for Nick, now pay attention.” Joey teases, taking a drink of his milk. I can see Markus trying not to chuckle at Joey’s remark, but, evidently, he’s doing a pretty bad job of it.
    “Shut up, Joey.” I mutter, playing with the big chunks of my hair that hang by my face, subtly trying to cover my face with it.
    “Aww, don’t be embarrassed, Johnny. We just gotta tease you when you simp over guys sometimes.” Markus laughs, taking a drink of his chocolate milk.
    “Oooh, we’re making fun of Johnny? I want in.” I hear a familiar voice say over my shoulder.
    A tall, long haired girl drops down into the seat next to me.
    “Oh shit, hey Megan.” I say, instantly forgetting my embarrassment.
    “Where have you been?” I asked her, watching as she adjusts her head band, keeping her long black hair out of her tan face.
    “Oh you know, mom had business out of town and she let me come with her since she needed extra help with the clothes and stuff. Just got back yesterday morning.” She explains, adjusting her purple overall straps.
    “Ah, no wonder. I was hoping you’d make it to homecoming.” I said.
    “Oh you went? Damn, and I missed it?” She asked, lightly chuckling.
    I nodded and smiled at her laugh.
    Megan is really cool. I met her when I took a drumming class last year. She had taken drums before me so she helped me whenever I got anxious in that class. She kinda acts like Nico as well. She’s really fun and playful and occasionally kinda loud. But, she’s still pretty cool.
    Megan has this big, famous fashion designer mom named Ava so she occasionally has to leave school to go on trips to help her mom with stuff. Sometimes she just leaves because her and her mom don’t like to be far from each other for too long. She said they’re really close and like to travel together whenever they can.
    “Anyways, I heard we’re teasing Johnny. What about?” She asked, crossing her arms and resting them on the lunch table.
    “Oh we were teasing Johnny for staring at some boy.” Markus chuckles.
    “Oooo cute boy, where?” She asked.
    Joey casually motioned towards the table not far behind him.
    “Johnny was staring at big, strong Nico over there.” Joey says, taking another bite of his food.
    “Oh, hey I know him! He lives on my street.” They said.
    “Really?”
    “Yep.” They replied.
    Megan, at the moment, is the only person I know that uses she/they pronouns. It is somewhat new to me since I’ve never met a non-binary person before. She told me her pronouns not long after we met. Again, it was somewhat odd and I felt bad for not calling her “them” as often, but I’ve gotten better at it now.
“Have you ever talked to him?” I asked them.
“I mean, a couple times. We talk in class sometimes and I sometimes run into him before or after school. We aren’t buddy buddy but we can talk normally. Why? Do you want me to ask him out for you?” She smirked, wiggling her bold eyebrows at me.
“No! Ugh, shut up!” I whine, hiding in my hair again, blushing at the way she laughs at me.
The bell rings above us, signalling the end of lunch.
I hop out of my seat and pull my messenger bag over my shoulder.
“I’ll see you guys later.” I chuckled, grabbing my trash off the table and tossing it out as I made my way to class.