I get off the bus with a little bounce which makes my hair flail around wildly, before waving at Fleance who winks goodbye, joining his friends.
Fleance Singh is the other boy in my group. We exchanged introductions yesterday at the diner. Conveniently, he's the same guy who poked me the other day when I was overthinking the loss of my sketchbook. The same one I looked at rudely for disrupting my train of thought.
I find it intriguing that his parents named him after Banquo's son in the play Macbeth. I imagine them to be old-timey.
Anyhow, he and I have been talking and he's pretty funny; friendly too. Now we have become bus besties or something of the sort.
I notice his friends as most of the lacrosse players who have formed their own posse, James, surprisingly, is also part of the crowd. Just as I'm about to enter the school building, a hand curls around my wrist and I'm pulled aside. A yelp of fright leaves my lips and I prepare to put my mum's karate classes to practice until I notice the familiar braids of my best friend.
"Taylor, don't scare me like that," I exclaim, giving her a reprimanding look. "I almost karate chopped you to the death. The death."
"I didn't want to ask, but," she starts not even beating around the bush by maybe apologising or greeting me at the least, "what's happening between you and Dominic?"
My eyes widen at her question, caught entirely off guard but before I can reveal my panic, I chuckle as dismissively as I possibly can imitate except trying to obscure my nerves is far too difficult.
"What do you mean?" I muse in confusion, my arm hugging my stomach after she has let go of it.
"Exactly that. What's going on between you and Dominic?"
"Nothing's happening between Dominic and I. Why would… anything be happening between us? What?"
"Edward told me that he saw the two of you last night on a date at your father's diner," she replies.
I rear back in surprise at the notion that I was on a date with Dominic. It was most definitely not a date. Why would Edward make up such a thing? Is he under the impression that I was on a date with Dominic?
"Sunday, he also happened to see the two of you together at the park bumping into each other and him catching you a bunch of times. I keep seeing you two talking after school and I saw you getting in his car and driving off with him."
"So what I'm getting from all of that is, you guys are spying on me?" I ask, thinning my eyes on her suspiciously.
"On Sunday Edward took his brother to the park," she informs me dryly.
I think back to my memory of the day at the park, realising that the boy in the sandbox with the girl called Tammy was actually Cameron, Edward's younger brother. How could I have missed that?
"And yesterday he said that he was passing by when he saw you and Dominic sharing a meal. We have better things to do than to spy on you."
"I don't know. It sounds an awful lot like you guys are spying on me," I mutter under my breath, forgetting that Taylor actually has better hearing than most teenagers.
She glares at me, causing me to stretch a stiff grin on my face, sheepishly.
"Why were you and Dominic on a date?"
"Okay first of all, how dare you? It was most certainly not a date. Why would I go on a date with Dominic and not tell you?" Then I quickly correct myself by musing, "No why would I go on a date with Dominic period?"
"I don't know. From where I'm standing it looks like you two are getting closer. I mean, why are you even spending time with him?"
"I'm not spending time with him on purpose. It just so happens that I keep getting forced into situations with him. It's not like I asked him to come and share a meal with me. We have a group project together with like… a bunch of other people."
"Then why was it just the two of you?"
So, did Edward maybe see Dominic and me only and assume that we were on a date?
Christian had to leave earlier because his parents didn't want him to stay out late. They're quite overprotective over him being that he's a little fragile. After hugging Dominic who sat there quite stiffly throughout the whole affectionate interaction, Jodie left for cheerleading practice. She didn't even say goodbye to the rest of us, but she forgot her manners after being dropped by Dominic so…
I didn't have a ride home so after we wrapped things up, I forced Dominic to take me back home. He really didn't have a choice in the whole predicament.
"Christian had to go home, and Jodie left earlier to at least come for cheerleading practice," I explain truthfully. "The others didn't show up until really late."
She takes in my honest excuse through a narrowed gaze which would normally cause me to crumble if I was being dishonest. This time though, I'm telling the truth so there is no reason for any crumbling. Even she knows that since my eyes aren't wavering from her strong gaze. That's how she usually picks up on my dishonesty.
"Seong Jin, if you're even thinking about dating that gay prick, I swear to the five precepts I'll—"
"Okay one, he's not gay; he might be bisexual maybe, we don't know. Two, I'm not trying to date Dominic, because contrary to popular belief I still have enough brain cells to process ridiculousness. Three, weren't you the one telling me to get a boyfriend not so long ago? Shouldn't you be elated that I'm hanging out with a guy who isn't Damien or Edward?"
"When I said that, I didn't mean you should pick the biggest prick in school who, by the way if you have somehow tripped and lost your memory of what happened in the ninth grade, rejected you," she emphasises the word as if to get it through my thick, forgetful skull that he did something unforgivable.
I know that Dominic rejected me. I was there the entire time.
"Well, it's not like I have a choice now. Our project is gonna keep us preoccupied throughout this entire month. Maybe even in November."
She frowns but doesn't reply to that.
"If you guys are spying on me then I'm telling you in advance, I don't like Dominic in any way, and you will see us together a lot if you're passing by the diner. It will not just be the two of us, but Christian, Jodie, Mia, Fleance and maybe Veronique and Riley will also be there too if you so happen to pass by earlier."
"Why are you air quoting pass by?"
I don't answer her question and instead say, shaking my head and smiling in amusement, "Also for your information, I don't hate Dominic. It's not his fault that he didn't feel the same way about me and I'm glad he didn't lie to me or lead me on. But, you know, I don't like him either. I just… tolerate him."
"Then why spend so much time with him if you just tolerate him? If you just tolerate a person, you'd want to spend less and less time with them, not more and more and, oh yes, more time with them. What is happening between the two of you?" she demands, looking quite frustrated at not knowing the answers and for a second I think she's going to tug on her plaited locks like a maniac.
"Well if you must know, we decided to move past our differences and now we're cool. Besides, holding a grudge from the ninth grade really isn't healthy. I need to forgive him so that I can move on."
"I don't believe you," she responds bluntly.
"What? Why?" I falter.
An insulted feeling pounds in my chest. This is the first time that I have lied and not averted my gaze. It took a lot of brain cells to come up with that kind of convincing lie and pull that off. I'm so deeply insulted that she wouldn't believe her own best friend when he tells her that he has forgiven and forgotten. Her best friend who is admittedly lying, but still, she doesn't know that.
Well, if she says she doesn't believe you then I think that means… that she knows that you're lying.
Good point.
"Because I know you," she nods in conviction, date brown eyes stabbing earnestly through mine and I make an effort to keep my eyes connected to hers, instead of averting them onto the ground like I want to, "and you would never just get over the fact that he rejected you in the ninth grade."
"How do you know that?"
"Dominic and Michael are the only people, other than Vannah, whom you have sworn to hold a grudge on forever and ever until the day you die, taking those feelings of contempt with you to the grave."
Well, she's not wrong. But can I honestly be blamed for holding a grudge against the person who literally walked away from me when I told him that I liked him?
I mean, all he had to say was that he didn't feel the same way about me as I did about him but instead, he left me there waiting for him for eons to give me an answer. Should I have probably just gone to class instead of standing there for so long like an imbecile? Perhaps, but that shows to tell how idiotic I was back then.
"Besides, you guys are spending a helluva lot of time together. After school. The park. The diner. I can understand the forgive and forget attitude, because naturally that's the type of person you are, but why do you two need to hold pinkies all the time?"
"We don't hold pinkies all the time," I argue, trying to imagine Dominic even touching me willingly. It took me falling to get him to catch me so him touching me of his own free will is never going to happen. "Look, nothing is happening between Dominic and I. I cross my heart, but I don't hope to die."
She pauses and then thins her gaze on me distrustfully.
I try not to squirm under her watchful, suspicious eyes.
"I'm watching your arse, Seong Jin. You just wait and see, I'll find out what's going on and that's a promise," she warns me.
She shuffles away from me whilst walking backwards only stopping when she accidentally bumps into someone who tells her to watch where she's going. Taylor just rolls her eyes at the person and then mouths that she's watching me yet again, giving me the universal gesture of the phrase with her index and middle finger.
Fearfully, I gulp.