Fruits Forbidden

Chapter 5: Okay, Maybe She’s Not That Bad

Ms Sands once again applauded me for my piece on pseudo feminism. I liked writing on prompts and she loved giving us prompts; it always worked out for the both of us. Being indulgent into the academics and extracurriculars fed my much needed attention hungry self. I loved the thought of being liked by all–teachers, students and all alike, and so my literary skills really helped me get there. My writing was the only constant piece on the bulletin of our class, which changed every week.

“So you write as well?” Michelle nudged me with her elbow.

“As well?” I raised my eyebrows, giving her a teasing once over. “You find time to write?”

“Oh shut up, I’ve always been taught this lifestyle. I don’t know any other way so it seems easy enough to dress up.”

“But don’t your–” I motioned to her breasts that were pushed up towards her face. “–boobies, I mean, hurt?”

“Yeah occasionally, but I’m used to it.” The thought itself did something to me. The thought of putting my breast in a cage everyday felt like torture to even think of. “If you dress well–” Michelle reached to touch my chest. “–your girls would make me swoon.”

“No, thank you. My babies need to breathe!”

A couple of classes passed and I got separated from the new girl. Soon enough I forgot about her and was busy finding the differences in the ‘spot the difference’ column of our student newspaper. I had to win the sticky note prizes they gave away to winners of the game page, and I used all my resources for it.

As soon as the noon bell rang, I picked my bag and dashed to the cafeteria, finding our regular table unoccupied. Most regulars skipped our table because my friends were in their senior year and everyone wanted to steer clear of the scary seniors. Daniel and Jake (my other friend) did a great job at pretending to be scary, even if they were babies at heart.

I dumped myself on a seat and pulled out my phone to text Daniel.

Me: Survived the classes once again _12:04pm

Me: Waiting for the rest of y’all to solve today’s crossword. _12:04pm

My group of friends was small and tight-knit, but really diverse. Jake and Daniel were both football jocks; Hannah, the smartest girl in the whole wide world; Stacie, the best cook and the most fun out of us all, and then there was little old me. We were a bunch of misfits put together that fit perfectly in our little cocoon of indefinable group dynamics. We were all kids and all adults at the same time. It was fun.

Daniel: Watching you make funny faces at the screen, be there with food. _12:05pm

I was smiling????

Hannah sped towards me, her tray ready to slide down on the table like a bowling bowl, and engulfed me in a warm hug. I always loved her hugs; it was the one thing that would help me be sane. Monday morning hugs from all my friends were anyway the only thing keeping me from tearing out my hair and making yarn balls out of them. Jake gave me a quick hug, eyes groggy from the lack of sleep, and sat down, almost gulping down his whole water in one go.

“Woohoo, who let the camel out?” I quipped.

“Now that’s what we call a bad hangover.” Daniel ruffled my hair as he came to stand by me, setting my tray down with his other hand.

“It’s called staying up to study, bitch.” Jake playfully sneered at Daniel. “And then drinking caffeine to keep awake, which might’ve been the worst mistake of my life.”

Daniel patted the hair he had ruffled, brushing any wayward tendrils away from my face with his free hand as he continued his conversation with Jake. “That’s why it says on the package, ‘Keep away from children’.” Butterflies kept floating in my stomach as his big fingers carefully, without even looking, cleared the mess of hair off my face. He’s just your best friend. He’s just your best friend. He’s just your–”

“Boyfriend?” Hannah asked and my brain doubled at the question.

“Uh– what?”

“I asked if you heard about Jessica Yang’s boyfriend? He fell off the cliff he was hiking and got hit on the head or something.”

“No, why?”

“He won’t recognise her, no matter what she does. And they’ve been together for more than 2 years. People are saying he’s pretending so he can get rid of her without getting the blame. Really, it’s a conspiracy!”

Oh, how I love gossip.

When I moved my eyes away from Hannah for a second, I saw the boys both seated in front of us, listening intently to the hot gossip she was delivering. Jake, though, was more than listening to her. He was watching. He watched closely, his eyes moving from her eyes to her mouth to once again her eyes. My mouth twitched in a smile I tried hard to keep hidden. I knew what it was. We all did. Except for Hannah, of course.

Hannah might’ve been the smartest girl to ever exist academically, but when it came to love, she was as dumb as a nut. She aced her grades, sure, and Daniel always talked about how he envied her capacity to answer in class before he could even process the question, but when it came to looking at signs or understanding romantic hints, there was nobody worse than her. Nobody.

Jake, on the other hand, knows his feelings very well. He still continues to play around, probably because he thinks she is too smart and way out of his league (which is true) but sometimes, I think he does that just to check if he could rile her up or make her jealous. What an ass, that boy.

But of course he riled her up. The girl was in love with him, had been so for the past few years and the boy never caught on. Both the idiots never wanted to confess their feelings, but rather die in suffocation of their own unrequited feelings; idiots.

“Are you going to eat those fries?” Jake asked almost innocently. As if I didn’t know he already stole some of them.

“Kiss my ass.” I said, holding the tray close to my chest. Daniel laughed, breathy and soft and quite nice to hear.

“Here, eat mine.” Hannah divided her fries into two unequal parts, more for him and less for her.

“Says Hannah in her wet dreams” I murmured under my breath, but Hannah caught on nevertheless. She kicked me under the table, a low “shut up” growled at me playfully as we continued debating on if we should go clubbing on a weekday. Lately, I felt like I hadn’t done much of what people my age did, and so everyone decided to give me (and Hannah and Daniel) the authentic teenage experience. Jake and Stacie were great at social events, often clubbing with either their teammates or cousins. It was going to be a new experience for us, and school nights didn’t matter all that much—we had too good of a reputation in class to be tarnished by an absence.

“Hi May!” I heard a familiar cheerful voice. It was Michelle. She walked up to our table, standing right by me as we spoke.

“Oh, hi! How’s the first day treating you here at Rutherford High?”

“Oh, so she’s that newb–” Daniel kicked a mouthy Jake from under the table, so hard the whole table shook. It was funny.

“She’s A newbie, yes. Michelle Robbs. We were bench mates for today, and she even writes!”

My friends are pretty decent with strangers so they did talk to her nicely for a while.

“Did you make any new friends then, Michelle?” I asked, coaxing the question to my ball pit of interest. Would I have to be her new friend? Would I have to welcome her in our group?

Although she seemed like an okay kind of person, it didn’t help my uncomfortable anxieties. This girl was fun, seemed nice and kind but my heart or our group simply didn’t have space for a new friend. A lot of people tried, but in the end it was always just the five of us.

“I just came here looking for you because everyone else just seems like such a loser, honestly, it’s sad.” We just stared at her. Wasn’t she a ray of sunshine just moments ago? “Sorry that was kinda rude.”

“Yeah” we agreed in unison. They might all be losers, but we can say that, not her who’s been here for less than a day.

“It’s just everyone has their own cliques and you guys seem so…diverse.” She eyed the boys as she said it. “I thought I might just fit in?”

“Mmhm, yeah.” What the hell did I get myself into?