STATUS QUO

Chapter 2- The Kiss

It’s been a week since school resumed and Renae is throwing a party. Its just been a week since we resumed and she's already dying for attention.

I have this thing that I call personal space that some i***t who I classify as one of my biggest mistakes in life is invading

"Josephine, can I talk to you for a bit?" He asks looking at me straight in the eye. I take my time to do a one over on him since I havent seen him in a while, and theres still nothing special about him, he's not that hot, he doesn't play football which means he's not athletic, the only good thing he has going for him is his parent's money. I mentally face palm myself, how could i date him?! Oh wait, Renae talked me into it. That b***h.

"What do you want now Joe?" I ask and let him see my eyes showing how impatient I am for him to pack up and beat it, "can’t you see I'm not in any mood for your irritating disturbance, I mean cant I just get some peace, must you always spoil my day?!"

"I just want you to give us a second chance" He says and attempts to place a hand on my shoulder which I immediately push away and let out a loud scoff for the whole class to hear.

"How many times do I have to have to say it before it goes deep into your thick skull, there is no us! And there will never be an us ever again so get the f**k away from me!"

With that I get up from my desk and storm out without looking where I am going and come face first with a steel pillar and then everywhere goes black.

.

"Excuse me, can you hear me?" A voice asks "are you okay?"

I regain my consciousness and find myself staring into the green eyes of a red head guy who looks awfully familiar but at the moment the face doesn't register in my memory.

I shrug his arm off my shoulder and attempt to get up only to end up tripping on my own foot and tumbling over, and also bringing him down with me in such a way that I ended face flat on his face joining our lips in an embrace and getting his watch stuck in my bra. Gosh how embarrassing!

He immediately pushes me off him and that's where the real trouble starts.

Out of, I don’t know, shock, fear you name it he starts yankinh his hand so hard that he ends up ripping my bra a little and tumbling me back on top of him but this time it was my boobs that met his face and his other hand...... My ass.

"s**t!" I scream before I can stop myself and let me tell you two things first his hands felt warm on my ass and second the scream wasn’t a nice sound.

After about five minutes of struggling and me telling him to stop yanking or he'd find a way to get me a substitute bra we were finally able to remove his watch and I was able to salvage what was left of my bra and my dignity.

To make matters worse, as I am in the girls room Renae comes in and starts telling me how sorry she is about the incident and how she heard about it from people who were there.

Who does she think she is? Before I could ask her who she thinks she is, the bell sounds signaling the closing hour. I just walk out of the bathroom and she follows me out still talking.

“I just wanted to tell you I am here for you no matter what. If you need a new bra, I can borrow you one of my spares I carry around with me” she says. I laugh so hard my stomach starts to hurt.

"Renae are you serious?" I ask her, by now my patience and anger have reached its breaking point "the reason why you're asking is not cause you care about what the hell happens to me but it’s because you just want the dets so that when people ask what happened you don’t look like a fool, and also because you just want a conversation starter in case he turns out to be popular just like you did with Kevin!"

With a look, a mixture of disgust and irritation I give her one last one over while she just stares at me with wide eyes. I turn towards the corner and see the guy who made this all happen and he must have already heard all I had said.

"And you" I say pointing at him and staring him straight in the eye "stay the hell away from me cause the next time you come two inches close to me I swear to God I will break your nose"

"Its Micheal, not you" he says with a straight face while leaning on the wall

"Do I look like I bloody care?!" I ask with my eyebrows c****d.

With that I walk away with imaginary smoke fuming out of my ears and head to the school car park and go towards Flinette's car, she won't mind anyway cause she has Andre.

I then hear my name being called and turn to see my sister's best friend Shaze who I am a bit attracted to cause he's so damn sexy with his black tousled hair, electric blue eyes and those dimples that are so deep and not to talk of his I don't care bad boy persona.

"What?" I ask, my voice coming out sharper than I intended it to

"What happened between you and Renae?"

"Its none of your business"

"It is, cause she came crying to me saying she didn't know what she did to you that got you all upset at her"

"Oh My God! Not you too! Everyday all I hear is Renae this and Renae that! Can't everyone just stop mentioning her to me?!"

Before he speaks I storm off and walk quickly to Flinette's car, hop in and drive off

I've obviously just skipped school and now the levity of my words has dawned on me. I just let Renae know that I knew one of the things she did to me in the past.

I take in a deep breathe but it doesn't calm me down, I end up screaming with tears streaming down my face while raking my nails through my hair.

*

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It’s Friday and I am at Renae's house, the party obviously is lit cause I helped her decorate it and set up everything. After the day of the incident I went home, cooled off and called Renae and asked whether she wanted to go shopping and like that we started talking. It just goes to show how shallow our friendship has become.

During the past few days after the Michael incident I made sure I avoided every single male specie that I knew would make me cry or get angry but it wasn't that easy because the day after, Jordan started pestering me to help him with Renae which pissed me off. How could he not see that I liked him??!!

The guy from the bra incidents walks up to me with a beer which I accept warily before taking a light sip.

"Jossie, right?" He asks and I nod with a cross of my arms, "look, can we talk for a minute or two?"

"Sure, why not" I shrug with no bit of enthusiasm in my voice. We walk to the terrace where there's lesser music and noise. "What do you want to talk about?" I ask using a tone that says hurry and get it over with "and for your info I am wearing a strong sports bra so you can't rip this one"

He sighs "look I’m sorry about what happened it's just I freaked out" he says looking of remorseful and scratching the back of his head, s"I didn't mean it"

I knew he was telling the truth and I had already forgiven him long ago cause it was an honest mistake "Look Micheal I’m not angry I was just joking. I know it was a honest mistake and I forgave you for it a long time ago" I say "and besides its all in the past, and also before I forget thanks for the flowers you sent me each and every day after the incident, they really cheered my bad mood"

After we get the formalities out of the way we found out that we have a lot in common like how we both like playing board games and how we have crazy friends (Shantele), and then we struck a conversation before a voice interrupts us.

"Jossie, can I talk to you for a minute?" The voice asks and I turn to see who it is and let me tell you boy was I not glad to see him.

"Sure Jordan, Micheal can you excuse us for a minute?" I ask and with that we walk to the other end of the terrace "what do you want Jordan?"

"Jossie, I need a deep favor from you" he replies looking nervous

"What is it?" I ask obviously getting irritated and also nervous because of the way he is fidgeting

"Can you help me to set a pace with Renae, I want to confess my feelings to her today" he replies

That did it. A screw in my head snapped and I was so pissed, I mean what am I? A messenger?

I laugh so hard that I needed to catch my breath "you’re kidding right?" When he says nothing it just flares me up more "what do you think I am? A messenger? That I'm supposed to run all your love errands for you? I'm human too you know and I've also got feelings! Have you ever for once thought about me and what I’m going through? Noooo, its always Renae this, Renae that! When you need a real friend instead of a messenger you know where to find me!" Without letting him speak I storm away towards Micheal.

"Are you okay?" Michael asks noticing that my countenance has changed

"I'm fine" I reply "lets go, the games are about to start"

With that we walk back into the house and and pick a sit in the midst of the already gathered party members.

"Its time for a hot and sizzling game of truth or dare" Renae announces and she gets a lot of cheers in return. The bottle is spinned and lots of funny, gross and romantic things happen. I'm enjoying the game and still laughing from the last dare someone got when the bottle ends at my side. Oh s**t!

"Truth or dare?" A female voice asks

In order to make the game more interesting I chose dare and I was dared to kiss the person on my left hand side whether male or female for one minute without stopping.

I turn slowly to see who it is and, my goodness, my breath backs up double time its..... Shaze. After what happened with him I hadn't seen him in a while

I don't want to do this. Wait who am I lying to? Hell yeah I want to do this! Heavenly Lord thank you for this opportunity, I'll use it wisely!

"Do it! Do it! Do it" the crowd chants, I turn over in my seat and lean towards him, taking a hold of his face and kiss him I'm obviously scared that he will push me away but instead I get the shock of my life when his left hand holds my waist and pulls me closer, and let me tell you, damn he is one good kisser.

A minute went by and we broke the kiss with the crowd cheering wildly, and me blushing furiously. I turn to Micheal so that no one sees my face looking all red when I notice that he's not smiling and he has an angry look on his face, before I could ask him what was up he stood up quickly and left the party.

"What's gotten into him?" I ask myself

The truth or dare game is over and everyone is dancing when Renae rushes over to me.

"Jossie baby!" She squeals "I need your help and advice, right now!"

"Well, what is it that is making you squeal so loud that am pretty sure my left ear is deaf from it?"

"Jordan told me he liked me and he asked me out!" she squealed

My heart gave me a brief pain which only lasted for five seconds, I feel like a b***h for feeling like this when I just kissed Shaze minutes ago.

"So, where do I come in?" I ask feeling a slight irritation bubbling up from inside me

"Should I answer him now or not?" She asks looking a bit worried, I tell her she should if she likes him to which of course she does "thank you soooooooo much!"

With that done she skips back the way she came. I’m smiling when a tear drop slips down my face, I quickly wipe it up and I'm heading for the door when I hear my name. I can recognize that voice from anywhere and turn around to see Jordan jogging towards me with a bright smile on his face.

One thing I like about parties is that its always filled with people giving someone a great way and time to escape in which I seized and quickly turn and walk out the door.

Am outside the house on the street and without wasting time I take of my heels and start running cause trust me, if I don't get a head start Jordan will surely catch up with me. I run to the bus stop only to collide with Shaze.

"You okay?" He asks

"Am fine" I reply looking for a quick escape route when I blurt something that I regretted immediately.

"About what happened earlier during the truth and dare game..."

"Oh, that? It was nothing it was just a game" he said casually

"Then why did you hold my waist?"

"Just to spice things up, you know?"

Oh yeah, of course I know what you mean! How could I be so stupid! What was I thinking?! Before any more could be said, a taxi cab drives up and enter and I leave him standing there looking confused

*

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Its Monday, and everyone's still talking about Renae's party which I do say so myself was overrated, but that might just be the b***h in me speaking out.

I’m walking towards my class door when I hear Shantele’s voice calling my name

"Shantele!" I squeal "its been ages since we last gossiped" we giggle like maniacs and then attempt to compose ourselves

"By the way, I didn't see you at the party on Friday, where were you?"

"Oh, I was there its just that I and my boi had to do a quickie in one of Renae's empty bedrooms and had our own personal party with lots of stuff you-"

I cut her off quickly "TMI Shantele, TMI" We laugh and enter the class, I didn't notice the bouquet of flowers on my desk until I sat down.

"Oh my God!" Shantele squealed, "wonder who gave it to you, any card?" I shake my head "I thought so, Josephine Anderson you've got yourself an-"

Before she could finish what she wanted to say Renae's presence was announced. I was neutral to hearing it today a little but my neutrality faded as soon I saw her holding hands with Jordan. In order to distract myself I pick up my bouquet of flowers and walk out through the back door so as to take a picture of it and plant it in the school garden, when I remember that I and Micheal have not spoken since Friday.

After planting the flowers I walk to his class to see him.

"Micheal" I call from the door , he turns and sees me "hey, can we talk?"

He stands up and we start walking aimlessly (no direction).

"Micheal, you okay?" I ask

"Why do you ask, do l look sick?"

"Don't answer my questions with questions sonny!" I snap playfully

"Yes ma!" He replies giving me a soldier like salute while his deep male voice rumbles with laughter.

"As you were!" I order. We laugh at ourselves "Micheal what happened to you at the party?"

As soon as I mention the party anger flashes briefly through his face but he hides it quickly but not quick enough for me not to notice then he goes back to smiling

"What do you mean? Nothing happened" he replies.

Before I can press more questions the bell sounds alerting us that classes are starting.