Honey, why?

12. Valentines: Sophomore Year

2008

When Luke comes back, he's carrying with him a bouquet of red roses with the most beautiful arrangement and a medium-sized pink paper bag. His shirt is unbuttoned and he's panting.

"Good thing Albert was free." Albert is their family driver who reminds me of James or Oliver Phelps with his ginger red hair and tall stature. He's also the one who hurriedly bought the Valentines gifts that Luke forgot to prepare for his girlfriend Zoey.

"Gretch will love these," he says as he sniffs the flowers.

I put my book down to look at him. "Gretch?"

Luke sits at the empty chair beside me, still holding the bouquet and placing the paper bag on the floor beside him. "Gretchen. My girlfriend."

"Aren't you dating Frieda, from senior Class-B?" Teddy continues strumming on my ukulele as she joins the conversation.

"Freida and I broke up two weeks ago."

Now, I completely let go of my book, closing it and placing it on my desk. "What about Zoey? The girl we were with yesterday?"

The tune of Moon River that Teddy has been playing screeches and Luke and I cover our ears. "That Freshman stalker? Her name's Zoey, right? You were together? Wow, Luke. Even I didn't think you'd ever had the need to act desperate."

"We broke up."

"When? Don't tell me you broke up with her a day before Valentines Day?" I'm utterly surprised. We were just talking to each other yesterday and she seemed nice. Well, a lot nicer than the other girls Luke had dated for the last years, anyway. She actually talked to me and acknowledged I was there.

When he introduced me to Zoey yesterday, I thought he was serious about her. Turns out I was wrong. I mean, it kinda looked like they had a fight yesterday, the tension in the air conditioned space of Luke's car was so palpable. But I didn't think they'd broken up already. Most of Luke's flings we, his friends, didn't know of. There were only a couple of girls he introduced with us who lasted longer in the relationship than the other girls.

Luke put the bouquet on my desk, on top of my paperback copy of The Da Vinci Code, and I could've fumed over this if I am not too surprised that he'd do something so -

"Stupid. You really are stupid, Luke." Chadi comes in carrying the Taro smoothie I asked her to buy for me when she went out to get the assignment she forgot at home from Dakota, her house helper. "So, who did he broke up with, the b***h with the sky blue eyes or the girl with the cornflower blue ones?"

"Neither," answers Teddy. "Cornflower blue eyes was ages ago or in Luke Chronology, three weeks ago." She's trying not to laugh. "He broke up with that girl who's been stalking him since the beginning of the school year. The one that kinda looks like Lu except for the hair."

Chadi gasps. "Wait, mouse girl? That Freshman creep? He was dating her? Since when?"

"Guys! I'm right here, you know? I can hear you."

"Don't know." Teddy ignores Luke. "Then again, we never really could keep up with the shenanigans of our friend right here." Teddy then proceeds to play a sad tune on the ukulele. "But Ace met her, so she says."

"Just yesterday, when I asked Luke for a ride back home." I explained. "And now Luke is apparently dating someone called Gretchen."

Chadi pulls a chair and sits across of me. She hands me my smoothie and I absently shake it, staring flabbergasted at Luke. And I'm not the only one.

"What?" The clueless boy had the nerve to ask. Unlucky for him his three closest friends are girls.

Teddy put my ukulele back in its carrying bag, shaking her head. "That was so cruel of you Luke. Even I didn't think you'd be capable of doing that. You should give these flowers to poor little Abigail as an apology." Teddy stands up and hands me my ukulele. "I need to pee. Who wants to come?"

Luke raises his hand. "I do."

"Don't even think about it," Chadi warns him, grabbing his arm and pulling him back to his seat as he stands halfway up. "You need to learn some manners, young man. And here I though you're the perfect lady's man gentleman."

"Pffft," Teddy let out, clutching her lower abdomen. Luke's eyes could be piercing daggers by the way he looks at her. "Got to go to the ladies room now, lady's man."

For a few seconds Luke closes his eyes and purses his lips. Then he exhales loudly before facing me with his prodding eyes searching mine. He's waiting for my opinion. Will I reprimand him, or will I side with him? I do neither.

"Why?" I ask him in a soft voice.

"Why what?" Chadi let go of his arm and start sipping her smoothie. She might not have get my question but Luke understands.

He moves his chair closer to mine and leans in as if to tell a secret. Chadi does the same from her place across my desk. Luke bites his lower lip in contemplation, his fingers drumming on my table. It's a sign that he's been thinking if he should say what he's about to say.

He regards Chadi before turning back to me. His voice is solemn. "Abby doesn't want to let me go."

"What the damn hell -?!"

"Listen to me first, okay, Chad?" He sucks in another deep breath and continues. "I told her I'm not looking for anything serious."

"Typical Luke."

Luke looks at Chadi as if he wants to tear her apart but he carries on with his story. "But then... we - something happened. And she threatened me with this false news but I found out that she was just lying so I was relieved and I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't stand being with her so I broke up with her."

He waits for our response, his intense gaze never once left my face. But I don't get it. "Wait, Luke. I don't understand. What did she lie about?"

I look over at Chadi who seems to be gawking at nothing in particular. I could feel the sweat trickling down my spine and my palms ball into fists. Chadi understood what Luke just said. "What is it Chadi?" She blinks twice before looking at me, then at Luke.

Luke stares at her and she just stares right back at him, first blankly then her face contorts into anger. Chadi's nostrils begin fuming and the next thing I know, she is swinging her arm back, her fist hitting Luke square on his chest.

"Chadi!" I stand up, coming between Luke and Chadi as she tries to hit him again one more time. Luke is not even trying to dodge her blows. "Enough, Chad!"

"What is going on here?" Mr. Harris stands by the doorway, arms crossed, with Teddy peeking from behind his huge frame.

"Excuse me," she says, blushing as she makes her way to her seat. "What happened?" She whispers to her seat mate, Jordá.

Chadi is still enraged but she straightens up and arranges her uniform as she faces our gym teacher. "We just had a misunderstanding, Mr. Harris. I apologize for causing a rouse." She then heads back to her own desk and sits there quietly, staring out the window.

"Mr. Quimbley? Care to elaborate?" Mr. Harris prods.

Luke grabs his things, walking back to his place as he speaks. "It was just as she said, Mr. Harris. It will never happen again."

One look at our teacher is all it took to tell me that he's not taking any of this BS. So he calls out to me, taking me to his office to ask my side of the story of what really did happen. He asks permission from Ms. Lindstrom, our teacher for our next class, Biology, if he could borrow me for a few minutes. She agrees.

I sit nervously on the black leather couch, he insists that I sit there instead of on the chair by his desk.

"I don't want you to feel like you're in trouble because you're not," he says, sitting beside me. "Do you want a drink?" His hand motions to the door behind his desk.

I shake my head. "No, thank you, Mr. Harris." I fidget with the skirt of my uniform, pretending to clean it from invisible lint. I'm not even quite sure of what the heck Luke was talking about so how could I explain it to our teacher? The perks of being the class rep. Sometimes you just want to kill yourself.

"Did your classmates Mr. Quimbley and  Ms. di'Terzi-Jein fight over something?" Mr. Harris asks with no preamble.

Now, there are  two things you must know about me. First, I don't lie. I've always been bad at lying and when I do lie, I always tell the truth almost immediately right after said lie has been released. The second thing that comprises the person that I am is my loyalty. I love my friends and I care for them deeply.

This question of Mr. Harris doesn't give me the need to either lie or betray so I'm quite confident when I answer, "Yes."

It is his next question that has me thinking. Real hard.

"Who started it?"

I gulp and clear my throat twice before I could even speak. I decided not to answer him directly but to just tell him the truth from my own perspective.

"We were just talking about Valentines Day and Luke said something that I didn't quite understand but Chadi got upset over it."

Mr. Harris's eyebrows slowly shoots up, as if asking me "And?"

"So... she hit him and I tried to calm her down." I finish. My palms are now rubbing my knees against the cloth of my skirt. Good thing my sweat couldn't seep through the thick material.

I know my explanation sucks but I really have no idea why Chadi got so mad at Luke and that's because I have no idea what Luke was talking about. So Zoey lied to him. Then he broke up with her. That's as far as I could understand. Mr. Harris should've excused those two and not me if he wants the full story. Why am I even here?

"Were you hurt? Did Ms. di'Terzi-Jein or Mr. Quimbley...?"

Hurt? Why would I be...

"Oh no! Chadi didn't hit me. I'm sure she didn't even mean to hit Luke. And I'm sure her emotions just got better of her..."

Mr. Harris places a hand on top of my entwined ones and I look up at him. "If something like this ever happened again, regardless whether you were hurt or not, I don't want you to hesitate to ask for assistance from any of us faculty members even if the people involved are your friends."

I nod my head slowly. It's clear that he's telling me to put my responsibility first before my friends. Why isn't the floor turning into lava now?

"Alright. You may go back to your class now. Tell Terry - Ms. Lindström - I say thanks."

The rest of the day passes by as usual, except Luke and Chadi remains silent and not even Teddy could crack them up. She tries being solemn, she tries three new knock knock jokes, she even tries scolding them. That's the least effective one if you ask me. Imagine little Teddy pointing a finger at six foot something Luke and five foot eight inches Chadi. They could easily ignore her by just staring ahead.

"Aren't you gonna help me, Ace? What did they really fight about?"

I shrug my shoulders, turning a page on my novel. I tell her the previous conversation that happened when she was in the lavatory. After I finish, Teddy remains silent for longer than I expected and I have to look over my book to see if she's okay because it isn't like her to shut her mouth on stories like I just accounted.

Her expression is the same as that of Chadi's when Luke told us why he'd broken up with Zoey. She looks up at me then at Luke sitting at the back with his earphones on, then at Chadi who is sitting by the window, and back at Luke again.

"That bastard," she seethes. Her fist slams on my desk and I could hear her teeth grind angrily.

I stroke her arm. "Can you please tell me what's going on?" I whisper at her loudly. Why am I the only one not getting it?

The look on her face is solemn as she levels with me. As soon as Teddy tells me, I wish I hadn't asked.