Chapter Eighteen:

The next morning, I woke up on the floor, while Nat was laying comfortably on my bed. Groaning, I stretched my back and threw a pillow on her head. I threw another pillow because I was mad that she hogged my entire bed. She must've pushed me off. What a bitch.

Natasha whined.

"Quit it!" She hissed, and hugging my stuffed panda closer.

"Bitch, wake up." I grogily said, and went to grab my bathrobe and towel.

"I'm awake, leave me alone."

"By the time I finished showering, you better be up." I warned my best friend while entering my washroom. "I mean it Natasha! I'm not going to be late because of you."

"You're not my mom!"

"Same difference!" I yelled back, then shut the door.

I let the tap run, and stared at myself in the mirror. I knew that I didn't sleep well last night. I had one of those dreams again, the one where people were staring, and voices becoming louder and louder, to the point where I couldn't even hear my own scream. The feeling of drowning, except there was no water. There were people pulling me down instead.

Running my hand through my hair, I splashed cold water on my face, to at least wake myself up a little. Then, I took a shower.

I knew that I kissed Natasha last night, and I knew that I would never do that again. It was insane, and it was wrong. Why was it wrong? Because she's practically my sister, and it's gross. But my realization of not minding it with another girl shocked me.

It's terrifying to even think about it. I couldn't possibly be...- No. I'm over thinking this. I'm fine. I'm okay. I'm normal. Everything would be fine. But still, the nagging feeling in my brain remains. It's quite annoying. I chose to ignore it, knowing that it was probably the safest way to deal with it at the moment.

After my shower, I saw that Nat was still sleeping on my bed. Sighing, I went up to her in my bath robe, and nudged her head.

"Nat, go take a shower." I told her.

"Five more minutes." She grumbled.

"We don't have five minutes to spare." I replied. "Come on, get up. Use my washroom, and you can borrow my clothes."

I watched her slowly get up, her hands rubbing her eyes, then she stared at me.

"I had a dream that I was pregnant." She said, holding on to her stomach. "It was weird, 'cause I was walking around and rubbing my belly and telling everyone, hey look at me I'm pregnant. Then I was bouncing around, and letting my huge belly wiggle."

"What?" I said incredulously as I laugh a little.

Natasha sighed and kissed my cheek.

"I love you, Mave." She said. "You've always been there for me. Thanks for that."

I smiled, and passed her a towel.

"You're welcome. Now go get ready. I'll be downstairs. I swear to god if you-"

"We'll be on time! Geez, you worry too much." Then, she went inside the washroom, shutting the door behind her.

Dani was already sitting at our usual table in the Common's area when Nat and I arrived school. We were really early, and arrived at exactly eight in the morning. Of course, Nat complained, and told me that she practically had time to take a thirty-minute nap in my room. I had to drag her with me to my car.

We also had time to go to Tim Hortons drive thru before arriving school. I bought us three breakfast sandwiches, two white hot chocolates, and one black coffee with cream and sugar on the side. Nat asked why I bought so much food. I told her,

"I bought some for Dani, too."

"I'm still reigning the best friend throne." Was her jealous reply.

Dani had her binder open, working on homework probably. I smiled at the sight of her, because I can feel that this would be a new routine for us. Except that she arrived earlier than I do, now.

"Good morning, Dani." I greeted when I sat across from her, Natasha sitting beside me.

She flinched, and she looked up in surprised. She abruptly tried to put away loose-leaf papers and smiled at us.

"H-hi." She greeted back, chuckling to herself.

"We bought you food." I said, as I hand her a breakfast sandwich and black coffee. I grinned as I also hand her a bunch of sugar packets and cream cups. "I didn't know how you liked your coffee so, here you go."

"Oh, thanks guys." Dani said, smiling.

"Mave bought you food." Nat corrected. "She wouldn't let me pay. So, just thank her."

"Maverick, you really didn't need to do this." Dani told me sheepishly, and thanking me again as she drank the coffee black. Note to self, Dani likes her coffee black. Okay, got it.

"But, I wanted to." I replied, shrugging. "Everyone deserves breakfast."

"Except for Thomas." Muttered Nat.

Dani and I stared at each other, and I gave her a look, as if saying, I'll tell you later.

"Um. I started working on that English assignment, by the way." Dani interrupted the silence. "I wrote stuff down, and I just... Uh, I end up writing at least, a page and a half."

My eyes narrowed in surprise.

"We're supposed to do it together!" I complained, and leaned to see what she wrote down. "Stop writing!"

Dani stared at me in confusion while Nat burst out laughing.

"Oh god, Dani. You are in so much trouble! Oooooh!" Nat teased, laughing at us.

"What did I do wrong?" Dani asked, looking worried.

"I just didn't want you to do all the work." I said, as I snatch a paper and started reading.

I feel suffocation, but yet I'm on dry and humid surface. Hands reached for me, but none were close enough to-

"Don't read it!" Dani exclaimed as she snatched the paper back in panic. "That's my journal assignment. So, it's personal." She looked worried. She then started to put all papers away, and closed her binder.

I blushed from embarassment and drank my white hot chocolate to avert ny eyes from Dani's.

"Sorry." I muttered. "I didn't know."

"It's fine... It's- Don't worry about it." Dani told me. "I'm not going to do all the work, okay? You can check out what I wrote down later in class. I think Ms Shatilla will give us class time to work on our assignment. I have a pretty neat plan for our presentation too."

"Am I going to like this plan?"

"I think you might." Dani replied, now smiling at me.

Then, Natasha sighed and groaned in complaint all of a sudden. Dani and I looked at her, and noticed that Thomas was walking towards us with his dad, Mr. Sanvedra at his side. Tom looked horrible. It was obvious that he didn't get enough sleep, and the way that Mr. Sanvedra talked to him made him cringe. He was holding a box, and he looked inside it, sighing, and made his way towards our table.

I stared at him suspiciously.

Then, Mr. Sanvedra said something to him again, and Tom just nodded his head and stared at the ground, acting defeated. What the hell is going on?

With his hands gripping the box, he sat beside Dani, across from Natasha.

Natasha stared at him blankly, but I knew that she was trying really hard not to show any sign of weakness. Her arms crossed, and now somewhat giving Tom a pointed look.

"I wanted to say, sorry again." He said. "It wasn't fair for you."

Hold on, is he going to confess everything to Nat? Dani must've been thinking the same because she was narrowing her eyes at Tom.

"I swear to god, Nat... This is not your fault."

"I have nothing to say." Nat said, her arms still crossed.

"Please, I don't want to leave like this." Tom begged, now trying to reach for Nat's arm. But Nat leaned away. "Nat, please don't be like this."

"What do you want me to say, Tom? I know that it's over. So, it's over. What else is there? Do you want me to beg you to come back? Are you into that? Is that what you like?"

"Nat-"

"Stop saying sorry to me, because it's too late. You've already hurt me, and I'm learning to not care about what you think, because you mean nothing to me, now." Nat cut him off. "I understand. You, me, we are not going to work out. That's what you said right? You wanted this. So it's over. Don't make such a big deal out of this now. Because I can damn well take care of myself."

Holy shit. I thought. My best friend is a badass. She might as well slap Tom across the face, but it seems like she didn't need to do that. Tom looked so guilty, and defeated, but there was some relief to him too.

Dani and I knew what relief that was. But it was still wrong that he kept the truth from Nat.

"I'm switching schools. I'll be attending St. John's now." Tom blurted out. "I wanted to tell you that, so you wouldn't be looking for me when you needed this," Tom reached something in the box, and handed Nat two sweaters. "They were in my car."

"Oh... Thanks." Nat said, her voice softening.

"Oh, and Mave, I found this in my car too. I'm pretty sure that it's yours." Tom said, as he hand me a bunnyhug that is indeed mine. It was the bunnyhug that I was looking for, and the bunnyhug that I let Dennis borrow.

I frowned at the clothing, and took it. I gave him a knowing look, but he quickly looked away. He knew that he did something wrong.

So my suspicions were right. Dennis and Thomas were seeing each other behind Natasha's back. The bunnyhug proved it.

"How ungrateful." I muttered to myself. But Dani heard, and shook her head at me, as if warning me to control myself. I couldn't help it though. I had to ask him.

"Have you seen Dennis, lately?" I asked, keeping a blank face. Thomas glared at me, and quickly looked down. Dani nudged my foot below the table.

"No." Thomas said. He got up and was about to walk away, but I stopped him again by asking,

"Why are you switching schools? Is there a reason behind it?"

Thomas' jaw clenched, as he looked back at me.

"It's easier for me."

"That's a big vague. Is there a reason behind it?" I pressed on, now also standing up and daring him to say the truth. Dani also stood up, getting ready to stop anything stupid that I might do.

"St. John's have more elective classes, I guess." Tom replied, looking like he might throw up.

"That's it?" I asked, scoffing. "Is there another reason that you wanted to say? Especially to Nat?"

"No. Nothing to Nat. But to you, yeah sure." Thomas said, smiling at me sarcastically. "To stay away from people like you."

Then he left. I was going to go after him, but the warning bell rang, and when I looked at Nat, she was giving me a confused look.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked. "Do you know something that I don't?"

I sighed, and faced her.

"Nat, Thomas and-"

Dani grabbed my arm and dragged me away from my best friend. I had time to quickly grab my binder before she completely pulled me behind her, and we left Nat alone by the table. I tried to pull away from her grip, but Dani held on.

The warning bell was still ringing, and then it stopped, indicating that class was to start in a few minutes. She led me to an empty hallway and spun me around so I was facing her.

Dani looked angry.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She spat out. I was a bit taken aback by her outburst, so I just didn't know what to say. "Why were you forcing out Thomas? What were you thinking?"

"Nat deserved to know the truth!" I defended myself. "You see this bunnyhug? I don't remember being in Thomas' car before, and I remember lending this to Dennis-"

"That doesn't matter!" Dani said in a harsh whisper. "Did you know that you almost ruined everything for Thomas?"

"What is there to ruin?" I asked. "He ruined everything. Why the fuck are you defending him?"

"Because I know how it feels like to be outed by people like you!" Dani exclaimed angrily. "I understand him. You don't. You have no idea what he's going through. Same goes for Dennis. You. Have. No. Idea."

I was not used to being in this situation, especially when someone suddenly got mad at me. I didn't know what I did wrong, so I can't help but feel angry with Dani as well.

"So what? Am I the bad guy now? What do you know about Dennis and Thomas' situation? You don't know them!"

"You're right, I don't." She said. "But I know what it feels like to be gay in a judgemental world. I know what it feels like when someone disrespected your privacy for everyone to judge. I know, what it feels like to keep a secret, only to find out that apparently, that secret came out, and everyone, everything hates me just because some asshole decided to spread it."

Dani was in the verge of tears, but she held on. I was shocked. I was frozen.

"I may not know Dennis amd Thomas, but I know that they don't deserved to be hated. What you did earlier was dangerous. I get that you did it for Natasha's sake... But you didn't need to create a scene. Don't be that person, Mave." She said, shaking her head as she walked away. "You're better than that."

I was left alone in the hallways, feeling so badly about myself. My hands shaking, and I ran them through my hair, holding them up, and tilting my head backwards wondering when did I start being such a bad person?

When did I start acting like an ass?

So, I updated again. Dani was a bit intense, right? Let me know what you think about her outburst, okay? So leave a comment. Imma study for History now. Au revoir. xoxo -Jean

Unedited.