“And remember class, tomorrow your Animal Farm dioramas are due. You’ve known about this assignment for almost two months, so I’m expecting perfection,” Burgess announced right after the bell rang that ended class.

Oh, shit. As far as I knew, Alex and I didn’t have anything done for that other than the basic outline. To be completely honest, I don’t even think I ever finished the book… I guess my grade is riding on the hope the Alex knows something about it.

“Hey, Lex,” I called to my boyfriend as he left the classroom.

He turned around and smiled at me. “What’s up, baby?”

“We never did that stupid project!” I exclaimed. “We’re screwed!”

He blushed lightly. “I guess I forgot to tell you, but I did the diorama while I was suspended about a month ago… It’s probably not the best, considering I didn’t really understand the book, but it’s done.”

I sighed in relief. I couldn’t help but feel bad that I didn’t really help, but at least it was done, I guess.

Alex shrugged and kept talking. “After football, Franceschi’s coming over to chill for a bit, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you tagged along. You know, so you can at least see the dumb thing before we turn it in…”

I smiled. “I never finished the book, so my opinion won’t really matter. And besides, I don’t want to intrude on your time with Joshua.”

He scoffed and playfully rolled his eyes. “Angel, I asked because I want you to come. As much as I love Josh, I’ve spent ungodly amounts of time with him lately, and it would be nice to spend some more time with you, too.”

“Okay,” I agreed. I didn’t really take much convincing, considering I wanted to go in the first place. “I’ll text my mom at lunch.”

He smiled. “That’s great! Are you going to sit with us again or stay with your friends?”

“I don’t know.” I bit my lip. “I know Franceschi still likes me, but are the other guys pissed off? I did break up with you…”

“I don’t know,” He shrugged, “Franceschi’s the only one that knows the whole story, so I guess the others don’t know that you breaking up with me was completely justified. But if they’re mad, they can get over it.”

I still a little bit wary. “I don’t know, I think I’ll stay at my table for now…”

“But, baby!” He pouted. “I’ll miss you!”

I barely held in the eye roll. “Um, it’s a thirty minute period, you’ll be fine.”

“How do you know?” He continued to pout. “Maybe I’ll start choking and no one else’ll want to give me CPR. I could die, and it would be all your fault.”

At that point, I didn’t know whether to laugh or tell him to shut up. “I don’t know how to do CPR. You’d die either way,” was my deadbeat response.

Alex’s shoulders visibly deflated. “Well, okay… But please don’t let them be the deciding factor. I mean, if you really want to sit with me, don’t let my idiot friends stop you. It’s just Ramsay and Monster; they probably won’t even say anything.”

I didn’t respond. I kind of wanted to do it, just so I could spend more time with my boyfriend, but I was still hesitant. I didn’t want them to hate me after everything that happened.

“If they do say something that makes you feel uncomfortable, though,” he continued talking, “then we can just move. It’s not a big deal. I’d sit at your table if there was a problem.”

I couldn’t help but smile as a small sigh escaped my mouth. “I’m probably going to regret this later, but okay, I’ll sit with you guys.”

“Woohoo!” he cheered, jumping forward a few feet before reaching back to grab my hand to pull me with him.

I rolled my eyes fondly. “You seem really happy today, pumpkin.”

“Or course I am,” he exclaimed, smiling at me. “I’m with you.”

---

When lunchtime rolled around, I had to admit, I was a little bit worried about facing Alex’s friends again. I wasn’t even sure if they liked me in the first place, before I broke up with Alex. Sure, Josh and I had hit it off, but I didn’t really spend any time with the others. They seemed to be pretty cool, but for all I knew, they could’ve just been putting up with me for Alex’s sake.

I did know that Alex had Ramsay teach him that one song on guitar, so he must’ve known Alex was trying something. Maybe he’d be more accepting about us being together again. I could hope, at least.

I didn’t really know why I was so nervous about it. It wasn’t like I’d never met them before, and it wasn’t like I would be completely alone; Josh liked me and of course Alex would be there. It’s not like he’d break up with me if his friends asked, right? Not after everything he did to get me back.

I felt sick to my stomach as I finished putting my books into my locker. Maybe I should just stick with my lunch table… Alex would understand…

But then, I heard said boy call out to me, “Hey, Jay! Ready to go?”

I turned around to see Alex walking towards me, a big smile on his face. I instantly felt bad for considering backing out. If Alex and I were going to be together for real—which was something I really wanted—I’d have to face his friends eventually. Why not get it over with?

“Yeah,” I responded when he reached my locker, “l-l-let’s go.”

His smile instantly dropped. “Angel, please don’t be nervous. I just, I want you to like my friends and get along with them. They’re not going to hate you, I promise.”

I felt myself blush at the fact that he picked up on my nerves. “I already do like your friends,” I mumbled, “and I know I’m being irrational, but I can’t help it.”

“You don’t have to sit with them if you don’t want to,” he said quietly. “We can sit with Rian and Zack if you want to.”

I smiled at how accommodating he was being, but shook my head at his suggestion. “No, I want to get it over with.”

“Okay,” he said and shrugged. “We should get going.” He grabbed my hand and gently pulled me towards the direction of the cafeteria.

When we approached the lunch table, I noticed that there wasn’t enough room on either side for me and Alex to sit next to each other. Monster and Ramsay were sitting on one side and Franceschi was sitting by himself on the other side, obviously waiting for Alex.

“Hey, Franceschi,” Alex yelled as we got even closer, “sit on the other side or scoot over.”

He scoffed, “Why? Has your ego finally gotten so big you need extra room for it to sit comfortably?”

I couldn’t help but giggle as Alex sent death glares to the back of his head. When he didn’t respond, though, Josh turned around and smiled when he saw I was with Alex.

“Fucking finally,” he exclaimed, moving over to accommodate for the extra person. “I was wondering if Gaskarth was telling the truth or not when he told me you finally forgave him.”

“Why would I lie about that?” Alex scoffed, reaching behind my head as we sat down to smack Josh.

I ended up being in the middle of Alex and Josh, sitting directly across from Ramsay. Who seemed to have been pulled out of his conversation with Monster by his bickering friends. He raised an eyebrow at me; the only response I could think of was a hesitant smile.

Alex must’ve noticed the tension, because he casually slipped his arm around my waist and gently squeezed my hip. It made me feel a little bit better, but I was still insanely nervous. If this didn’t go well, would I forever be alienated from Alex’s friend group? I didn’t want him to abandon them for me…

“Barakat,” Ramsay addressed sternly, his face straight, “please tell me Gaskarth’s butchering of that Ed Sheeran song didn’t woo you.”

I couldn’t help but giggle as Alex groaned from beside me. “It wasn’t that bad!”

“I never actually heard it,” I told Ramsay, “so you could be right.”

This just caused Alex more distress. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

I laughed a little harder. “Aw, pumpkin, I’m sure you sounded great,” I rushed out to make Alex feel better.

“Okay, but seriously,” Monster interrupted, “last I knew, you left Alex to get chummy with our ‘good friend’ Oliver.”

I could help but grimace, which caused all four of them to laugh. “That’s not exactly how it happened,” Alex supplied for me. “He broke up with me because I did something stupid. Oliver happened afterwards.”

“It never actually happened,” I corrected. “You saved me before that could happen.”

Franceschi groaned at that, “Way too cheesy! Besides, I think it was your friend Rian and I that actually figured out what would’ve happened if you stayed with him. So your cheesiness isn’t even justified.”

“Details, Josh,” Alex laughed. “Details.”

“Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?” I heard Ramsay ask Monster.

“Not a fucking clue.” Monster shrugged.

“It’s a long story,” Alex started.

“But,” Josh went to finish, “all that matters is that both of these idiots have realized the error of their ways and made up. Cool?”

I had to resist rolling my eyes. I probably would’ve if he wasn’t on my side in this. Or maybe it was Alex’s side. I don’t know. He was on whatever side was pro-me-being-accepted-back-into-the-group.

Monster was the first to speak. “Gaskarth was a real buzzkill after you guys broke up, so if this means he’s done killing my vibe, I’m all good.”

Ramsay sighed loudly. “I think what Monster’s trying to say is, you make him happy and as his friends, we have to support that. You seem like a cool dude, though, so if all this drama is done, everything’s fine and we can be friends.”

I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. I was happy that everything was good now. It seemed like everything was just falling back to where it was before it all went to shit, and I was thankful for that.

As the attention shifted off of me, I looked over to see Alex was smiling at me. We made brief eye contact before he leaned over to quickly kiss my lips, which caused all three of his—our?—friends to groan. It made me really happy to know everything was falling back into place. Maybe this time we could happy for good.

By the time lunch had come to an end, Alex had all but pulled me into his lap. My legs had been lifted up to rest over his, his hands rubbing from the middle of my shins to the middle of my thighs. It wasn’t the most comfortable position in the world by any means whatsoever, seeing as how I had to lean myself against him completely and kept feeling like I was going to fall over at any second, but he kept nuzzling his face in my neck and giving me kisses, and I really couldn’t complain about any of it.

If anything, it just made the bell signaling the start of class even more of a dread than usual. Alex made no protests to me moving away from him so that I could stand… but then he was suddenly on his feet and scooping me up into his arms bridal style.

“What are you doing?” I asked, burying my face in his neck as I laughed; I didn’t want to see the possible looks we’d be given, not when everything just felt so… good.

“I’m taking you to your next class,” he said, sounding so casual that for a brief moment I wondered if it was going to be a usual thing or if he had just decided to be spontaneous.

Of course, he got lost (seeing as how he didn’t actually know where my next class was) and let me down from his arms—in favor of me climbing on his back so that I could point out the directions.

“People keep staring at us… isn’t this a little much?” I asked in a whisper, my face once again pressed against his neck as he walked down the last stretch of hall to where my class was.

“They’re just staring because of how sexy you are,” he retorted, and the comment had my face turning red. I couldn’t even tell him to shut up before he was setting me on my feet and turning to corner me against the wall next to the correct door. His hands made themselves comfortable on my hips, he ducked in for a kiss, and then he was whispering, “I’ll see you in a few hours, babe.” With that, he was gone and I was left to rush into my class before the bell could ring.

Notes