The Peace Offering

TWELVE

Maxine

“So she got you good huh?” Robbie grinned. I shared a few classes with him back in high school and he was a decent guy. He was also Gabby’s cousin, so all of us kinda knew each other well.

Coincidentally Robbie had chosen to go to the same college and even major in the same degree as I did, hence we decided to just hang out together since day one in university. He kind of looked like Gabby, with the freckles and black eyes but without the crimson hair. Instead, he had long black hair which was always up in a man bun. People actually mistook us for twins most of the time because of the hair.

“Yeah,” I shrugged, scrolling through my Instagram feed. “Kinda like how you guys got the Chinese boy good yesterday.”

Marco stopped chewing on his sandwich and looked up at me with his green eyes. “The bastard grabbed your ass. If that happened to another girl we’d do the same too.”

“Thank you. You guys are really sweet y’know,” I winked and playfully pinched Marco’s cheek. Robbie and the other two boys, Hugh and Curtis aww-ed in unison. I rolled my eyes. For boys who were in the school’s football team, these four dudes were really sweethearts. I had been hanging out with them ever since Robbie joined the team and they happened to be really nice guys. Not to mention cute. No wonder the straight girls here were crazy about them and were forever giving me the evil eye when they walked past us anywhere.

The five of us were sitting at our usual table during lunch outside the school cafeteria, facing the huge football field. All of us had finished eating except for Marco and we were just casually chatting away to kill time before the next class. We were laughing at a joke Curtis made about the Chinese guy who “molested” me, when someone appeared behind me and cleared her throat.

I turned my head to find River smiling down at me. “I’m not in the mood to kick your ass today either, Milton. Another time.”

“That’s not what I’m here for,” The girl said, holding out a piece of what looked like a vanilla cupcake to me. “I came for a truce.”

I studied River for a while. Her blonde hair was braided on one side and she wore a grey skater dress. The guys cleared their throats and excused themselves from the table, telling me that they’d see me again in class or after school. I frowned at their ridiculousness.

“So?” River tilted her head and raised her eyebrows at me once the table was vacant.

“Is this... some kind of joke?” I kept my frown on my forehead, clearly bewildered by River’s behaviour. Correct me if I'm wrong, but girl just attacked me the day before.

“No, it’s not. I’m serious about the truce. And this cupcake is a peace offering in light of that. We’ve grown up and in college now, Hoffman. Let’s not fight anymore.”

I reluctantly reached out for the cupcake and held it on the table with my hands. I opened my mouth to say something but I shut it back again. And then I sighed. “Okay. This actually looks good and I’m in need of a little sugar right now. So... okay. You’ve got yourself a truce.”

River’s blue eyes glistened in joy and her lips curved up into a smile again. “Really? But there’s a special condition. The truce only begins after you finish that cupcake in front of me.”

“Like, now?”

River nodded, and she lowered herself onto the seat beside me. She watched eagerly as I peeled the cupcake wrapper and took my first bite. The vanilla cupcake was actually delicious, especially with the creamcheese frosting on top. When I took the last bite, River yay-ed and high-fived me. I only gave her an awkward grin in return.

Hopefully the cupcake wasn’t poisonous and that I wouldn’t die half an hour later.