BROKEN

Room 122

I wanted to ask them if it was true, but I already knew that it was by the look on everybody's face.

"This was a long time ago, right?" I asked.

Hakeem and Bayden looked at each other. "Of course." Bayden said. "This was forever ago I don't even know why she's bringing it up."

"She had a good reason to bring it up honestly. You guys made her seem like the bad guy this whole time." I said. "If you didn't want her to say anything then you should have left her alone." I shrugged.

"She's exaggerating, it happened once." said Bayden.

"It was a mistake. We're just friends right now." said Hakeem. "Don't let her get in your head and make you think that I'm cheating on you."

"I never said you were cheating on me." I shrugged. "Does Faisal know?"

"No." Bayden said quickly. "Like I said,  this happened once and it was a long time ago. I love Faisal and I don't want him to get hurt. Please don't tell him."

I couldn't imagine telling Faisal at this point. He already had so much going on. The last thing he needed to worry about is some high school relationship drama.

"I'm not telling Faisal." I assured her. "You better hope that Naima doesn't though."

I turned around and looked at her. She was visibly upset. I couldn't imagine constantly having rumors spread about you that weren't true for so long. The bell rang and I got up and walked to where her and Ahmed were sitting. I only had a few minutes to talk to them, but I didn't mind being late to art. I sat next to Ahmed and across from Naima.

"Are you guys good?" I asked.

"I really don't care what they say." he laughed. "I know Hakeem's your boyfriend and everything but he likes stirring up drama like a female. He messed around with Faisal's girl and still smiles in his face everyday. At least I waited until a year after Naima broke up with Hakeem to make a move."

"Sorry if I ruined anything. I didn't mean to cause any problems I just got really frustrated." Naima said.

"You didn't ruin anything." I said. "I'm glad that I know what happened now. I finally feel like I'm out of the dark."

"We should go to class." said Ahmed as he looked at the time on his phone. We got up and Naima said goodbye and went her own way. The bell rang again, Ahmed and I were already late to class.

"Don't you wish that you and Hakeem were still friends?" I asked as we walked.

"Not really." he shrugged.

"Why not? I don't understand." I began. "I miss Tasneem a lot, I thought you guys were just as close as we were."

"Tasneem was a good friend to you and no offense but you did her wrong. Hakeem did everybody wrong and he always wants to act sad and play the victim. He lied to all of us about Naima and we all hated her and treated her bad. That's how much we cared about him. Now he wants all of us to hate her because he's mad that she dumped him. I hope Faisal finds out about what happened with Hakeem and Bayden too. I'm not going to be the one to tell him though."

I looked down and didn't say anything.

"You're not going to agree with me about Hakeem because you're dating him and you haven't seen the real him yet. But friends come and go, you know? I'll be good with or without Hakeem."

We walked into class and sat at our usual table. Bayden looked at us and Ahmed looked right past her, as if she weren't there.

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