The Cupcake Theory

29) What Is This Thing You Call Privacy?

29) What Is This Thing You Call Privacy?

"Well, this is fun," Zoe stabs at her salad once again, she has been doing that a lot the last 15 minutes "Just you and me. By ourselves. Sitting alone. On an empty bench. So much fun."

I can feel her intense glare drilling into me. I think she might be hinting at something,
which may or may not involve the lack of people sitting at the table with us.

I nod; ignoring the sarcasm laced through her voice "I know right. It's just so peaceful here with just the two us. I love having this one-on-one girl time with you; we don't get to do this enough."

Joel takes this as his cue to make an entrance "Greeting my fellow-"

I pick up my heavy bag and put it next to me to prevent him from sitting down on the seat "Go away, Joel."

He sighs dramatically and leans on my shoulder. In no way is this comfortable for me "That's no way to talk to your friend who brought tacos."

I look at Joel suspiciously "You have no ulterior motive?"

He shakes his head "Nope, just want to spread the love."

"And you're not about to confess your undying hate or love towards me either?" I double-check because you can never be too careful.

"Um not that I know of..." Joel glances towards Zoe to see if she understands what I'm talking about.

"What did you say?" Zoe backtracks, looking between me and Joel.

"Nothing," I say quickly "you may sit" I motion to the other side of the bench.

Joel smiles and slides next to Zoe tearing open the paper bag with heavenly smelling Mexican wafting out. There better be extra guacamole somewhere in that bag.

Wait where did he get these from? There are no Mexican places around here, I suspiciously inspect the taco. Did he make this himself? Wait, is he trying to poison me because he is still friends with Aaron and they want me dead?

Okay maybe my imagination is a little overactive and I should stop asking questions I know I'll never get the answer to.

"The three amigos at it again. Jeolapeno, Mac and cheese and umm Zocchini. I'm sorry Zoe, I can't seem to find a food to go with your name," Zoe's too busy stuffing her mouth to notice him talking.

"So," he drawls out "I heard something interesting that was rumoured to of happened a couple of days ago?" I almost drop my taco on the floor when my head snaps to Joel.
Zoe stops chewing and lets her eyes drift towards me.

I'm in trouble.

Be cool Mackenzie, just play it cool and pretend nothing happened. They won't suspect a thing.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, nothing interesting ever happens in my life. I practically live under a rock," my voice has gone up an octave.

"You know," he urges on trying to jog my memory "the big confrontation between you and a certain someone?"

I shrug, maybe if I show disinterest they will leave it alone and forget about it completely.

He leans over the table to invade my personal bubble "Come on. Give me the gory details. The entire school pretty much knows anyway, you could at least give your good old pal Joel the inside scoop, you know the behind the scenes," he raises an eyebrow in interest.

Let's just stop for a moment and ask the real question. How does everybody know how to lift a single eyebrow? I can barely wink without someone thinking I have something in my eye or am having a seizure.