18; the fish are swimming
"Okay, just because we see birds and know that they're flying, doesn't mean crabs think fish can fly," Caleb says loudly, slapping his table as he was exchanging a conversation with Ryan.
We were all sitting in math, waiting for the teacher to come in, meanwhile it's already been ten minutes into class time.
"But it's the same thing!" Ryan argues from behind me.
"Tell me how it's the same thing," Caleb talks even louder.
"You look at the bird and the bitch is in the sky. The bitch is above you. If you were a crab, and you look up, you see the fish above you, same shit," Ryan rebuttals, his voice getting higher the more upset he got.
"No! You're stupid! The fish are swimming," I looked over and saw Caleb holding both of his hands out in disbelief.
"You think the crabs know that?" Ryan scoffs, "They just know they're in the 'sky'."
"Both of you shut up," Jacob leans forward from his desk and looks at both Ryan and Caleb.
After all the conversation, I had my eyebrows raised the whole time, wondering why the hell would they even argue about crabs and fish in the first place. I shook my head and turned my attention back to my phone.
"Students," our principal walks into the class.
Mr. Morgan seemed to be in a rush, checking his watch and waving his paper around as he directed us to get up from our seat, "Your teacher isn't here today, go have an early lunch."
I suddenly grinned at the thought. An early lunch period? That's nearly like two hours of free time.
Before I was able to get up from my seat, Ryan grabbed my shoulders from behind me.
"Juni," he calls.
I looked back at him, so did Jacob and Caleb.
"Want to go back to my house and play video games with us?" he invited.
I tilted my head in confusion, since when did I ever come off as a video game type of person.
"Video games?" I asked.
He nods.
"No," I shook my head and squinted at him.
"Oh, okay," he answers awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, "I mean, you don't have anyone else in this class to hang out with so I was just wondering."
My jaw dropped, "I do," I defended.
I had no one.
"Fine," I easily gave in to the offer, "You having food is my only concern."
I put everything into my backpack and slipped it on. We all got up from our seat and walked out of the classroom.
---
Ryan pulls his car into his driveway and I looked outside of the backseat window. Caleb and Jacob fought over the passenger seat. Caleb won and Jacob was stuck in the backseat with me, which I did not mind because Jacob seemed to be the most calm one out of the three of them.
Ryan's house was huge. Maybe not as huge as the mansion party we went to, but it was definitely bigger than mine. He had a fountain in front of his house, and a huge driveway with three sports car parked in the front.
An older man walks towards the car and Ryan opens the door without turning the engine off. He steps outside as well as the other boys; so I got out too. Joseph wasn't our "valet parker", I always had to park my car myself. I mean, what's so hard about parking in front of your house?
The boys went into the trunk to grab their stuff and we walked towards the front door.
The front door was triple my size. I looked so small standing in front of it.
We were welcomed into a huge living room, a kitchen that was twice the size of my bedroom and a gaming room. This was just the first floor. From the front door, there are windows that shows a huge pool sitting in the backward. Everything in this house was white, black with little green accents from plants.
I pucker my lips as I observe his house, basically a mansion.
"Over here, Juniper," Ryan waves over to me from the other side of the room. While I was too busy observing the place, the boys had already invited themselves to the gaming room.
I walked into the gaming room and sat in the nearest seat. I leaned back against the single seat armchair.
"Are you hungry?" Ryan asks as he sits himself on the armrest next to me.
I looked up at him, he leaned back against the sofa on his elbow, looking at his phone, typing.
"I am," I answered.
"Okay, come on," Ryan says, pushing himself off the chair.
For some reason, Ryan pushed himself a little too hard causing the whole chair to completely tip back.
A yelp escaped my lips as I jumped up, turning around to watch Ryan stumble onto the floor.
The guys looks over and immediately started laughing. I also couldn't help but laugh at him, laying with his back on the floor.
Ryan started laughing at himself too.
In the corner of my eye, I saw Ryan's phone near the entryway. I walked over to pick it up for him and hopefully he could show me the way to the kitchen.
It didn't occur to me that he had his phone still unlocked until I had picked it up. My nosey self glanced at the phone and saw text messages.
To Dylan?
She misses you man.
I looked back at the guys and saw Ryan back up on his feet, walking over towards me. I pressed the home button and locked his phone.
"What?" Ryan asks, still laughing at the incident earlier as he takes his phone back from me.
"Nothing," I answered.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asks, looking back at me with a smile on his face.
"I'm hungry," I changed the subject.
"Can you get us food too?" Caleb calls out, holding a hand up while a controller was in his other hand.
Ryan snickers and turns me by my shoulders to face the kitchen. We both walked towards the kitchen. My mind wandered elsewhere while he was talking to me.
"Juni," he sang, waving his hand in front of my face, jumping in front of me.
He started walking backwards until I stopped in place.
"What?" I blinked myself out of my day dream.
"What are you in the mood for?" he asks, walking ahead into the kitchen.
I sat myself on the stool of the island table.
"I want," I trailed off.
"Come over here," Ryan motions me to come over to him while opening the fridge.
I groaned and got up from my seat again to stomp over to his spot.
"Move please," I asked him politely.
He opened the two door fridge big enough for only him to see what was inside.
Ryan smirks and brings the door closer together, making the space even smaller.
I rolled my eyes and squeezed myself under his arms. When I made my way in front of him, I used the back of my arms to push him back.
I laughed when I heard him stumbling back from the fridge.
Holding a grin on my face, I held the doors open and searched inside the fridge.
There. Was. So. Much. Food.
Drinks, water, soda, juice was filled the top half of the fridge while the bottom half had full size desserts, leftover food, bread, fruit, cheese, salads, name it, you got it.
I bit my bottom lip and stared into the fridge.
"I can get anything?" I asked, keeping my gaze in front of me.
"Yeah," Ryan answers, his head poking in above my shoulders.
Taking the green light, I grabbed myself an orange juice bottle, a box of leftover Chinese food, an apple and honestly, everything I could hold in my scrawny arms.
I waddled over to the island table and laid out everything before looking at table in awe.
So much food!
"Heat up the food," Ryan scolds, walking up behind me and grabbing the box of Chinese food. He pops it in the microwave as he makes his way back to the fridge to grab food for Caleb and Jacob. He walked away as I grabbed the apple and took a bite. Nothing feels better than eating a juicy, cold, apple.
I went back to the stool I was sitting on earlier and leaned forward onto the table.
Why did Ryan text Dylan?
Even though I am thankful to know that he cares, what's the point?
I suddenly got sad thinking about Dylan again. Just when I thought I was able to finally breathe and be happy without feeling a little bit of guilt in my system, this universe had to remind me that I played my ex boyfriend.
I stopped chewing my apple as I just blankly stared ahead at the fridge.
I started to lose my appetite, so I set the apple down.
Ryan comes back into the kitchen and pulls out the box of Chinese food from the microwave. I watched him as he grabs a fork from one of the drawers and plops it down in front of me.
He walked over and sits next to me as he went back on his phone.
I stared at the food and sighed.
"What?" Ryan asks, looking up from his phone.
"I'm not hungry anymore," I frowned.
He sits up from his seat and leans towards me, "Girl," he started, "I did not heat up food for you to be sitting here and say that you ain't hungry."
I furrowed my eyebrows and pushed the box away.
I crossed my arms and laid on the table, "I don't want to eat it," I said as my voice was muffled.
I heard Ryan set his phone down and reached for the box of food.
Curious, I looked up.
To my surprise, Ryan held up a fork filled with noodles in front of my face.
"No," I frowned.
Ryan's eyes widened a little bit and he tilted his head forward, "I'm not taking care of a child, now eat."
I didn't want to, but I opened my mouth and consumed the mouth filled noodles.
I chewed slowly, and continued to stare at the fridge in front of me.
I heard louder chewing. Being the self conscious person I am, I stopped chewing and listened. It wasn't me that was chewing loud, it was Ryan.
I watched him as he fed himself the noodles and playing on his phone.
"Hey!" I called out, pulling the fork away from his hand, "Go get your own fork."
Ryan rolls his eyes and pushed his hair back, "It's not like we haven't shared stuff before."
"We haven't," I shook my head, annoyed.
"You took my lollipop," he argued, grabbing the fork back and continued to feed himself.
I pucker my lips in embarrassment and opened the orange juice.
"Why aren't you playing games with them?" I asked him, taking a sip.
"Because then you'd be left out," he answered casually, stuffing his mouth with food.
Before I had the chance to answer, Ryan held up another fork full of food and fed me. I ate it without hesitation this time because he was going to force it down my throat anyways.
"So," he said with his mouth still full, "Are we still trying to hook up Jacob and Leah?"
He finally puts his phone down and turns his attention to me. Ryan picked up the box of food and twirls in his seat to face me.
"Yeah," I nodded, "I just don't know what to do."
"Okay so I had this idea," he says between his chewing.
Once he swallowed his food, he continued, "We can go to the movies with them, just them; not with Caleb because he's loud and annoying."
I tilted my head and took another sip of orange juice, "But he'll feel left out."
"He's going to feel left out anyways," he chuckled, "We can just go and say that Caleb is busy or something. And then we'll let them sit together."
"Okay," I continued, "But Leah always wants me to sit around her."
Ryan winks and points at me, "That's why we buy their tickets for them, get them reserved seating and "mess up" on ours, so that it'll be like a movie date for them. We'll just sit somewhere else."
The thought about Leah made me sad again, "Leah is mad at me right now," I mumbled.
"She isn't, I talked to her," he says, looking at me, "Don't worry, we will all hang out again."
Ryan rubs my shoulder and I smiled.
"You in?" Ryan asks, handing me the box of Chinese food.
"I'm in," I took the food and fed myself.
Wait a minute.
I spat out the food.
"Juniper!"
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x apricitys