High School Horror

“You’ll absolutely love the city”, Harry smiled. “We’ll take you to London one weekend. What about this weekend?”

“What about your bat shit crazy girlfriend?” Geneva demanded.

Harry looked away from me over to Geneva and pouted. “Emma’s absolutely nuts”, Zayn laughed. “She thinks she’s hot shit because her dad does plastic surgery for all these famous people but that’s why she has daddy issues. He’s stuck in California while she’s stuck here-”

“She goes to California frequently”, Harry argued. “Gingey, where are you from?”

“Virginia”, I shrugged. “Nothing special. Just a little southern state.”

“The Queen’s colony”, Liam purred. “What’s it like?”

“Just trees and mountains and stuff”, Geneva giggled. “Farms everywhere. Weird accents-”

“So it’s like Ireland!” Niall quipped.

“Just like it! I think.”

“You know a lot of Americans share ancestry with the Scots and Irish”, Liam pointed out.

“You’re such a swot”, Harry scoffed.

Louis slammed on the brakes before looking around his seat to grin at those of us in the back. “Here we are!” he announced. “Chipotle! Now that the ride has come to a complete stop, we ask passengers to remove themselves.”

I smiled a little as we piled out and stood in front of the big familiar chain store. Zayn ushered everyone inside where we all got in a line to give our orders to the staff. I managed to stuff everything I could onto a tortilla while Geneva got about as much meaty covered food as Niall.

“You sure can eat a lot for someone so little”, Liam awed.

Geneva glowed. “I gotta eat for two”, she informed, pointing proudly at her stomach. I shifted awkwardly as Zayn asked what she meant and Neva explained that she was pregnant. She didn’t have a big bump at this point. There was one forming but she could easily hide it under a baggy t-shirt or hoodie (which made up most of her wardrobe). When Louis asked about the father, Geneva admitted that her boyfriend, who had been in my class, had been in a fire at his apartment building and died trying to help his elderly neighbour out. It only made sense to her that she kept his kid so she’d have something of him left.

“Shit happens, you know”, Geneva said gravely. “Anyway, where can we sit? I’m fucking starving.”

“There’s a table just over there!” Louis beamed. “We can push two together!” Niall started to fit a separate table against one before receiving a patronizing look from an employee. “Or maybe we can’t”, Louis mumbled. “Just grab chairs. They can’t rightly do anything about that.” The table already comfortably fit four and with a chair on either end, there were six. It was a tight squeeze but I didn’t want to make it tighter by adding a seventh chair, so I sat at a table nearby.

“Ginger, what’re you doing?” Zayn whined.

“It’s fine”, I smiled. “I don’t mind.” Truth be told, I didn’t.

“Well, I mind”, Harry stated, plopping down in the chair across from me. “You lads can stay there.” I watched everyone else sit down at their table while Harry began digging through his order to find what he wanted to eat first. “So you said you’re a vegan, right? Does that mean you don’t eat meat?”

Harry ripped a vicious bite out of a beef taco like it was supposed to convince me to try meat. I laughed. “No, I don’t eat anything with animal products in it”, I explained.

“So like, how do you eat biscuits? Biscuits get dunked in milk you know?”

Who dunks their biscuit in milk- wait. Biscuits were cookies on this side of the pond. “I use soy milk”, I shrugged.

“Is that good?”

“Good enough, yeah.”

“You’re southern, right? That’s what you said. You guys are like really good at down home comfort food huh?”

“I guess so.”

Harry beamed. “You know, I love cooking!” he exclaimed. “Can you show me how to make some of that stuff? We can go grocery shopping together sometime and you can come over and show me how to make like fried chicken and grits-”

“Trust me, grits are gross”, I giggled. “But um, what about Emma?”

The smile on his face fell. “Can I borrow your phone?” he asked.

“Why?”

“Just trust me.” Carefully, I slid my phone onto the table’s surface and unlocked it for Harry. He typed something in before handing me back my phone. He’d texted an unknown number but explained himself through the text.


ME:


I’m going to be honest Emma is annoying as fuck. I’m just about done with her shit.


I looked up as Harry began typing into his own phone. That was apparently the number he texted since that’s where my next text came from.


HARRY:


She fights with everyone. She bosses people around and I’m sick of it. It’s my last year so I plan on making the most of it with or without her. So feel free to ignore her :)


ME:


Ignoring things doesn’t always mean the problems gonna go away.


HARRY:


Are you having a problem with her??


ME:


Of course not.


Harry snickered from across the table. “You know, Ginger, I don’t take kindly to liars”, he grinned. “You do it again and you’ll owe me.”

“Owe you what?” I questioned.

“I don’t know. Maybe a kiss from those pretty lips? I’m sure that lip ring makes things interesting?”

I tugged on my lip ring. I’d gotten it as a 15th birthday present and didn’t think much about it. It was just a piece of jewelry in my face. “In your dreams, Flesh Breath”, I joked. Harry shrugged and ripped another bite out of his taco.

“I’ll find a way”, he winked. “I always do.”

I didn’t like those words. They gave me a sick feeling in my stomach like trouble was coming.

How right that feeling was.

Notes