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IMANI
After school, I sat across from Akio at Beestra, a fast-food place where all the Redwood students hung out on the weekends. I stared at my Bio textbook and grabbed a fry from the center of the table, furrowing my brows at the words on the page.
“I don’t know why Barnes decides to give us tests every other week,” I said.
“Because he has nothing better to do.”
“We don’t even cover this much material in class,” I grumbled to myself, angrily biting the fry and staring at the chapters. “Does he expect us to teach ourselves, understand the material, and ace the test?”
Akio glanced up from his textbook. “We do, don’t we?”
My lips curled into a snarl. “Yeah, but still, he’s annoying.”
A couple of the football players strolled in to grab a milkshake after practice, the notorious Jace Harbor following them but looking highly unamused by them flirting with random girls. He typed aimlessly on his phone and barely looked up at the woman who was definitely flirting with him at the counter.
I eyed him for a couple moments and scrunched up my nose. That was … different.
Once he grabbed his milkshake, he turned around and made eye contact with me. While I would usually look away, I made sure he knew that I was watching him because I didn’t trust that man as blindly as Allie might’ve. He nodded to me, as if to say, What’s up? and followed the guys out of Beestra.
Snapping my book closed, I glanced up at Akio. “All right, enough studying. Let’s talk.”
Akio glanced up at me and readjusted his glasses. “About what?”
“Are your parents as annoying as mine are?” I asked him, dipping another fry in ketchup and kicking my legs back and forth under the table. “My mom literally scolds me if I don’t do the smallest things right. I just … ugh …”
I had been holding this in for so damn long. Now that Akio had admitted that his parents weren’t the best, I kinda, sorta had someone to vent to about them, someone who understood what it was like, being one of the rich kids who really didn’t have it all, at least family-wise.
Akio ran a hand across his face. “He isn’t that annoying, but he pushes me to get together with you. He wants me to be with you so badly, and it’s so annoying,” Akio admitted. “All he does is talk about you when I’m at home. How I have to be just like you, how we’d work well together. It’s nonstop, Imani.”
“Well …” I smiled, thinking back to the Poison boys. “I’m off the market.”
Akio playfully kicked me under the table. “Well, I don’t like you, anyway.”
“Who do you like?”
He shrugged and looked away, chewing a fry. “Nobody.”
“Who?”
“Nobody.”
I leaned across the table. “Oh, come on! You wanted to hang out and be friends. This is what friends do. They tell each other who they like, so their friend can go out, stalk their crush, and secretly make it happen!”
Akio stared at me with wide eyes and blinked a few times. “Exactly why I can’t tell you.”
“So, you’re going to live the rest of your life alone?” I asked.
“God, you’re so dramatic.”
Tossing some of my curls over my shoulder, I smiled. “Thank you. I try.”
After Akio rolled his eyes, he glanced behind me at a group of girls who walked into the building and right toward the cashier. I glanced over my shoulder to see Nicole, head of the cheerleading team, dressed in the tightest pair of leggings and a cute white crop top.
“Ugh, she’s so—” I started, but when I turned back around and saw Akio staring at her, my jaw nearly dropped. “You like her?!”
Akio looked back at me. “Can you not scream that?”
I lowered my voice and leaned farther across the table. “Nicole?” I whisper-yelled at him. “The head bitch of the cheer team and the police chief’s daughter?” I fake gagged. “Gross. She sleeps with, like, the entire school.”
