Rose Bridges

Thirty two

Carmen

"Guys," Amanda calls all of our attentions.

I look up from my journal and wait for her to continue.

Her pale cheeks flush and she places her hands on the table. "Alexander finally asked me to be his girlfriend."

Everyone starts squealing and Zara and I glance to each other.

Zara fake smiles and then quickly goes back to eating lunch and watching a show on her phone, uninterested completely.

I don't say anything, just look back to my journal and continue writing.

Everyone goes a bit quiet and I look back suspiciously.

Amanda stares at me, an annoyed expression.

"Yes?" I ask.

She huffs out a breath. "He agreed to come sit with us at lunch occasionally, so if you have an issue with that, then tell me now."

My eyebrows raise and I close the journal, crossing my hands on top of it. "Yes, I most definitely do have a problem with that."

"He's my boyfriend now and he's going to sit with me."

I suck in a breath. Lord help me. "Well your boyfriend is an awful person, so no I'm not okay with him sitting here."

She narrows her eyes, anger coating her pale skin. "You know, I'm beginning to think you want him."

My eyes go to the size of saucers and a loud laugh escapes my mouth, my hand lifting up to cover it. "Are you serious?"

She thins her lips and stares at me, like she's thinking really hard. "You know," she starts in a fake pity voice. "We get it, no guy wants you because you're such a bitch to them, so you're sad to see people happy."

Chanel's eyes widen and her chip sits in between her finger tips, frozen in air.

My eyes stay trained on Amanda as my heart rate picks up.

Heat rises behind my eyes as I feel everyone staring at me, but I refuse to cry here. No. I refuse.

Zara turns her head to Amanda. "The hell is wrong with you?" Her eyes narrow.

"I'm just sick of her bitching about my boyfriend. You know, maybe what he says about you is right!" she spits to me with a sarcastic smile. "You can fuck off and go be alone for the rest of your life and become a rich little lawyer, maybe that one druggie will marry you if you're lucky," she continues, her words being one more knife to my stomach.

Zara whips her head immediately. "Shut the fuck up. Jesus Christ," she mutters annoyed under her breath before looking back to her show.

I stare at Amanda. I feel like I'm gonna vomit.

Without saying anything, I grab my backpack and journal and stand up.

Before turning around to walk away, I look Amanda dead in the eyes. "He is not a druggie."

And I don't meet anyone's eyes as I turn back around and start walking away.