Vanilla

Chapter 6

Lunch period arrives, I meet up with Lauren outside again. She took her time since her old friends needed to tell her something. The people that found out about me and Lauren started spreading rumors that I seduced Lauren. Typical. I didn't care if Lauren didn't care. This damn school spreads rumors about every f*****g thing. My mom. My dad. Me. My friendships. Everything.

"Hey! Sorry, my friend Ina needed my attention for a quick minute." Lauren says sitting next to me.

"It's fine, Lauren. I'm not rushing you to join me for a chat outside alone where no one can bother us."

"Yeah..." she says as she grins. "So, I wanted to ask you something all day."

"What?" I ask.

"Why did you lie about our relationship?" she asks. "Four days ago? Really? That's the best you came up with?"

"I'm surprised you played along," I said, smiling. "I thought you would've slipped up and confessed we were just friends."

"I kind of enjoyed it. They don't have to know every single detail of our friendship."

I laid back on the hill and looked up at the cloudy sky. It was a chilly Thursday weekday. I loved staring into the clouds and imagining shapes out of them all the time. Lauren must've seen me looking up at the clouds, and blocked my vision of them with her face.

"I thought we were talking, Dani. Stop relaxing on me."

I look her in the eye. "I swear you are a cockblocker of fun."

"I'm fun."

"When it doesn't deal with being mean?"

"That was only one time! I swear!"

"What about that other time?"

"Fine...but don't run from this topic. Why did you bring up the relationship like that? You want your friends to really run their mouths about us?"

"I don't mind."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" I sat up making her move her face from in front of me. "It's obvious I want to actually start one with you."

She climbs on top of me and lays down on my chest making me lay back down on the ground. "Dani...why?"

"Because I want to."

"Not good enough of a reason."

"I like you," I said.

"No you don't," she said as she touched my arm. "You said it yourself. You don't know what my natural face looks like."

"I can wait."

"What if you regret it? My natural face is hideous."

I wrap my arms around her, "You won't be."

"Still I think we need to wait until you figure out your sexuality."

"Why? What's the point?"

"Because like you said before. What if someone asks?"

"Well..."

"See! We need to wait."

I sighed, "Fine."

"Dani..."

"Huh?"

"How will you figure out your sexuality?"

"I thought dates would work, but it didn't. So I don't know."

"Online p**n?"

"That's your thing, not mine."

"Then I got nothing."

"Do you think I should ask someone?"

"At this point. Yeah."

"Who?"

"The counselor...maybe?"

"I mean, which one? Not everyone is nice. Ms. Bare is a mean a*s. She takes your phone straight out of your hand if you're on it."

"How about Ms. Haddison? She's pretty nice."

"Sounds great. I'll ask her tomorrow."

"Why not do it now?"

"I need to be mentally ready to face someone like my grandmother."

"I said she's nice, not strict."

"Nothing you can say will make me go."

"I'll tell your friends you cried for days after they were suspended like a cry baby."

I groan, "See? You're mean!"

"For once, I agree with you. I like teasing you."

She gets up off of me and helps me up. "You're a demon, you know that?"

"Thanks. I'll take it as a compliment."

"Wasn't meant to be one."

She glared at me before walking with me back inside the building. We had time left before lunch was over, so we hurried to the office to talk to Ms. Haddison.

She talked to us for a while, until we reached a conclusion that I should try to talk to both genders and see what I feel for them. Not just one boy, like different types. Muscular, tall, short, etc. Same with girls.

Once we were out of the office, Lauren gently pulled on my shirt with a disappointed look.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

She turns to hide her face from me. "It's funny. I never felt this pain in my heart hearing that from someone. That my crush will have to talk to other people besides me."

I lean in close to her face, "Are you jealous?"

She nods, "Yes."

I stood up straight and patted her head, "It's not like I'm going to flirt with them. I just have to see if I like their appearance or anything special."

Lauren looked like a puppy when she looked at me, "Promise?"

"Yes."

"Great!"

"You really act like my girlfriend sometimes, you know?"

She hugs me, "Because I want to be."

"I know that."

The bell rings.

"Looks like we have to go to class. See you later."

She walks off as she waves to me with a smile on her face.

I felt a strange feeling in my chest as she did.

"Yeah...see you," I mumbled under my breath as I walked to my own class.

Lauren, you better take responsibility if I fall in love with you.