So, after Tanya and I had become a couple, there was this persistent force of dissent looming amongst my friends. Determined to change that, I approached her on Thursday as soon as the lunch period started.

Roaming through the halls of Eastgrove High was always a challenge during this time, as the building's roughly three-thousand students filled the halls in a matter of seconds after the bell.

I could feel the cold, metallic texture of her locker as my right shoulder leaned up against it. Occasionally, students that were roaming the halls bumped into me, the fabric of their clothes brushing against mine.

It took a few minutes, but the girl with the frizzy hair finally appeared, her hand reaching for the back of my neck. Her lips tasted somewhat like cherries that day, except there was this weird, artificial tinge to the flavour.

"What's up?" she said after our lips parted ways.

"I was thinking we hang out with my friends today," I said, adding a customary bit of awkwardness to my request by shifting my arms.

Her lips pursed downward as her big brown eyes gazed into mine. But, I wasn't going to fall for that... again.

After a few seconds of us standing there, she caved. "Ugh, fine. But you know, I'm only doing this cause you're so darn cute."

Her dainty hands gripped mine, pulling me towards the staircase at the end of the hall. As soon as we arrived at the cafeteria, my eyes darted towards my friends, who were sitting down at the same rundown table I had first met them in. Looking back towards the girl standing next to me, I honestly thought it was impossible for them not to like her.

They had accepted me back when no one else would, so I genuinely thought that she would have an easier time integrating into the group. I thought we would be able to all hang out without any conflict, or drama.

I think I expected too much.

Familiar voices began to fill my surroundings as we got closer to the table. With each step, these voices became louder and clearer. But, it wasn't long before the voices came to a screeching halt.

What was once an environment of warmth, now felt like an environment  of hostility and tension. They didn't even look at us when we came in, choosing to act as if they were all busy doing their own things instead.

Jason and Allison moved over, allowing us some room to sit down in the already cramped lunch table. While I grabbed our chairs, a sharp tinge of pain resonated throughout my right forearm as Tanya fastened her grip onto it.

It is pretty weird how your perception of time can change depending on the situation. Hours can feel like seconds when you're doing something you like. But, seconds can feel like hours when you're doing something you don't like – such as sitting in a lecture you find boring, or, in my case, being stuck in a situation turned very awkward.

In the few seconds after we sat down, the only sound in the immediate vicinity came from the sound of Mike's fingers, tapping along the table's wooden panels.

"Hey guys," I said. There was this feeling in the pit of my stomach that they were talking about us before we came in, so I asked them about that in the hopes that my intuition would be wrong. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing important, just the usual," Jason said, as his green pupils shifted towards the ceiling.

"Actually, um, we were just talking about which show was better," Mike interjected. "Uhm, the choices were, um, Dragon Ball Z, or, uh, Naruto. Your thoughts?"

This is delving slightly off-topic here, but I do feel somewhat bad for your generation. You kids may have super fast internet, holograms, and flying cars, but I don't know if you'll truly understand the impact either of these Japanese television shows had on my own generation. I wonder if the show will still remain relevant by the time you're reading this - I hope it does.

Anyway, I preferred Dragon Ball. "Uh...Dragon Ball Z for sure. Naruto's good too, but Dragon Ball Z was my childhood. Nothing's gonna beat that moment when Goku turned Super Saiyan against Frieza."

As my arm slung over her shoulder, the cotton fabric of my shirt grazed the contours of her back. "Tanya, your thoughts?"

Her teeth gleamed as she began to speak. "Well, I haven't really watched both shows fully, but I'd say Naruto. He's such a great character and everything."

There are very good reasons why I still view my friends back then in a positive light now. But, as I'm sure you're starting to realize, my friends certainly weren't perfect people. To say that their reaction was unwarranted is a slight understatement.

A few people let out very audible gasps and murmurs in response, with Jason visibly scrunching his face up. "How can you say Naruto? I mean, Dragon Ball Z is a million times better. We were literally all just talking about how shit Naruto is."

"Huh, the first person I've asked that said Naruto was better," Mike added.

Allison ran her fingers through her long, dark hair, her face turned away from mine. "She, like, hasn't even watched both shows, so her opinion doesn't really mean anything right now."

Prior to that statement, Tanya was holding up a decent poker face. It was after Allison's statement, however, that her arms began to fold and her nostrils began to flare. "But, you-"

She took in a deep breath and tugged the fabric of my sweater. "I just remembered, I need to do something, for a club I'm in. Malik, wanna come with?"

I'd like to say I took the hint the first time, but I didn't. Squeaking noises then erupted from the legs of Tanya's chair, all while she tightened her grip onto the fabric of my shirt.

Turning towards the others, I bid them farewell and followed my girlfriend to a set of lockers outside the cafeteria. Once again, she folded her arms.

"You know, your friends don't like me," she said as the corners of her mouth pursed downwards.

While it was clear that she was right, I really wanted her to be wrong. "No, that's not true. They just need to get more time to know you."

A burst of air hit my face as she sighed. Leaning sideways, she pushed her right shoulder into a gray locker sitting next to her. "How much time does a person need? You know, we've been hanging out with them a lot. I think we should hang out with my friends."

I actually hadn't met Tanya's friends prior to her saying this, and honestly, I didn't really want to. I felt like I had enough friends, and bringing more people who I didn't know into the mix was simply unnecessary to me.

But, I wasn't about to say no. It's not like her question was really was a choice, to begin with. So, my response was to just nod my head up and down. 

"How does this Friday sound?"

Terrible. But again, I lied and said it sounded terrific.

She gave me a quick hug. "Great! We're all going to Casey's house this Friday. Don't worry, she's, like my closest friend and she's really chill. I'll let her know you're coming!"

"Great," I replied, with a tone of nervousness oozing out of my voice. We spent the rest of the lunch period alone, away from my friends. But, the whole debacle wasn't over just yet. I wanted to ask Mike and Jason for advice.

I know, I shouldn't have trusted Jason with anything having to do with relationships. But, while your Uncle Mike is a fantastic guy, I wasn't about to solely ask him for dating advice. So, as we were hanging out at the pizza place after school, I brought up the topic.

"She invited you to hang out with her friends, huh?" Mike asked, as his grip on a pizza slice stretched the cheese attached to his plate.

"Yeah."

Jason's blonde hair gleamed in the sunlight. "Well, there's only one thing you can do. Invite her over to your place, that way, you have the home field advantage."

"Home field advantage?"

Jason gulped as he downed a bottle of iced tea. "Invite them over to uh, your place. Yeah, you get to set your own rules. What movies they get to watch, and what they get to do."

Before I had a chance to explain there was literally no way I could have actually invited them over to my own house, Mike interjected, wanting to know who her friends were.

The fingers from my right hand delved into my hair, rubbed back and forth against the surface of my skull. "Um...she mentioned someone named Casey, and a guy, um, Cortland I think."

"No idea who they are," Jason said.

"I know who they are, I'm in a class with both of them. They're just, uh, you know, the type that hates everything mainstream and who try so hard to go against the flow," Mike said, as he took another bite of his pizza slice. "Oh, and with Cortland, you gotta emphasize the 'a' in his name, or else he gets super pissed. I think his name is French, I dunno."

Jason crumpled up the receipt in front of him. "Yeah, so like I was saying before, make sure you get the home field advantage."

"But I already told her I'd be hanging out at her friend's house."

"Say you're sick."

"But, even then, I didn't tell my parents about the thing, and even if they're not home, my stepsister will for sure rat me out."

"I dunno man, make a deal with your stepsister?" Mike interjected.

"Nah, it doesn't really matter, just make sure you plan it. You'll still have home field advantage, and the ball will still be in your lane," Jason said as he threw his receipt into a garbage can located a few meters away.

It didn't go in.

The next day, as Tanya and I were hanging out during lunchtime, the topic of hanging out with her friends eventually came into play.

"Oh, you're going to love Cortland," Tanya exclaimed as she looked out the window. She too emphasized the 'a' in his name.

"Yeah, um, about that, I don't think I can, uh, make it," I said. Right after saying this, I realized I couldn't have used the whole sick excuse, as I wasn't visibly sick. Damn.

Tanya turned her head sideways, shifting her eyebrows up in response. "Why not?"

My brain raced to find a suitable excuse. "Um...well, uh, my mom has this thing, see?"

As you read more of this, you'll find out that my brain isn't the best performer under pressure, so my excuse ended up sounding like a jumbled mess. "It's a thing, about...um, well, she has this thing about the family spending time together, uh, out of the house, you know, once a month. So, she has us all seeing, a, uh, movie."

Tanya's smile only widened. "While I think that it's cute that you're going on a date with your mom," she began, nudging my shoulder, "I also know it's complete bull. You just wanna gain a home field advantage."

Thinking there was absolutely no way she could have known about that, I felt the advent of a small smirk on my face. "What? I would, um, never do such a thing!" A throbbing pain spread throughout my palm, after reflexively hitting it on the ledge we were both sitting on.

The soft tone of her laugh made me feel a bit more at ease. "It is so easy to predict you."

Still wanting to know how she knew about the whole thing, I pressed the topic a bit further. "How'd you even know about that?"

Her laugh rang even louder, the pleasant sound once again reverberating through my ears. "You know, I have friends too!"

"Don't tell me you planned this first, just so you could get home court."

"I can neither confirm nor deny that statement," Tanya replied. She grabbed my shirt and pulled my mouth closer to hers. A few seconds after our lips locked, the bell began to ring, diverting my attention away from her and towards the glass panels on the door in front of us.

That's when I saw a figure standing on the other side of the door. The first thing that struck out to me was their long dark hair, which flowed down their shoulders. Once I focused my eyes on the panel in front of me, it was clear who exactly the person behind the door was.

The person proceeded to wave, then quickly walked away from the scene, merging into a crowd of people walking towards their classes.