6| The Double Bean

Even an animal, if you show genuine affection, gradually trust develops... If you always showing bad face and beating, how can you develop friendship?

~ Dalai Lama, the title given to spiritual leaders of the Tibetan people

My hair was flying wildly as I opened the door and walked rushed into Double Bean, scanning around to find Arohi. She was sitting at a cute table in the corner, furiously texting someone on her phone.

"Hey, Ro," I said, a little breathless.

"You're late," she replied, barely even glancing up to meet my eyes. She spoke in a clipped tone, with barely any emotions at all. Me, being the overanalyzing person that I am, frowned at this. "Why?"

"I was busy, sorry," I said, slinging my bag over the chair opposite her. "Stuff with the principal."

"For half an hour? Jeez, I've been waiting forever and hell, I get pissed when I don't get food because food is my everything." She looked up to meet her eyes, still looking annoyed.

"Who were you texting?" I asked. At least that might have been part of the reason why she was PMSing a bit, although I'd have been mad if someone had stood me up, too.

She sighed loudly, rolling her eyes. "Who do you think is capable of increasing my irritation? None other than Ben fricking Skolt. Thanks for asking," she said, dryly.

I grinned. "I ship it. You guys are cute," I cooed. She made a faux puke expression.

"Disgusting. I'd rather marry a blob fish. Which, by the way, has been rated as the world's ugliest animal. So there."

I snickered. "What are you ordering?" I asked.

"Two iced cappuccinos, one chicken panini and one brownie. I eat a lot. Also, I didn't know what you'd want, so order whatever. But the cappuccino's yours. You seem like a coffee person," she said, shrugging. "Also it was the cheapest item there. Not that I'm a tightwad or anything..." she said, trailing off. "Okay, spoiler alert, I am."

I rolled my eyes playfully at this. "Good job. I'll settle with a salad."

"No dessert!?" she asked me, her eyes bulging out. "THAT'S A SIN; I CANNOT EVEN BEAR TO LOOK AT YOU. GOODBYE, WE CANNOT BE FRIENDS." 

I gave her a deadpanned look for her over dramatics. "Fine, I'll get a sugar-free vanilla mousse. Happy now?" I asked.

"No, not really," she said, crossing her arms across her chest. "The 'sugarless' supplement causes cancer. So have fun dying because you couldn't deal with becoming fat."

"God! Let me die then!" I said, frustrated.

"Nope," she said, popping her p. "Since you came late, I'm ordering you a tiramisu cup. It doesn't have the least number of calories, but tiramisu is yummy and you're going to take it."

"Heil Hitler," I mumbled. "Remind me to make sure you never get dictatorial powers," I said, darkly.

"Nah, I'd still be better than Trump. I'd just change food laws."

I scoffed 'at this, and ordered my stuff. "There are no food laws."

She raised her eyebrows at me. "And this changes my statement how?"

"You can't change something that doesn't exist," I said.

She shook her head. "No, that's not true. You can change something that doesn't exist. Change can happen anywhere."

For some reason, I didn't think she was talking about food laws anymore.

"That's a rather enigmatic statement, how can you justify yourself?" I asked, genuinely interested by this random comment."

"Think about it," she said, with a shrug. "Say for example you're changing who you are. You change your personality. The aspects wouldn't have existed, but your adding something new to it. Therefore you're changing something that doesn't exist."

"No," I said, rebuking her. "That doesn't make sense. You'd be changing something that didn't exist if you hadn't had a personality at all to begin with. But, considering the fact that you do, you're just adding new elements. That's not exactly change, that's an addition."

"But change as a definition is differing from the original. So therefore it's change," she said.

"Yeah, but this doesn't apply to nonexistent food laws, this is metaphorical," I said, not getting her point.

She cracked a smile. "Irrelevant. I'll still make sure skinny girls like you don't exist and everyone can be fat and happy and full of food."

I glared at her. "Make sure they don't give you positions in North Korea as a dictator, you might actually give an entire population obesity, diabetes and heart diseases."

She shrugged. "I couldn't become a dictator in North Korea even if I'd wanted to. First off, I wouldn't even be an eligible citizen and secondly I would have to get the position of the Supreme Leader, which is practically impossible."

I raised my eyebrows in appreciation. "You know your stuff, Arohi."

She grinned. "It's a nerd thing."

"I see why Ben Skolt has a crush on you, your random facts are attractive," I said, whistling.

This made her frown so hard I saw several creases on her forehead. Creases like that could only come from worry and sadness. I wondered what had happened to her. "Can you not? I'm literally so sick of that idiot. His head is too big for his body."

I winked at her and wolf whistled. "But damn, have you seen that body? It could melt an ice cube in a second, no lie."

Her cheeks turned pink, but she still kept her stoic expression. "Yeah, and so can a piece of burning coal. I'll just date fire while I'm at it."

I started laughing at this. I got this warm, fuzzy feeling around Arohi that I hadn't experienced since Ren and I had gotten into the Summer Incident. I'd missed it.

"I like you," I blurted out. Her eyebrows shot up, and I turned red. "No, not like—"

"Miss UUC has a lesbian crush on me, that's interesting. But stop liking me, you're all Todd Fletcher's."

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. You're different from most people. I like that. I don't usually like people in this world, but I like you."

"But you love Todd Fletcher," she clarified.

"No, I don't," I hissed.

"DID I HEAR RIGHT? YOU MADE OUT WITH TODD FLETCHER AND KISSED HIM TODAY?" she screamed, standing up.

"Shut up!" I said, as we earned stares from people in the shop. "What is wrong with you!?"

"I won't shut up until you admit that you're madly in love with Todd Fletcher," she taunted. "CECILIA AND TODD, SITTING ON A TREE. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES—"

"Okay!" I whisper-yelled, dragging her down. "I'm in love with Todd Fletcher, he's the light of my life, he is the first and last thing I think of every day, I love him to death, now shut the heck up."

She giggled. "I got that on tape. Now I've got blackmail material, MUHAHAHA. Cue the evil, manic laughter."

"You're retarded."

"So I've been told."

My food came, and I began munching on my salad furiously. I'd loved junk food binges. I'd loved splurging with Ren. We'd eat everything and then work out like crazy, and then give up and eat again. Now, I couldn't even eat without crying. God.

"So," I said, forking a piece of lettuce. "Why'd you move to America?"

"Because my mom died of terminal cancer and my aunt and uncle live here and decided to adopt me. My dad's a drunk sleaze ball who lives in God-Knows-Where. Hell, it wasn't my decision. But I knew it was coming." She said this so bluntly that I was shocked.

"I'm sorry," I finally said. "I know what it's like to lose a loved one."

"I didn't tell you this to evoke any pity," she said, although her eyes were glistening with unshed tears.

"Then why did you?" I whispered.

"Because I want you to know that I trust you. Maybe I'm stupid for being able to so quickly, but I do. And you can trust me too, Miss UUC."

"Okay," I said, a warm and fuzzy feeling drowning the rest of my senses. Maybe not today. Maybe not right now. Maybe not in this place. But I'd tell her. I'd tell her everything, and it would be okay again.

Ren would just be really, really mad. But she'd do it.

"So anyway, how are things here? How's school and stuff? Things in India are so different. Most of the times it isn't this... wild," she said, shrugging a bit. "I'm genuinely really interested. I know there are e-groups and stuff where—"

"Wait," I said, suddenly feeling kind of lost. "E-Groups and stuff?"

Suddenly, Ro's entire face flushed. "No, I didn't say—" she began, but I gave her a 'shut the hell up and tell me' look. "Okay. Well, Naomi has these e-groups where she adds people onto different ones to talk to them about their problems and give them advice. It's like an online therapy session she's created. She's really popular with everyone. She claims everyone in our grade is on it. Even Todd is! But... apparently not everyone," she finished.

Oh, my gosh. I'd never felt this before. All this time, I'd believed that I was above everyone and didn't need to talk to people. But Naomi would never do anything out of the goodness in her heart. Heck, she didn't have a goddamn heart! She was doing this to target me. She did it to Ren and she'd do it to me. She was a horrible person. This was all an elaborate ploy to overthrow me.

I make myself sound like a queen. But I'd never felt so insecure in my entire life.

"Oh," was all I said, biting my lip. "That sounds lovely. She's such a well-wisher, always has been," I said, my voice sickly sweet.

Eugh.

"You should give her a chance. She keeps talking about how much she's done to make you like her, but you will never let go of the past. It's okay to hold grudges, but she said that you really need to let go. She sounded really sad, too."

FIRE-TRUCKING BEYOTCH.

"I hate her. She's done nothing but ruin my life, and everyone I loved, she's put them down. Pardon me for harboring a grudge," I hissed out. 

"What has she done?" she asked, softly. But I closed my eyes, remembering everything. If I told her this, she'd find out about everything. Naomi ruined everything. Absolutely everything.

"I can't tell you," I whispered. A flash of hurt crossed her expressions. "Not now," I said, retracing my steps. "It's too long and... I don't want to feel sad when you actually make me feel happy. And I haven't been happy for five months," I squeaked out, and Ro's expression softened.

"Aw, I love you," she said, smiling warmly. "And whatever you're going through will only bring good things, because you're a good person."

I didn't bother contradicting her. At least someone out there thought I'd have good things in store for me. I deserved it after all the crap I'd been through.

Suddenly, my phone blinked. I turned it on, only to see ten messages from Todd Fletcher.

Hey, Pascal, we're in some deep shit.

What? Why?

Well, you know that whole thing about there being three stages to every game and fight?

Yeah...?

Well, it looks like the school won Round Three. And you're not going to like it at all.

What? What happened? What's wrong?

I'm surprised you haven't seen it yet. Naomi put it up on the group.

My good God, again with stupid Naomi and her dumb group.

She was probably spying on us today. And someone sent it to the princi, but my money's on her.

WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING? STOP BEING DUMBLEDORE!

... Dumbledore? Where'd that come from?

No, like Dumbledore is always so enigmatic and he never gets to the point.

I don't want to tell you. I'm going to want you to see it yourself. You're going to blow up at me. And it's not even my fault.

I'm not that irrational.

Trust me, you're going to be mad about this. Really mad.

Arohi was surprisingly quiet, and on her phone. She'd probably seen something on the damn group.

"What is it?" I asked. Arohi had a troubled expression on her face.

"Well, I know I keep teasing you about Todd and stuff, but I didn't think you'd take it this far..." she said, trailing off. "Looks like you weren't with the princi all along, after all," she muttered darkly.

"Could I please see the thing you're looking at?" I asked, pursing my lips together. My heart was beating pretty quickly in my chest.

She shrugged. "Yeah. But seriously, that's just weird stuff. The principal wants to talk to you and Todd about this. I mean, our school has a strict no PDA code."

Of course I knew about that code. Henry hated people kissing or anything. Even holding hands was a sin. I was practically his niece, of course I'd know about those things. What was everyone even talking about? This was crazy. People got into deep trouble for even kissing.

And Arohi proceeded to hold out her phone, and I nearly screamed.

On the screen was a large, slightly blurry photo of Todd sprawled out over, well, me in the parking lot. It looked incredibly vulgar. His hands were behind my head so that it looked like we had been getting so steamy that we'd gotten onto the floor. My hands were on his back. I'd done that to steady myself, but the angle made it look like I was trying to get fistfuls of his shirt.

I looked up with wide eyes. "Oh, this wasn't intentional was it?" asked Arohi, sympathetically. I shook my head, my pulse still racing. She didn't understand.

And now Henry, along with the entire school, had the photo.

I was so, so screwed.

hey ya'll! that was a pretty dramatic chapter.

what's the worst thing that's ever happened to you? have you ever had a photo, or an article, or anything at all, leak where it shouldn't?