“Excuse me, but I will be right back.” Mr. Harris gets up and shuts the door behind him.
“Why the hell are you here, Posie?”
“Same goes to you, dude. Oh wait, I forgot.” She smacks her head sarcastically. “Your mom is an airhead, you have been in this office plenty of times for shit, you’ve gotten three girls to lose their virginity to you, you probably have a few girls nudes on your phone and others have dick pics of you.”
“Shut up. Nobody has pictures of my dick and I don’t have any nudes on my phone.”
“At this moment….”
“What’s that even mean?”
“You could’ve deleted them so you don’t get in trouble. Now, how are you going to argue your way out of my first three parts?” She holds up three fingers.
“One, I don’t talk about that and I know you don’t want to either.” Posie shrugs, nods, and puts down one finger. “Two, we’ve already discussed that so screw you for bringing it up.” A small laugh escapes her smug face as she puts down another finger. “Three, yeah yeah ok I did, but I didn’t force it on anyone. I made it clear that it was up to them. Now, what about you and Nathan? He better not have any nudes of you and you better not have any of his dick pics.”
Posie’s hand goes down as she glares at me. “I do not. You're gross, man.”
“You started it.” The door opens and Posie and I exchange a look but stay silent.
“So, Miss Reynolds. I’m sure that you are well aware of the fact that your brother is very familiar with this room.”
“Yes. He’s been here plenty of times.” She smirks at me.
“But the both of you are here for the same reason. Well, Zach had a little talk before that you won’t have to worry about.”
Posie looks at me. “A talk about what?” She says way too innocently. She is most likely thinking about the nonexistent nudes and dick pics.
“About the past three years of my high school career and all the shit I pulled.” I snap at her.
“Zach, language.” Mr. Harris says like an exasperated parent.
“Sorry, sir.” I try to calm down.
“But yes that is what we talked about. The two of you are here to talk about your family life.”
“I’d rather talk about anything else,” Posie says flatly as she squints her eyes. Then the bell rings. “And I don’t want to be late for class.” She quickly gathers her black Jansport backpack which looks strangely empty for school
“Me neither.” This is the one thing that Posie and I can agree on. We do not talk about our family to anyone. Not even to each other.
“Sit down. I’ll write you a tardy pass.” He looks Posie straight in the eye. “Do you know what that is? Or do you just be tardy without any excuse?” She sighs and walks out of the room. “Zach?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t force her to do anything. And neither of us are gonna talk about our ‘family life’ I-” My voice cracks. Damn puberty. “I really can’t.” I grab my navy Herschel backpack and head to class.
I check my Snap on the way and find I have been snapped by multiple sophomore girls. Plus one from Ari. I smile and reply.
“Hello, Mr. Reynolds. So happy you could finally join us.”
“Uh. Sorry, Mr. Benton. I was in Mr. Harris’s office.”
“Can I verify that with him?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh.” Mr. Benton said, slightly disappointed. He’s one of the few teachers who don’t like me. “Now put your phone in your pocket before it goes to the office until the end of the day.”
“Sorry, sir.” I slip my phone into my back pocket and feel a buzz from Snapchat, probably from Ari. I slid into an open seat next to Evan. I nod at him but his focus is elsewhere. I look towards what has Evan’s, the kid with undiagnosed ADHD, attention. A new girl is sitting with her hands folded over a lavender spiral notebook. Her red hair falls in waves down her back, her thick bangs practically cover her eyes. An exploding pencil case sits on her desk. Her eyes search the room, looking between me and Mr. Benton.
“Found you a new girl to-” Evan makes a sighing noise.
“Shut up, pervert. I’ve got a girlfriend.”
“Hell yeah, you do,” Lindsay says from behind me, jabbing me in between my shoulder blades with a highlighter. I stretch my arms back, my shoulder blades touching.
“Hey, Linds? Why did you tell Ari to break up with me?”
“What!” She glares at me. “Why do you think that?”
“Er. She told me.”
“What the actual hell. I never even said anything about that. All she wants is attention and you gave it to her. You always do.”
“Woah, Lindsay. The man’s just being a good boyfriend. Chill.”
“Like you know what it’s like to be a boyfriend, Evan Gonzalez.” Lindsay snaps.
“She’s got a point.”
“Shut up.” His face turns bright red and I burst out laughing.
“Mr. Reynolds. It’s time to learn.”
“Sorry, sir.”
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