𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 ✰ v. hacker

forty-ninth ❀ irl

| MAISY |

"jordan texted me."

at the moment, we were riding in vinnie's car to try to get to school before we missed the whole day and got in trouble...we were trying to at least make it there before lunch. my heart skipped a few beats.

"oh? what did he say?"

vinnie laughed, rolling his eyes. "he just cussed me out of course, saying i was a terrible friend and that i had promised him."

"what did you promise him?"

i swear, the man turned a whole shade of red. "i promised i wouldn't tell you so he'd stay my friend."

i couldn't help snorting, to which he protested, "hey, i was scared of him, okay? and the guy really gaslit me into feeling like this was all my fault. and he was kinda right, i've known him for longer than i have you...but still, he shouldn't have made me choose between us two."

he paused for a second. "was i really ignoring him that badly?"

"i mean, yeah, i have that effect on people...suck all the attention out of them," i tease, and vinnie laughs lightly. "but no," i continue, "we really didn't hang out that much aside from studying and photo shoots."

"and he should have been much more mature about handling this if i had been treating him badly." he finished, nodding his head.

"exactly." i smiled proudly. "you're getting the hang of this independent-not-gonna-let-jordan-step-all-over-me thing." we laughed together.

when we pulled up to the school parking lot and hopped out, vinnie grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly as we made our way inside. i knew there would be people staring at us...everyone at school had knew something happened and we'd stopped talking, and i'm sure that by now the word of vinnie's drunken confession had spread like wildfire.

i also knew that jordan was going to be there, and he wasn't going to be happy at all.

as we entered, the heads started turning. we'd arrived just before lunchtime in between periods, so it seemed almost everyone was out in the hallways. kids whispered and pointed to us as we passed by, but then again, it wasn't like that hadn't been going on ever since i'd gotten exposed.

"hey, good to see you guys back together," a random girl from my econ class spoke up as we passed by. it seemed like a genuine comment, so i smiled just back.

an obnoxious freshman boy stepped in front of us, inspecting us and our joined hands and then hooted, "wait until tiktokroom hears about this one!"

there was laughter around the hall, and vinnie pushed past him and some other kids, just trying to get to the cafeteria in peace. "geez, i love this school," he muttered under his breath.

"hey, a few more months and we're done and we graduate," i tried to comfort him, but i didn't know if i could take it another few months either. squeezing his hand tightly, we finally turned down the corner to the cafeteria. "maybe coming here today was a bad idea," i whispered to him as we entered.

he hugged me to his side as we tried to locate a free table that didn't appear to be in the line of everyone's vision.

"maisy!"

we turned our heads to see maddy waving us over to her table. what a sight for sore eyes.

"hey lovers!" she crooned teasingly. "glad to see y'all finally made it. how was he?"

"how was who?" i glared at her and she giggled. "the annoying kid who shouted at us about being on tiktokroom when we got here?"

maddy's eyes widened. "what? the kid with the glasses and curly hair? he didn't."