"SHE POOFED AGAIN," Millie said as she exited the classroom. Lee looked up from trying to shove her books inside her bag and trying to balance herself. What Millie said was true. Tessa was nowhere in sight.
"She did say something about helping the art team with Perfect Warrington's campaign banners..." Lee mused to herself.
"Can't be, they obviously finished those already," Millie said pointedly, jabbing a thumb at the gigantic banner of Harry Warrington's face emblazoned with the slogan 'Warrington for President!' stretched over their heads.
Lee grinned sheepishly. "Maybe she went for lunch as soon as class got over cause she was starving?" she said questioningly, unable to come up with any other possible reasons.
"And I'm not?" Millie snapped back, one eyebrow raised. Lee raised her hands up as if surrendering. Millie shook her head. "She's been doing this the whole damn week."
"Ooh what if she's sneaking around with a guy?" Lee asked excitedly, a bunch of thoughts rushing into her braincell-free brain. "Do you think they're secretly dating? Why is she not telling us?" she started rambling when Millie got fed up.
"Shut the fuck up for a minute. I'm trying to think over here," Millie said angrily. She stood there for a while, deep in thought, when the obvious struck her. She quickly tried to get to the cafeteria, a stumbling Lee trying to catch up with her.
After many glares and pushing past people, they finally reached the doors of the cafeteria. Both of them peered inside, but what was waiting there was not what they had expected.
Tessa was sitting alone at their table, happily munching away at her packet of M&M's. There weren't any guys or other friends. Both of them let out a sigh of relief at finding her and made their way towards her.
"I was right," Lee declared triumphantly. "You came here because you were hungry, didn't you?" She asked a confused Tessa.
Tess nodded her head, still clueless about where all of this was going. Millie just rolled her eyes and sat down, stealing a couple of M&M's.
"I am hungry. Plus I was getting free chocolate from–"
"Your secret boyfriend?" Lee cut her off excitedly.
"SECRET BOYFRIEND?" Tessa screeched. A couple of glares and curious glances from the people around them were thrown towards them but the three of them paid no attention.
"Lee thought that since you've been poofing it's because you're meeting up with a guy," Millie said in a matter of fact tone.
A slight blush dusted Tessa's cheeks. When Lee noticed that, she pointed at her just like Joey from friends finding out about anything.
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"So there is a guy!" Lee exclaimed. She looked ready to explode with this new found information.
"Yeah. I mean no," she said, confusing both of them. They stared at her expectantly, waiting for her to make sense. "I mean there is a guy but not in that way. We're just friends, I think?"
"I would love to continue talking about this, but we have to eat actual food," Millie reminded them. They looked down at the empty packet in sadness and got up. While they were getting their food and making their way back to the table, Tessa seemed confused, Lee looked like she was bursting with questions and Millie just wanted to eat her food.
As soon as they sat down, Lee started asking all the questions running through her head. "Who is it? Why didn't you tell us about him before? Is he hot? What do you mean you think you both are friends?"
All the questions just seemed to fly past Tessa's mind. She tried to process the questions and finally opened her mouth to answer something. "I said I think we are friends because I'm not sure if we're even that. Maybe he was just being friendly and I'm reading too much into it," she said, shrugging her shoulders in confusion.
"I'm sure you have your reasons for not telling us who it is. You'll tell us when the time is right, won't you?" Millie said pointedly, glaring at Lee, silently telling her to stop pestering her.
Lee nodded her head. "I ship it though!" she blurted out quickly. Millie looked ready to smack her.
"You don't even know who it is," Millie snapped. Lee just stuck her tongue out in response.
"Guys, chill. I don't think he likes me in that way, okay?" Tessa said, trying to calm down both of them. "Plus, I don't like him in that way."
This shut both of them up. They all finished eating as soon as possible, and started leaving for their respective classes.
"You're not going to class?" Lee asked, walking towards the classroom.
"Seeing as Miss Valerie never even takes class, I have a free period now," Tess said cheerfully at the thought of wasting away time.
"You better go and do some work in the library," Millie said threateningly, making Tessa back away from her.
"You know me, I will be doing work diligently," Tessa said jokingly, making Millie roll her eyes.
"Didn't know your secret boyfriend has a new nickname," Lee muttered.
Though she was deaf most of the time, Tessa heard every word that Lee said crystal clear. She smacked Lee's arm and was ready to leave as Millie and Lee would end up being late for their class.
"Shouldn't you be leaving now? I bet you're dying from not doing math for so long," Tessa squeaked out before pushing open the library doors, literally running inside. Lee just stood there with her jaw hung open, a laughing Millie dragging her for math class.
* * * * *
Tessa felt so bad.
She should probably tell them before they found out through other ways. That would be horrible.
That was what she chanted in her mind, trying to build up courage. It was the last period for the day and she'd been trying to think of ways to tell them ever since lunch.
Lee had almost figured it out but she'd lied her way out of it. Maybe it had started out as them being friends but Tessa knew that he'd been flirting with her for the past few days. She didn't want to think of what would be her friends' reactions when they find out. Especially Lee's.
