Page 104 of We Shouldn't Be Together
She still hasn’t arrived by the time Mrs. Field instructs us to get our experiment supplies from the cupboard. By the time Mrs. Field drops off the chemicals we need at our lab bench, Tabitha dashes into the classroom.
“Sorry I’m late, ma’am,” she says, panting. The girl really needs to work on her form. “Here’s a note from Mr. Myers, excusing my tardiness.”
“Very well, Tabitha,” Mrs. Field says, taking the note. “Looks like your lab partner has all your gear ready to go.”
“Thanks,” Tabitha replies, sitting and catching her breath.
I slide a pair of safety glasses across the table to her. “Here.”
She blushes. “Thanks.”
“You had to run here?”
“I got busted,” she whispers.
“Huh?”
“Texting,” she murmurs, cupping a hand over her mouth as a soft blush highlights the apple of her cheeks. “Mr. Myers caught me and confiscated my phone.”
I smirk. “So that’s why you didn’t reply.”
“Correction: it’s why I sent you whatever my thumb mashed against the keyboard.” She giggles, and the cuteness drives me crazy. “I wanted to send you something before he ripped it away from me. Then I realized I should lock the phone before he had complete control over it. You texted nothing back, right?”
“Just the word, what?”
She chews her bottom lip, and it looks as soft as a marshmallow. “Okay, so Mr. Myers has seen your name on my lock screen. Maybe I should hide notifications while at school.”
I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “Ashamed to be seen texting me?”
A dainty cough comes out of her, and then she clears her throat. “I thought you didn’t want to be seen talking to me.”
I tap the desk, thinking about it. “There are worse things I could be accused of doing.”
She leans in. “Will your friends think so?”
I glance at Camila’s desk. “Will yours?”
Her gaze flicks toward Camila and then back to me. “I was panicked that Cammy was gonna see me texting you.”
I fidget with a test tube in its holder. “And what would’ve happened if she saw?”
“That’s the worst part,” she whispers, filling a beaker with saline. “You never can tell with Cammy.”
“I don’t know how you can stand it.”
“Well, when we’re on the same side, she’s amazing. Especially in the last few years before her mom and dad’s marriage broke down. Cammy was an unstoppable force, and it was intoxicating being around her.”
“So, she wasn’t always a nasty piece of work?” I ask, measuring out the purple chemical.
“No, of course not,” her voice stays low. “I would’ve ditched her by freshman year if that were the case. But deep down, she’s not a bad person. She can be kind and buy me cute jewelry.”
“I guess I can understand feeling loyal to her when you’ve been friends for this long.”
“Do you have any friendships like that?”
I shake my head, readying the green liquid. “Nope. There’s no bad blood with my friends and we don’t need to buy each other off.”
“That’s not what I was saying.”
