บท 2: II: Choices

Wednesday 5, October 2022

Solana's pov

Study Hall was really fun. I got to act out books with Hazel, Melody, and Tara. But now it's time to go to technology and probably have to do some coding. I sat beside Liam and Hudson when Nathaniel decided to sit by me, I didn't think anything of it. The teacher gives us our class assignment and we all start working. The project we were supposed to do was make a slideshow talking about ourselves so that was easy.

"Hey Solana I know might not feel the same way but, I like you and I hope you feel the same way if you don't we can just stay friends and I'll move on," Nathaniel says unexpectedly. I look around to see if anyone is paying attention, I see Liam in the corner of my eye and when I turn around he looks away. Great now he knows, this gonna be a problem, I thought.

I like Liam (A LOT) but Nathaniel(Is so damn HOT) and he is so sweet I don't wanna hurt his feelings but I don't know who I like the most, dating-wise

I just stared at him thinking of what to do because I was shocked. After half a minute I decided there was only one thing to do…

I got up and sat in an empty seat with Tara & Danielle. "Hey, girl," Tara says, weirdly enough she seems odd, but I guess that's the usual Tara. "Hey, guys," I say and Danielle takes off her headphones. "Hey," Danielle says, waving her hand.

I started to work on my Chromebook but you know I can never be left alone for at least 5 minutes. "Hey Solana, so I overheard a little convo between you and Nathaniel," Tara says as Danielle starts to listen to the conversation.

"And?" I ask hoping she didn't hear what he told me. "And, I also heard what Liam said to you too." She says smirking. Omg, why does she have to be so nosy? "Ok I don't know why that's any of your business, plus you have to stop being so nosy!" I whisper and shouted. "Dang that's harsh... but true," Danielle says. "So wait I was right, they said something?!" She barely whispers. "Wait, what?" I ask in confusion. "Yeah, what?" Danielle says in agreement. "I was lying when I said I knew something was going on, I just saw you talking to them privately." She says and I get so annoyed.

"Yeah, the only reason you saw me talking to Liam is that you like him." I snapped at her. I felt bad because she's liked him since we started high school and he knew too but he doesn't feel the same. "I do not! I've told everyone that!" she exclaims but luckily no one cared because it was already rowdy in the classroom.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't mean it. Now I feel bad." I say and Danielle rolls her eyes. "You shouldn't be, she's been obsessed over him for three years, no one's convinced she stopped liking him," Danielle starts. "She's creepy, in fact, I'm pretty sure she told me she st-" Danielle got cut off by Tara covering her mouth with her hands. "Okay, that's enough about me, let's hear about Solana and her boyfriends," Tara says, raising her eyebrows at me and Danielle starts copying her.

"Boyfriends?" I hear as Melody scoots over beside Danielle. Then Hazel and Ava came over too, Hazel on Melody's side and Ava on Tara's side. "I heard something about, not one but two boyfriends," Ava says. "Yeah, who has two boyfriends?" Melody asks.

"No one," I say tryna change the topic of the conversation. "Stop lying or you're gonna look like Pinocho," Danielle says. I roll my eyes and sigh in annoyance. "Fine, I guess I'll tell you guys, but please don't say anything because I don't wanna embarrass them," I say as they all nod. "Just hurry up and say it," Ava says impatiently. "So technically Liam told me today that he likes me, right?" I say waiting for reactions, I mostly watch Tera to see if she's hurt, and of course, she was but she tried to hide it terribly.

Everyone I was talking to looked at her and then away. Before anyone could say anything to try and console her, even though that would make her uncomfortable I said.

"But... Nathaniel just said he likes me, like 10 minutes ago." As I said that I saw Tara's face light up slightly. "So who do you like?" They all asked in unison. "Uh, I don't know..... I guess mixed feelings."

Tara's once-lit face dropped to sadness or darkness and I knew Tara was boy crazy, especially when the person is real and she knows that boy. I've known Tara since 5th grade, and in the past year, boys have not treated her right but she still tries, she's a lost cause.

Tara stands up and gasps, grabbing everyone's attention, she then gets scolded by the teacher, and everyone else goes back to what they were doing. "Dang, what was that about Tare?" Danielle asks Tara. " I just got the best idea ever," she says excitedly and I can already tell it's some wild fantasy idea.

"What if Solana's boy problem is a love triangle, I say you should go with Nathaniel he seems.." she starts. "Not Liam?" I ask and she slumps down in her chair and stops talking. We all were silent for a minute and then someone spoke. "Ok, how about we vote? ''Danielle says. "Yeah that's a good idea, so now Solana can get our unwanted opinions," Tara said, you may have thought she was being sarcastic but Tara can't do sarcasm whatsoever. It seems like everyone agreed with the idea so they went along.

"Whoever votes Liam and Solana raise your thumb," Danielle says.

Only Hazel raises her thumb, if looks could kill Tara's creepy death stare would've killed Hazel by now. "You must have a death wish," Melody says to Hazel and she just rolls her eyes.

"Okay, whoever votes Nathaniel and Solana, raise your thumb." I could've sworn Tara was the first one to raise her thumb. After Tara, Melody & Danielle raised their thumbs but were not so eager.

"Ok, who votes for both?" There was only one person who voted for both and that was Ava. Everyone looked confused. "Look guys I agree with Tara on the whole threesome thing and I believe that they should both at least have a chance."

I was about to say something but Tara beat me to it. "You mean a throuple?" Tara asked knowingly. "I don't see the difference," Ava says and we all agreed.

"A throuple is a 3-person couple and threesome... it's basically when three people yk if yk." Surprisingly, Tara knows about this but I'm guessing we were all still clueless about what a threesome was.

"You don't have to be childish, a threesome is when 3 people have sex together." Danielle deadpanned, though it was uncalled for and I'm surprised I didn't catch on before, I think it's safe to say that the conversation about me and my best friends liking me is over.

"Oooooh I'm dumb, was I the only one who didn't catch on before?" Ava said and everyone else shook their heads. "Ok so I still want to know, who are you picking, Liam or Nathaniel?" Danielle says. "Yeah, I'm dying to know, dying," Tara said the last part creepily.

This time I didn't look to see who was listening. I was pretty sure no one was (but that's my mistake, the mistake that made everything worse).

I put much thought into who I chose. I'm not saying this because Tara will literally give my neck a strong forceful hug but, for her sake, I'll choose Nathaniel.

Don't get me wrong on how before I said Liam but that was because it was before Tara knew and she's my best friend who is annoying, but she already got first dibs, and with her in the picture, she helps me see more pros and cons. I have a list.

Pros for Liam:

Nice

Caring

As smart as me

Knew him for a long time

Likes me

I can stand him

Cons for Liam:

My best friend likes him.

I mostly see him as a friend.

My best friend likes him.

We're not that good of a match I think.

My best friend likes him.

I'll never hear the end of it from Tara.

And she'll hunt both of us down and I don't know the rest. That's the scary part.

My best friend likes him/ she's creepy and obsessed.

So that's my mental list of pros and cons and from what I see there are a lot more cons than pros. So (Readers you'll be disappointed but the story will only get better) I'm going to go with the safe option and say, Nathaniel. Plus it can't be bad, I'll let you in on a little secret when we were in first grade I used to have a SMALL teeny-weeny itsy bitsy crush on Nathaniel though it went away after a week.

"So, who is it?" They ask a little staggered. "I think I chose... Nathaniel." I say and I swear the only one bursting with joy is Tara.

"Really?" Ava asked with both confusion and slight disgust on her face. I was confused by that because she acted like she was choosing for me. "Yeah, I chose him," I say getting defensive. "Okay, if you say so, you do you boo." She says and I roll my eyes.

Liam's pov:

I couldn't believe what I just heard. I thought to myself, Solana liked Nathaniel and not me even though I confessed first.

And it's bad enough that I have had Tara to deal with, even after 3 years of saying I just wanna be friends she can't take a hint.

Like do you need a whole poster sign? It's tiring, I guess she lied to me for the 4th time in a row that all she wanted was to be friends.

Anyway, I don't care anymore about her, I wanna focus on Solana. Should I talk to her about it? Should I tell Nathaniel? Should I just do nothing and let her be happy with her choice?

Thoughts speeding through my head almost gave me a headache. Today was not a good day to have one. There was a basketball game today and I have to help with concessions for the student council. Although it's a pain because Hudson and Nathaniel can't do concessions, Avery and Solana play the sport, and then that just leaves Asher, Ava, Tara, and me. It's ok when I work with Asher and the rest but working with the girls is annoying.

They're just so complicated and I feel like today will be worse because, on our way to English class, everyone kept asking if I was ok. I was not. I was hurt, but I guess sometimes others need to be happy too even if it does make you depressed.