Addicted

“Why can’t your daddy do it?” Chandler pouted, hoping to win Jason over.

“You know my daddy always works late,” Jason replied. “Besides, I like doing things with my hands. Zoe’s daddy has taught me a lot about building things.”

Chandler smacked her lips and rolled her eyes. “Zoe?”

“Yes,” I replied. Everyone noticed my arrival at the same time. All eyes were on me, but my eyes were drilling a hole through Jason’s skank ass.

Brina made one last attempt to bring me back to my senses. “Come on, Zoe,” she insisted, yanking on my arm. “This isn’t even worth it. You might get in serious trouble. Lyle’s already fuming. You and Jason can settle this at home.”

Jason stood up, trying to strike an intimidating pose, and inquired, “You have a problem with me, Zoe?”

I wanted to call him every name in the book. I wanted to cuss his ass out, but when he looked at me, all I could think about was how luscious his lips looked. I slapped him clear across them.

Chandler jumped up. “Oh, no, you didn’t just hit my man!”

Jason held his hand over his mouth. “Zoe, I’m sick of you and your damn hitting! What did I tell you Saturday?”

I saw a window of opportunity and decided to take it. “Yeah, what did you tell me Saturday?”

“Saturday? You saw her on Saturday?” Chandler asked, a perplexed expression on her face.

“Yeah, we live right across the street from each other. Remember?” He darted his eyes back and forth from me to her, probably trying to decide which one to deal with first. Then he stared me down with those sexy-ass eyes of his. “I told you to stop hitting all up on me Saturday.”

“Was this before or after you asked me to be your girlfriend? I don’t quite recall.”

Jason’s mouth dropped open. He was busted. Chandler looked like she was struggling for her next breath, and her stylish girlfriends didn’t have a clue what to say. I had embarrassed her ass but good.

Brina intervened. “Jason asked you to go with him?” She started blushing from ear to ear, like he had asked her. “You didn’t tell me that, gurlllllllllllll!”

Cordell, Jason’s best friend, decided to throw his two cents in. “You asked that gurl to go with you, man?” He looked at Chandler, who still looked lost, like a whore in church, and guffawed. “ Awwwww snap, he played you big-time, Chandler.”

I was anticipating Jason would deny the whole thing so I could recite the conversation word for word and truly humiliate him. Much to my amazement, he did no such thing.

“I did ask you to go with me, and you turned me down, right?”

Jason and I just gaped at each other while Cordell kept jonnin’ Chandler. “Dang, I always knew those two liked each other!”

I debated about what to say. I wanted to tell him I did long to be his hoochie, partially because I wanted to teach Chandler a lesson, but mostly because I was feenin’ for his touch.

The words left my mouth before I thought them through clearly. “Of course I told your skank ass no!”

He stared down at the floor, obviously hurt. I wanted to reach out and caress his cheek so badly, but I remembered Lyle and his “I hear you a woman now” speech.

“I told you no, and you decided to go spread my business all over the school,” I persisted. “That was very childish, even for you, Jason.”

“I’m sorry, Zoe,” he pleaded, unable to look me in the face. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done it. I was just furious is all.”

To this very day, I don’t know where they came from, but the next second tears were gushing down both of my cheeks.

“I hate you, Jason. Just stay the hell away from me!” I started to back away from him, almost tripping over someone’s backpack on the floor by the table. “Stay away from me! Stay away from my house and stay away from my daddy! I hate your guts!”

I ran out of the cafeteria with Brina fast on my heels. I sought refuge in the girls’ bathroom, standing over one of the sinks crying while Brina rubbed the small of my back.

Neither one of us said anything for a few moments.

“Zoe, I realize you’re upset, but you know and I know that Jason wants to be with you. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you feel the same way, so why not stop all this foolishness and get together finally?”

I looked at her reflection in the mirror through tear-drenched eyes. “Jason goes with Chandler!”