Unwanted Attention
"He sounds kind of mean..." Cass's friends stare at her incredulously, suddenly she feels defensive. "Not at all! He does nice things sometimes, like..." She thinks, for a while, her friends groan and begin to huddle around her, cooing. Cass thinks, she doesn't like people being nosy...or these girls very much.
"You shouldn't tell them about me anyways" Wade says, amidst sloppily chewing junk food. Cass thinks "It's hard to avoid them asking, when they see you with me after school" But decides to keep it to herself.
Instead, she hugs his arm. "They say boyfriends and girlfriends do this." He tenses, slipping out of her grasp. "Yeah. I guess...they probably do." He's completely caught off guard by Cass doing something affectionate for once, now he's really worried.
"You don't have to listen to other girls...or be peer pressured, yknow?" She suddenly looks grumpy and serious, latching onto his arm again and staring him down. "W...what!?? You actually want to??" Cass stares at the ground rebelliously. He reluctantly lets her do this, kind of flattered.
Her friends seem unbothered by the age gap, barely noticing, but Wade strokes his chin, deep in thought, making a face. "I mean...I'd rather not do PDA, because...yknow." Cass tilts her head "I don't want to look like a creep." he says, suddenly stern. Tears well up in Cass's eyes and she pouts, sulking. "You could tell them that I'm your brother." She tugs on him, pouting harder "Brothers and sisters don't do that stuff..." She whines, he looks bewildered.
"W....what stuff...?" He seems genuinely confused. Cass stomps, and shakes her fists. "Kissing." she says begrudgingly, covering her face. "Oh, god. That was one time!" She stares daggers at him. That really stings, he takes physical damage, but she is *really* cute when she's mad. Suddenly, he thinks he'll manage.
"Why are you grinning like that..." She looks unnerved.
"Nothing. Anyways, really, I'm fine with everyone in your class hating me."
"They might kill you, or... do something. I don't know, something bad..."
"What!?? What kind of high schoolers are these kids?" On second thought, it's no surprise, people would instinctively want to protect Cass, she's like a super cute, sad kitten...or maybe this is some kind of bullying?
The girls swarm Cass at lunch while she's eating Wade's homemade food, which isn't very good, she glances around uncomfortably. "Have you two, yknow, "done it" yet?" Cass doesn't even respond, she doesn't know what "it" is. She gets up to leave, grabbing her food, excusing herself, but the sheer amount of gossipy teenage girls somehow makes her fall back to her seat.
"Cass, if he's a bad boyfriend, I'll be your girlfriend!!" A nerdy girl shouts, "Oh my god, What???" another girl laughs. A boyish girl announces "If anyone's going to be her girlfriend, it's going to be me." Cass sinks lower and lower into her seat, overwhelmed, dizzy, too loud, too many people. Her soul leaves her body.
After school, Cass approaches Wade like a zombie. He asks what's wrong, she shakes her head, whining.