Clare

  “Well, come along then. Didn’t you really want to sit on the platform table with the popular people? Now’s your chance.” I teased Lissa.

  “I mean, I wanted to…but it was just a silly dream. I never really thought it would be possible. What if they don’t like me? What if they think I talk too much?”

  “Okay, okay, stop making assumptions. This is just a table with regular people and you can talk to Koda. He’s very chill and fun too. If the others don’t want to talk to you or me for whatever reason, we can talk to each other and Sawyer and Koda.” I encouraged.

  Even though I was trying to stop her from being nervous, I was also slightly nervous about sitting with Sawyer and his friends but I didn’t want him to leave his platform table to come sit with me and Lissa because the last time he did that, Koda came to sit with us as well, leaving the others at his table as well as every other person in the cafeteria glancing over at us with listening ears.

  Sitting at his table was my attempt to mitigate the attention focused heavily on us. I had hoped that the attention would die down, but we had been coming to school throughout the past two weeks together and we seemed to still be ‘hot news’ with people trying to guess how we came to become a couple and how long we were bound to last.

  Other than that, Sawyer had also incentivized my move to his table.

  So without giving her a chance to chicken out, I clasped Lissa’s hand and strode to the platform table. As soon as we got to the table, I found our spots, which were the two empty seats between Koda and Sawyer.

  Naturally, I sat beside Sawyer and urged Lissa to sit down with my eyes.

  The others at Sawyer’s table seemed taken aback by our presence, but Koda cheerfully brushed it away and introduced both of us to everyone at the table.

  Other than a scowling girl, everyone else seemed to quickly get over our presence as they continued their conversation, eating their food as if there were no new people eating with them. Koda was also nice enough to bring Lissa into the conversation.

  When I saw her nodding along with their conversation, I turned to Sawyer with raised brows.

  “What?” he asked with a laugh in his voice.

  “Show me the goodies, give me my fix. Hurry up! Lunch will soon be over.” I urged.

  “Am I to believe that the only thing that convinced you to eat up here with me is this?” Sawyer teased.

  Ignoring the glances that his table mates were throwing my way, I glared at him. “You’re quibbling, young man. Hurry up and deliver the pics. I hope you took some good feet pics too.”

  “Um…should you two be having this conversation here?” Koda looked at us apprehensively.

  I couldn’t help laughing at the uncomfortable look on his face. “Chill, it’s just pictures of Queen…and her cute pink feet, I mean paws.”

  “Careful now, Parker. Your fetishes are showing.” Sawyer teased.

  I scowled at him. “Young man, am I to believe that with the way you’re stalling for time, you have no new pictures of Queen?”

  He laughed outright, “Chill, chill. I took a few new pictures but only one more feet picture.”

  “Huh, that’s such a poor work attitude, Mr. Hawkins. Do you remember our deal? One week of never ending supplies?”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “I apologize. I will do better tomorrow, ma’am. Besides, I immediately sent that pretty picture of Queen’s paws yesterday. Doesn’t that count?”

  “It doesn’t count. That was yesterday’s bonus activity. I definitely didn’t ask you to send it ahead of time.” I said stubbornly.

  “Huh, is that so? Then maybe I should withdraw the bonuses?”

  At his teasing, threatening voice, my attitude instantly took a positive turn. “I apologize, Mr. Hawkins. It’s fine if you don’t have too many new feet pics today. It’s best to keep sending bonuses on the go. That way, this cat slave can get a quick fix every time.”

  Sawyer laughed heartily for several seconds as he pulled out his phone and made a few swipes at it before handing it over to me.

  I leaned close to Lissa and together, we looked through the gallery of new pictures of Queen, obviously been done with Sawyer’s antics as signified by the iconic photo of her pressing her cute pink paws on the phone’s camera lens, the picture of her looking at him with disdain and displeasure, and the video of her turning her butt to face him.

  “Isn’t that look just cute? She looks like she’s so done with Sawyer. Maybe, now, she could finally consider going home with me for a night or two. I promise not to take too many cat photos.” I commented.

  Lissa shook her head. “You really are something else.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Sawyer agreed. “Thankfully, Queen is an extremely loyal cat and she would never go to anyone else’s house without her father’s express permission.”

  When Sawyer said the word ‘Father’, Koda choked and suddenly started coughing.

  “You okay, Koda?” I and several others at the table asked.

  He coughed some more before responding weakly. “I’m fine. I’m fine, thank you.”

  After getting my Queen fix, I finally turned to Sawyer, handing his phone back to him. “So, how are the plants doing?”

  “Better actually. I almost forgot to water them yesterday, but thankfully, a recurring alarm saved me. I’m still worried about them dying if I forget to water them.” He said as I munched on my apple.

  I chewed and swallowed before speaking. “Well, didn’t you say you wanted to build an automatic irrigation system before?”

  “I did, but all the plans I keep coming up with can’t service a few plants only. They can only work for at the very least a small garden.” He explained.

  “Well, you’re keeping those plants on the rooftop, right? So why don’t you just start a whole garden? This way, you can build your irrigation system thoroughly.” I suggested.

  I wasn’t sure if it was just the angle I was staring at him from, but I saw his lips curl up at the corners as he answered, “That’s a good idea, but I don’t really know anything about keeping a garden. What if I just water them to death?”

  “It’s fine, I’m here. I can’t say I’m an expert or anything, but I have several years of experience caring for plants and I can guide you. Whatever I don’t know, we can research online.”

  “Oh, great, then let’s do it. We’ll build a garden together on the roof.” He said.

  I hesitated.

  He stared at me, but when I didn’t speak, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. Building a garden will probably take a lot of time, which would—“

  “That’s not it. Will the apartment building owner be fine with you just building a garden on the roof? Plus, building a garden from scratch in a location like that will probably be expensive. Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

  “If that’s what you’re worried about. Don’t worry. That apartment building is mine anyway, and my dad just manages it for me. As for expenses, I’m sure we can figure out a way to build the garden with my pocket money. I wouldn’t call myself ‘wealthy,’ but my pocket money is...substantial. And my freelance work? It’s enough to keep the wolves of poverty at bay—for now, at least.” He boasted.

  “Shut up, rich boy.” I said, chuckling.

  “So we’re good?” he asked.

  I paused, raised an eyebrow, and gave him a meaningful look. “Well, so long as you’re sure you actually want to build a garden and you’re not doing this because you heard me moaning about how I missed having a place to plant my herbs.”

  He chuckled, “Well, although you seem to have caught me. I’m not just doing this for you. I’m also doing this because building a garden together gives us more things to talk about and we get to spend a lot of time together, too.”

  I sighed and then pressed a kiss on his cheek quickly. “How come you’re so glib?”

  “I’ve always been glib.” Sawyer said cheekily.

  I was about to say something when a tray slapped on the table.

  When we turned to look at who made the sound, it was the scowling girl with a nose ring from earlier, whom Koda introduced as Hester.

  She had an expressionless face as she apologized, “Sorry for interrupting but the warning bell for end of lunch just went off and I’m leaving.”

  I watched as she responded to a few “See ya” responses from others at the table before walking away.

  I glanced at Sawyer with a questioning look.

  Thankfully, he understood my question. “Don’t look at me. I don’t know why she’s pissed. And no, it’s not what you’re thinking. We’ve been friends since we were kids and I even know her boyfriend. Did you do something to piss her off?”

  I gave him a pursed look of disbelief. “Today is the first day I’m meeting her face to face.”

  He looked as clueless as I felt, so I decided to believe him as he said, “It doesn’t matter. She’ll come around. Finish your pudding and I’ll walk you to your next class.”