Part 10

 

 

“Pick up, pick up, pick up…” Taehyung whispered to himself. He kept trying to call Angelica, but she wouldn’t answer.

Joshua walked into the dorm to see the worried Taehyung. “Dude, what’s up? I heard about all the craziness that happened from Mandy, but I’m still confused.”

“It’s a long story, but right now, I’m trying to call Angelica. She won’t answer though.”

“Let me talk to her, then.”

Taehyung looked at him. He didn’t think it would be good, since Joshua had no knowledge of basically anything going on, but he eventually said “Ok.” Angelica didn’t seem interested listening to him.

Later, Joshua promised to Angelica out to lunch so she could vent her feelings. They sat outside of an Italian restaurant, sipping soda while they waited for their order.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on,” Joshua started after a long silence. “But it’s causing you a lot of stress. I want to let you know, though, that I’m on your side.”

Angelica looked at him, hopeful for a second. Then she frowned. “Don’t lie.”

He scoffed. “Lie? After what Courtney said to you this morning? And Alissa was always rude to me. You seem to be right about a lot you say, I can see how they are using Mandy and Tae.”

Angelica leaned forward and looked Joshua in the eye. He looked like he was telling the truth. Even if he wasn’t, she didn’t care anymore.

“I don’t even know why I was so desperate for friends that I would talk to them! They’re SO stupid! Have you seen their journals? In English class?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Even if they get good grades OH MY GOD I can’t sit through a discussion with them. They’re always talking about Jpop or Kpop or anime! Like, we are in class, can you talk about something else for your paper?”

“Well, I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Angelica scoffed. “You don’t? Maybe that alone isn’t bad. But have you not noticed? They are such WEABOOS ugh!” She covered her face and leaned back, letting out a growl. “It’s so gross!”

“I’m not going to deny that,” Joshua laughed. “Especially since Tae and Mandy came, they act so different. Like, I don’t think Mandy likes when Alissa calls him senpai, but she does it anyways.”

“They’re always eating Korean food too, trying to see if Taehyung will be impressed. I swear, at first they thought it was cute, but now I think they are irritated by them.”

“So why do they keep dating them?”

Angelica sighed. “I don’t know? Because they’re cute? They know the most about them? It’s stupid, I don’t understand boys.”

“Well, I… uh…”

They sat quietly staring at each other until the waiter served them they’re food.

“I do think that Alissa and Courtney are obsessive.”

Angelica looked up at Joshua. “Yeah… that’s the word…”

“But Angelica. You get upset so easily. I understand that you don’t want our friends to get hurt, but they’re not going to listen. They’ll have to learn the hard way.”

Angelica frowned. “But… they’ll get so heart broken.”

Joshua sighed. “Okay. I’ll be blunt. Angelica, I know you have a crush on Tae, that’s why you’re extra protective of him. But you need to back off, before you yourself get hurt.”

Angelica looked at Joshua blankly. “I don’t like Tae…”

“Yeah, you do,” Josh laughed.

Angelica rolled her eyes. “Believe what you want. I’m done with this conversation. I’m gonna actually eat now.”

While Mandy was silently eating his lunch alone in the cafeteria, he spotted Courtney getting a snack from the vending machine. He quickly walked over to her.

“Hey, Courtney. Have you seen Alissa?”

The girl laughed. “She said she had to get her pictures developed. She still uses disposable cameras.”

He nodded. “Okay, thanks. Uh, what are you doing right now?”

“Studying in the library with Tae. I’m just grabbing a snack right now. Wanna join us?”

“Oh, no, I won’t get between you two,” Mandy laughed.

Courtney nodded with a smile and turned to leave, but Mandy called for her again.

“Sorry, but… one last thing.”

“Okay.”

“Um… what do you think of Angelica.”

Courtney looked at Mandy, confused. “Why?”

“Well..” Mandy sighed. “What you said to her this morning. It was kind of harsh, ya know. I understand she was irritating you, but that’s not the kind of thing you say to a friend… you had to have felt that way for a long time.”

Courtney scoffed. “Maybe I did. Maybe, I don’t really like Angelica. She’s nice, sometimes, but she’s really annoying, and Alissa told me she’s got issues. It doesn’t matter to me if she doesn’t hang out with us anymore. So, excuse me, Tae is waiting for me.”

Courtney left like that, not waiting for Mandy to say another word.

Joshua was studying in his dorm when Taehyung walked in.

“Are you studying?”

Joshua laughed at Taehyung’s surprise. “Yeah, I realized I don’t want to be in high school forever.”

Tae nodded and gave him a thumbs up. “Good, good. That’s reasonable.”

He put his bag on his desk and jumped on his bed. “Huh… did you talk to her?”

“Hmm? Angelica? Yeah.”

Taehyung looked at Joshua, who was still looking at his homework. “Well?”

“Well, I agree with her.”

“Agree with her. About…?”

Joshua sighed and turned to look at his roommate. “I agree that you guys are being manipulated, and that Alissa and Courtney are total weaboos.”

“They’re what?”

Joshua shook his head. “Tae, haven’t you noticed how irritating and obsessive they are? I understand that Courtney is very attractive, and that Alissa is really nice to you and you guys bond a lot in music tech, but let’s face it. They’re crazy. They didn’t act this way until you came, except they were always weeaboos.”

“What’s a weeaboo?”

“Taehyung!” Joshua threw his arms in the air. “Are you listening?”

“I’m sorry, my English isn’t that good. But are you trying to say that Courtney and Alissa are faking?”

Joshua hesitated. “I don’t know if they are faking. I can’t say… it’s complicated. But… they aren’t good people. You may pity them because they had little friends initially, but there’s a reason for that. They’re rude and obsessive.”

Tae sat up. “Rude? Courtney was just tutoring me over all the science terms for Chemistry a while ago. Alissa gives the best feedback in music tech. They’re nice people, what Courtney said this morning was just the cause of anger. They’re not how you think. I don’t understand why everyone is misunderstanding them!”

Joshua sighed. They’ll learn the hard way, then. “Fine, Tae. I’m sorry, but you asked me to talk to her. What did you want me to tell her?”

“I wanted to tell her that I still want to be her friend, and that she shoulld just look past it.”

Josh shook his head. “Yeah, either way, it wouldn’t have done anything. She’s too stubborn to listen.”

Tae rose his eyebrows. “Stubborn? Angelica?”

Joshua smirked. “Well, she wouldn’t listen if she thought her crush would get hurt, would she?”

“Crush?” Tae laughed. “What? Who does she like? Me?”

“Yeah, she won’t admit it. I’m surprised, you didn’t notice.”

Tae looked out the window. “So that’s why…”

“Anyways, that was the end of our conversation. Now, I have to study for a biology test.” Joshua turned around and continued to study.

The events didn’t bother Joshua. He wasn’t really involved in what was going on. It didn’t affect him like it affected Taehyung, who didn’t know how to feel.

She likes me? He smiled to himself. Is it bad that I am flattered?

But still… There was something off about her that bothered him.