Sluts in Love

The lioness watched the sun rise in the distance. She roared a deep, fierce roar; her secret had been discovered. It was kept from everyone! The zebras, the goats, giraffes and dogs alike. The lioness was supposed to be so gentle, so maternal, and yet she harbored something like this.

''Twas the beginning of the end for every jungle creature,' Lioness thought. And oh, how right she wishes she wasn't.

Mr. Laurence looks this over a few times. I can tell he's just as stumped as I am. "Who'd you say wrote this, again?"

"A friend of mine."

He hands it back to me. The bell rings for the beginning of class. I came early because if anyone could figure this bullshit out it's Laurence. "Paris, you know we have a literary magazine, right?" What? "I hear they're looking for submitters. I can speak to Ms. Friar if you want-"

"Hold the on one fucking minute," I hold my palms up. "You think I wrote this shit? I came to you to find out, man."

I think he almost looks relieved that it wasn't me. I don't blame him. If I found out one of my favorite students (let's face it; I'm probably his God damn number one favorite) wrote something as gay as that, I'd shoot myself in the face. Well maybe not the face. Maybe a less ugly part of me. And besides none of those animals even live in the jungle. She's a fucking moron.

"Well... just take a seat, Paris."

Just as I cross the room to my desk O'Combs stumbles into me. "Keep it to yourself, Seany boy. I'm not into this guy-on-guy stuff." Not enough people have filed in yet to have witnessed our exchange. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. He rolls his eyes at me.

"Don't be so cocky, D'Angelo."

"Just because you want mine-"

"Shut up already-"

"Shove it up your hole. You're just jealous of Laurence and me-"

"You better shut your fucking-"

"Sean!" Laurence miraculously catches this. The dumb bastard goes red. "See me after class."

Once the attention diverts from us he murmurs under his breath. "You're going to get it one day, D'Angelo."

Is this the deja vu shit I've been hearing about? I could have sworn we've been over this already. "As much as you probably enjoy whispering sweet nothings in my ear, kindly shut the fuck up," I say just as quietly.



I don't see Juliet the rest of the day and she's not in school the next day. I think deep down it bums me out but whatever. If she's choosing to ignore me then fine. I don't need that bitch. It's not until later when I'm downing some more Xanax when someone calls me. I want to kick myself for hoping that it's Juliet. I am such a fag.

"What?" I answer rather rudely. Shitler's head is heavy on my lap and he's starting to drool. Yuck. He's pretty damn lucky I love him so fucking much.

"Can we talk?" Rosaline's voice is just as I remember it but then I remember it's only been what-two months since I last talked to her? I really need to stop hanging out with chicks.

"I don't know. Can we?" When we were in gym class I'd always ask the coach if I could go to the bathroom. He'd always answer, "I don't know, can you?" because he wanted us to mind our manners and shit and ask if we "may." Then a few months ago I asked if I may punch him in the fucking face and well he couldn't wait for a reply.

"Paris," her voice is sharp and I hear papers ruffling around in the background. Huh. I guess that's another reason we wouldn't have worked. She's too smart and school-like and I'm just not.

"Rosaline," I mimic.

"Why do I even bother?"

"I don't know. Why-"

"Hold on, Paris. Look, I think I made a mistake. I think we should start over."

"You think too much."

"I guess with everything that's been going on this week at school-"

This somehow pulls at my attention and I don't know why. Maybe because there's nothing on tv. Too much sports. Who the fuck needs to watch football every God damn night? I mean really. "What's been going on?"

"You haven't heard?"

"When do I ever pay attention to that shit? They're like a bunch of zoo animals that someone set fire under their asses."

She doesn't say anything for a second. "There's some younger girl, Cat, I think. Anyway, apparently she slept with some other girl, and the girl got jealous or something, and stole Cat's phone. And Cat, who actually seems like an idiot, had some topless pictures of herself, and she sent them to her parents and her friend's boyfriend. So this Cat girl's parents are pissed, and her friend is pissed because she thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her."

Fascinating. "Get the fuck out. That's not as bad as you made it out to be."

"Well, I'm not done, idiot."

"First you're bossing me around, now you're calling me an idiot? Someone's on their period. And it isn't me."

She ignores me. "So anyway, apparently there's this other kid, and somehow he cheated on his SAT and did like, amazing. No one knew he cheated, obviously, but now his score's going to be cancelled and everything!"

Oh my God. Are people really so fucking stupid this is news to them? "I'm going to hang up now."

"Wait! There's more, but do you want to know how this stuff is getting around anyway?"

"I blame social networking sites. Those God damn statuses, too. I don't give a shit what you're doing every ten seconds."

"Paris," I hate to sound gay but I can tell she's grinning. Or smirking. Rosaline is weird. "It's all because of Juliet."