The City Is at War

"Sabrina, I don't understand. Did I do something wrong?" William asks.

He looks genuinely confused and I sigh.

"No, Bill you haven't done anything. I just wanted to get to English early," I lie.

I'm still freaked out about Saturday.

"You're lying," he says in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No I'm not. I um love English..." I mutter.

"Sabrina, why are you lying to me?" he asks, forcefully.

I open my mouth to protest again, but clamped it shut when a girl starts heading our way.

"Hey William," she says, in an extremely flirtatious tone.

I narrow my eyes, "Who's she?"

"Oh, this is Stacey," William says slowly.

"So, Bill what are you doing this weekend?" Stacey asks.

"He's busy," I hiss.

I do not like this girl.

"No, I'm not," William says, giving me an annoyed look.

"Well we should go to The Amulet," she suggests, curling a strand of his hair around her finger.

"Okay sure," he says, smiling brightly.

Stacey flips her auburn colored hair over her shoulder, shoots me a glare and walks off.

"She is such a whore," I mumble under my breath.

"What's up with you? You're acting-" William begins.

"Can we just get to class?" I hiss.

Later that day

"Where's your new girlfriend?" I hiss, when William sits next to me at lunch.

"She's not my girlfriend-"

"Sabrina, where's your costume?" Patrick asks suddenly.

"What are you talking about?" I ask slowly.

"You know, the costume you and Gabe cut class to pick up," Patrick hisses.

"Oh, um, well I was spying for you, Patrick," I lie, pasting on my most innocent smile.

Why am I lying? It's not like anything happened.

"Sabrina, I've been getting messages since first period, saying you and Gabe have been hooking up and-"

"Patrick, ew. That will never happen!" I say, brushing my hair away from face.

"If you're not hooking up with him then what are you doing?! You haven't given me any information I can use."

"Patrick, I'm-"

Patrick points to Gabe's table, "go sit with them until you learn something about him."

"But-"

"Go!" he yells and because I've never seen Patrick look so angry; I stand up.

I slowly walk over to Gabe's table and tap him on the shoulder.

Gabe turns around and raises an eyebrow and I sigh, "Can I...sit with you guys?"

Gabe's expression instantly turns into one of amusement and he smirks, "Go ahead."

"Really?" I ask, almost excitedly.

"No," he says flatly and his friends begin laughing hysterically.

Just great.

"Seriously Gabe, let me sit here," I order.

"I'm being serious too," he says, but he's still smirking.

"Why can't I sit here?" I whine.

"Because you're a bitch," Gabe answers and his friends start laughing again.

"Gabe, please, just let me sit here," I hiss, through gritted teeth.

"Why do you want to sit here so badly?"

"Um...I wanna be friends," I mutter.

"Really?" I resist the urge to say no and nod instead.

"Well, you can sit with the rest of the whores," Gabe says, pointing to a group of girls who do in fact look like whores.

I turn to Patrick, who shakes his head across the cafeteria and I sigh. I sit down next to them and begin cursing under my breath.

"We still going to my house after school?" one of them asks.

Gabe nods.

"Gabe, you have detention and after that we're going to the library to work on that project," I say, crossing my arms.

"No, you have detention and I'm not going to the library," Gabe answers.

"Yes you are," I hiss.

"New rule, whores are not allowed to talk," Gabe retorts, already turning back to his friend.

The rest of the girls don't even look at me, and I sigh. This is going to be a long day.

After Sabrina's last class

"Sabrina, Gabe's leaving," Victoria says, uninterestedly.

"No he's not-" I say slowly.

Victoria lazily points in the direction of the school doors and I look up. Gabe's walking towards the door. I follow him out of the door until we're on the street, where I tackle him to the sidewalk.

"Okay, okay, we'll go the library," he mutters.

I smile happily and stand up brushing myself off.

"Oh, wait. We still have detention," I say, walking back towards the school.

"Don't worry about it," Gabe says, pulling me down the street.

I sigh and decide not to ask any questions as Gabe pulls me along. We walk the few blocks to the library in an uncomfortable silence and sit down at the closest table, after Gabe picks up a few books. I eventually pick Romeo and Juliet from the pile and tell Gabe to pick a scene.

He picks the last scene and tells me to start writing.

"Why me?” I ask.

"Because you tackled me-" he begins and I roll my eyes.

"Fine, you big baby," I mutter and start writing.

We've only been at the library for ten minutes, when Gabe gets bored. He starts flirting with anyone that walks by our table and some girls even flirt back.

"What is wrong with you?!" I hiss, when Gabe gives one particularly disgusting "compliment".

"I'm bored," he says childishly.

"Gabe, read a book or something, we're in the freaking library."

He sighs and moves closer to me, reading Romeo and Juliet over my shoulder.

Out loud.

"I meant in your head," I say slowly, resisting the urge to hit him.

Gabe ignores me and turns the page, raising an eyebrow, "Did you know there was a kissing scene in here?"

I nod, "so what?"

"Mr.Stertz thinks we're acting it out, Sabrina."

"Why would he think....?Oh."

Costumes. Me and my stupid mouth.

"Yeah, and I don't want to kiss you," he mutters.

"I don't want to kiss you either. Besides, you didn't say that before."

"Well maybe before I did want to kiss you," Gabe says quietly.

"Oh, well...um...I guess I...I wanted to kiss you too...but that's all over now," I finish quickly.

Gabe nods in agreement and he continues flirting with girls, while I write.