Chapter 5

"Girlfriend, huh?" asked Alex as they walked to the bus stop.

"Yeah. That just kind of came out. I like it, though. If you do, I mean."

"Of course I do. You wanna grab some dinner before work? My treat."

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then, yes. That would be nice."

"Paige!" called out Hazel.

"What?" asked Paige, making quite a show of her annoyance.

"Can I talk to you? Alone?"

Paige huffed and turned to Alex.

"It's cool," said Alex. "I'll wait for you."

"What's going on?" asked Hazel as soon as she was far enough away.

"You can see perfectly well what's going on. We're a couple. Deal with it or leave me alone." Paige made to walk off.

"But what happened? I don't understand. You were just friends."

"Yeah, that's how a lot of relationships start. Do you have a point?"

Hazel hesitated. "Why didn't you tell me? You could have told me what was going on."

"Like you would have understood."

"I would have tried."

Paige could tell that Hazel was earnestly making an effort, but she still doubted her. "Why were you part of the whisper brigade today then? Why haven't you talked to me till now? Why didn't you eat lunch with us?"

"It's not like you were talking to me. And hello, you ate lunch with my ex-boyfriend and the girl who broke us up."

"Ok, valid points," said Paige, admitting defeat. She had nothing more to say, but Hazel seemed like she still had something to say. "My bus will be here soon, are we finished?"

"I want to know why."

"Why what?"

"Why Alex? Why a girl?"

"I don't know. It just…happened, ok?"

"You said she meant nothing to you and now suddenly she's your girlfriend?"

"Look, I didn't know what to say yesterday. I wasn't prepared. I was trying to protect my reputation. But she's more important than that. I just didn't understand before."

"Oh, and now, miraculously, you're a lesbian?"

"I'm not a lesbian. I meant that."

"Then how can you like her like that?"

Paige looked wistfully at Alex, who was doing her best to look unconcerned as she slouched against the bus stand and picked at her nails, refusing to look up. "What do you want me to say? That I like her so much I don't care if she's a boy or a girl? That I like her as much as I ever liked Spin or Matt? That I've never felt this way for a girl before?"

"She's not…she's not like us, though. She's a bully and she's unpopular and she's a loser." Paige clenched her jaws in preparation for an attack, but let Hazel continued. "Maybe I would understand if she was more like us, but she's not."

"You know what? We are the same, deep down. I've got a lot more in common with her than I ever thought. She could have just as easily been me and I her, had our situations been reversed."

"You're not a loser and you're not a freak."

"And neither is she. Look, my bus is coming."

"Paige!" called out Hazel as she walked off.

"What?" Paige asked, not stopping.

"The girls, they're going to try and oust you from the squad."

Paige stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"I just…I thought you should know." And with that, she gave up and walked away, leaving Paige with one more thing to bother her.