Tiffany’s POV
The school offered various levels of meal plans to students, but Tiffany always packed her own. Sometimes, she didn’t have a taste for the svhool food, or she wasn’t really in the mood for eating what they had on the menu in a particular day. And, because of her modelling dreams, sometimes sh. pon herself some dietary restrictions that would contradicted if she were to eat at the cafeteria. So, to avoid all of that, she had simply decided it would be easier to make and bring her own food.
She was currently sat with Freya and Timothy at their usual corner of the large space, her two friends immersed in conversation while Tiffany pushed her food around on her plate, pretending to eat.
“So, Frey, where were you this morning?” Timothy was asking, popping a few grapes into his mouth. “We missed you.”
He made kissy faces at Freya, who frowned slightly, apparently not in the mood for jokes. “I told you not to call me that, It sounds way too close to Fred.” She shuddered a bit. “Anyway, that’s besides the point . What’s important is our bestie here, and her little secret. Which she decided to keep from us by the way!”
Timothy shook his head in mock disappointment, successfully distracted. “For shame!” he said in a theater performance voice.
Tiffany forced a smile, putting on a show of being amused. She pushed her food away and rolled her eyes.
“Guys, I’m sorry, but it had to be a secret.”
Freya squealed, high pitched and girly, clapping her hands in excitement. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!! A secret billionaire romance!” She put her hands on her chest and sighed wistfully, “It’s just like those wattpad stories I used to read when I was little. Was your long, brown hair up in a messy bun when you met him?”
The three of them burst into laughter, and Tiffany plucked one of Timothy’s grapes and chucked it good-naturedly at Freya.
“I’m blonde, idiot, and no. My hair was in a very neat bun, in fact. So neat that it gave me a headache.” To be fair, she didn’t know whether the headache was from Shawn’s antics or the bun. It was probably mostly from Shawn.
“So where did you meet? At one of those business parties?”
Tiffany cocked her head, trying to choose her words wisely. “Um, yeah…” she said. “Something like that. I met him through my dad, actually. He’s friends with Shawn’s dad, so they introduced us.”
“Omg, you’re on first name basis. When will that be me?” Freya sighed wistfully.
Tiffany forced another smile and said nothing, nervously tucking her hair behind an ear. Now that she thought about it, she and Shawn always adressed each other by their last names.
“You can be on a first name basis with me, Freya,” Timothy said jokingly, swinging an arm over Freya’s shoulders and pulling her to him.
Freya snorted, shoving Timothy off her. “You wish, McVeigh.” She turned back to Tiffany with more questions. “So, what were you guys doing at that restaurant? Please don’t tell me it was business, or I’ll literally cry.”
Tiffany bit the inside of her cheek. So far, she had avoided actually lying, but it was business, in a way. So how should she put it.
“Um, well,” she said slowly, “We’ve kind of been seeing each other for a while now…”
“Oh my God!” Freya shrieked, and half the cafeteria turned to look at them. She hastily said, “Sorry, sorry!” and covered her mouth with both hands. With wide eyes, she turned to look at Tiffany in poorly-suppressed glee. Tiffany felt so guilty about lying to her, to both of them, but the deal was that no one could know.
“When you say ‘a while’,” Timothy asked, sounding a bit suspicious, “How long is a while? Because you’ve never once mentioned that you were out with someone, or anything like that. So when did you two have the time to”
Freya slapped him on the arm, annoyed, successfully cutting him off much to Tiffany’s relief. “Weren’t you listening?! She just said that she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. And that makes so much sense, like, Shawn Gold is the mysterious type isn’t he? She was probably out with him one day but told us she was at home.”
Tiffany nodded, grateful for this excuse. “Yeah,” she said, “Sorry, guys.”
Timothy thankfully stayed silent even though he didn’t look too convinced, but Freya happily reached out a hand and grabbed Tiffany’s from across the table.
“Don’t worry, Tiff, we absolutely understand,” She said seriously, “Everyone does crazy things in the name of love.”
Timothy muttered something that Tiffany couldn’t catch, but she decided to ignore it. She was already feeling guilty enough as it was.
The rest of lunch continued in much of the same vein, with Freya dominating the conversations with long rants about love and passion and secret billionaire romances. Both Tiffany and Timothy mostly kept silent, only chiming in once in a while.
More than once, Tiffany looked up to find Timothy giving her a certain look, and she would look away immediately, pretending to be enthusiastically interested in whatever it was that Freya was saying at the moment.
All in all, she was almost glad when the bell rang to signal the end of lunch.
“By the way, Tiffany,” Freya said to Tiffany as she got up, packing her tray and Timothy’s. Tiffany had put away her lunch box even though she hadn’t touched any of the food. “We have a committee meeting after school. The cheerleaders and Basketball team are arguing again, can you imagine? That’s what happens when the two captains date and break up.”
As the student body president, Freya was in the best position to hear all the school’s gossip fresh and straight from the source, and she never hesitated to share any of it with her friends.
“I’m guessing Mary was the one who broke up with Bryan?” Tiffany asked, and Freya rolled her eyes.
“Obviously,” she said. “I don’t think that girl has a drop of love in her blood.”
“Don’t say that,” Timothy cut in, “Everyone
can love. Maybe she just hasn’t found the right person yet.”
Freya stood there, trays in hand and gaping at Timothy open-mouthed. “Tim, dearest, for you of all people to speak up in defense of Mary Guevara, the world must really be coming to an end. Quick, Tiffany, check if any pigs are flying.”
Tiffany grinned, putting her hands over her eyes to shield them from the sun, and mock-scanneded the sky. “Nope,” she said when she was done, “All clear. No pigs.”
“Timothy,” Freya said seriously, “She’s literally been nothing but a homophobic asshole to you since we all met.”
Timothy shrugged, frowning. “I’m just saying, we shouldn’t judge things as we see them. Some people we think may not be capable of love, people we might not even think are an option, might just have been there all this time, loving. So, we don’t know anything.”
Tiffany and Freya exchanged worried looks at Timothy’s serious tone.
Freya stepped forward, concerned. “Timothy,” she said, “Are you and Mary in a secret relationship?”
Timothy looked flabbergasted. “What? No!”
Freya gave Tiffany a look that said ‘He’s not to be trusted.’ “Are you sure?” she asked, “Because if you do, we totally understand. In fact, you wouldn’t be the first in this friendship to do it”
Tiffany rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, very funny.”
Freya poked out her tongue at her.
Timothy said, “I’m heading to class,” and he got up without another word of goodbye, and left the two of them at the table, bewildered.
“What’s his problem?” Freya said, watching him go. “He was just fine a few minutes ago. Do you think he’s jealous his secret bae isn’t as popular and rich as yours?”
Tiffany was too concerned about Timothy to laugh, and she simply shook her head ‘no’. “Freya,” she said, “Could you help me take my bag to class? I’ll meet you there.” Then she got up and went after Timothy.
Freya simply stood in the corner of the emptying cafeteria, holding two trays. She sighed. Those two were always doing this.