The Way I Loved You

9. People Watching

“People Watching” is the second single off of Conan Gray’s sophomore studio album, Superache. The song is an emotional, up-tempo ballad about wanting the love that you see in the relationships around you, but only ever amounting to looking in from the outside. [Source: Genius Lyrics]

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FFAEK: The chorus is Emily's motto in life.

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Chapter Nine: People Watching

It was Monday; time for the chemistry quiz I'd studied with Nathan. I was fidgeting in my seat when Nathan came by. We didn't greet each other.

Wong distributed the test papers, and I sent a prayer to the heavens. I would like to do better than I did last time. All that studying had to amount to something.

30 minutes later, I handed Wong the paper back with a relieved sigh. The test went better than I expected. I glanced at Nathan. He raised his eyebrow, acknowledging me.

As Wong sorted through the papers, I got my phone out. My notifications were blowing up for some reason. Our girls’ group chat had 79 unread messages. Along with 30 from Leanna and even 10 from TJ. What had I done?

I unlocked my phone and looked at the group chat. I couldn't make sense of what they were saying, so I opened the text from Leanna and scrolled up to the first unread text.

Leanna: OKAY, THIS IS BAD

Leanna: They think you are dating Simon

Leanna: DO NOT check the comments on the Debating Club Facebook Page

Leanna: Do they think I'm miserable how dare they

Leanna: They are totally overdoing it

Leanna: DONT WORRY, Malti and I will take them down bb

I stopped reading and did exactly what she had told me not to do. I opened the debating club Facebook page. It was about yesterday’s matches from the Interstate Debating Championship. They had bragged about the senior team (obviously), the sophomore team, and Simon individually.

Nobody used Facebook these days. Why would they do this? I wondered.

There were 30 photos. I knew some of them were Leanna's contributions. As I scrolled, I found the one with the most reactions and comments.

It was a photo of our team, of the three of us, Simon, Leanna, and me.

In the photo, I was leaning towards Simon, totally invading his personal space. Simon was reclining and looking at my hair with a smirk (I had no idea why). Leanna was sitting far away from us, rolling her eyes. It looked like Simon and I were a couple, and Leanna was the third wheel.

I wasn't even aware when this photo was taken. I was about to check the comments when my seatmate commented, “Wow. That sure looks cozy.”

I glared at Nathan. He continued, “Are you trying to climb into Wallberg’s lap or something?”

“It's not what it looks like.” The last person I wanted to be associated with was Simon.