"I'm just going to have a little talk with Betty." Regine shoved her book in her bag and stood up, giving Josie and Markus the look. Both remained silent. "You two hang back and chill, alright? I'll be back before you know it."
"A wise choice, dear Regine," Betty spoke with a smile. "I will return her to your arms shortly, Markus." Betty seemed uncomfortable even saying the big fellow's name, wrestling with the name like it were a curse word.
"Oh, I'm not—" Regine stammered, looking at Markus.
"We're not dating. She's, you know," Markus coughed. "Lesbian."
"Right… only into girls," Regine whispered, to which Betty merely smiled.
"Lesbian. It's a surprisingly common sexuality at this high school, isn't it?" Betty chuckled. "Who can blame a girl for being into girls? For that is the way of the universe, isn't it… that we should suffer for decisions we did not make. For things which we are, things which we shall become. I'm terribly sorry for making an assumption."
"I'm a guy, so…" Markus insisted, Josie rolling her eyes and taking another bite of her apple. Betty and Josie shared a knowing look. They communicated with their eyes, making side-glances at Markus. Betty raised an eyebrow. Josie nodded sadly.
"Stay safe, Josie. Markus," Betty chuckled.
Betty left the Cafeteria, Regine walking not far behind her; the two left for the quad, likely intending to speak underneath the big tree. The massive oak tree had grown through the cracks in the asphalt in the span of a month, the result of some super-fertilizer Irida had developed.
Markus and Josie swallowed the explanation, hook-line-and-sinker. They believed it, if only because no other explanation for a giant tree made sense.
"That was totally weird, right?" Josie asked, tossing the fresh apple core into the compost bin. Both picked up their trays and dumped the rest of their food into the trash. Neither had much of an appetite, now that Regine was gone. They readied themselves for class instead, slinging backpacks over their shoulders and wandering the halls.
"She said she's stalking us," Markus whispered. "I hope she doesn't carve us up, use our skin as a coat. It's exactly what a yandere would do."
"Dude, you have a wild imagination," Josie scoffed. "Still, it's weird she called you by your character name, right? Like, she has to be stalking us."
"She didn't even spell it right," Markus huffed. "A-man Duh. I'm totally a man. I'm a guy, 100%. No question about it."
"Uh-huh," Josie lightly responded. "Definitely. Hey, how did you know she spelled it wrong?" Josie asked. "That's not something you really—"
"It's a character, it's character-acting. I'm, you know, role-playing for the sake of role-playing," Markus deflected. "If you were in a fantasy game with all these cool species, you wouldn't pick the boring human, would you?"
"But you did pick the boring human," Josie pointed out.
"Yeah, but she's a girl, you know? It's different, I'm playing a human girl even though I'm a guy," Markus insisted.
"Yep, totally different," Josie rolled her eyes.
"I'm glad you get it," Markus frowned. "Nobody gets it."
"Nobody who? Your only friends are a stoner chick and a nerd, man," Josie sighed. "There's nobody else you know that could get it."
"My… family?" Markus struggled for an answer. Markus didn't make many friends hanging out with Regine. Regine tended to fight more often than necessary, use her fists to do the talking. Wasn't going to win either of them friends, come to think of it.
"Missing dad, absent mom. Come on, you gotta do better than that," Josie sighed, roping an arm around the big fellow's neck. "How about we head to the skate park after school? I can hook you up with a sweet babe."
"I," Markus squirmed. "I don't know. I look bad. I mean, I'm ugly."
"Dude," Josie groaned. "You are not ugly. You look fine."
"I'm fat," Markus mumbled. "And I'm big. My shoulders are… whatever, I don't brush my teeth."
"Those are fixable problems, if they're problems at all," Josie sighed. "Don't know why you have such a hard-on against going to the skate-park with me. Regine goes all the time."
"She doesn't skateboard. Does she enjoy it?" Markus asked.
"Heck no, but she tries!" Josie growled. "You gotta put in the effort, man. The same way I put in the effort to hang out with you and Regine."
"You hang out with us because you think Regine is hot," Markus muttered.
"Nah. I mean, she is? But I hang out with you because you're the nicest guy I know. You never even once hit on me, and you play along with my comedy routines," Josie sighed. "Real people suck."
"I'm… not real?" Markus winced.
"No, you're better than real," Josie corrected herself. "You're a super-friend, Markus, and I appreciate having you around."
"Thanks, Josie." Markus smiled. "I like having you around too."
