The lunch room. I was positively dreading it. Mostly because of Graham, but also because my phone had been spammed this weekend by none other than Maddie and McKenzie. They had called me, each, three times on average a day. I wasn't going to get into the statistics of the texts.
But I needed to eat, and I had come too far to go back to the library. Yeah. That was my freshman year in a nutshell. But when Seth skyrocketed to fame, so did I, and very quickly Graham and I found ourselves at the best table in the lunchroom.
It was, without a doubt, the best table in the lunch room. It had room for eight people, my group. A round table to make sure it favored no one. And it was surrounded on three sides by the glass windows of the cafeteria. But what made it special? It was the only table on a small but raised platform that overlooked the entire cafeteria. Seriously, there were stairs.
Freshman year it belonged to the queen of my middle school, Kylie Parker. She and her best friend Lindsey Harmon sat there, surrounded by the starters of the freshmen football team. But they fell from power when, at the start of sophomore year, Kylie's nudes were leaked, and she was ridiculed for small boobs that she had previously tried to hide with push up bras and tissue.
Seth had found himself the junior quarterback that was on his way to leading the team to state. Naturally I fell into the good graces of the football team and my friend group came together pretty quickly. But Graham and I were the core, the originals. We had ruled ever since.
When I entered the cafeteria, there they were, not even hiding their stares. It had been a week, maybe a little more, since I had last spoken to them. Maddie and McKenzie had left it alone last week, but it was Monday of the week before Homecoming. And their calls told me they were desperate.
I took a deep breath. It sucked for all this drama to fall on today, because I had packed a chicken Caesar salad that I had planned to bury my face in to avoid both them and Graham. But my salad was not big enough to avoid them for the entire lunch period.
I approached the table. I was the last one to arrive, on purpose, because usually I came with Graham. Obviously that didn't happened today. They all watched me take my seat in between Graham and Connor. And I swear to god the whole cafeteria stopped talking to look up at our table.
My stomach grumbled.
Yeah this crap will not go on. I'm sorry stomach.
"Maddie," I said slowly. "McKenzie. Your calls have gone through my data, so let's address this now. What do you want?"
"Alexa," Graham scolded quietly from the side of me.
I looked over at him. "Graham, for your personal safety I would stay out of this, unless you want claw marks on your face," I warned.
"Alexa," Maddie said, "don't be like that. You don't have to make this a big deal."
"Trust me, I'm not the one that made the whole cafeteria stare at me as I walked over to the table. I just wanted to eat my salad, but hey, I guess that isn't going to happen," I shrugged. "You and McKenzie were always the ones for dramatics."
McKenzie glared at me. "Don't be like that. How many more texts and calls and pleas is it going to take to make it clear that we are sorry?"
They both set down their spoons, and the handles were dipping into their soups, which meant they were in this conversation for the long haul. That was dedication, I would admit.
"Fine. You're sorry. But for what? Do you even realize what you did, and why it was so bad that I would be mad at you this long?" I crossed my arms across my chest. This would be good.
Maddie sighed. "Do you want me to say this in front of the table?"
"Might as well," I muttered. "We already have half of the cafeteria listening in on this."
I snapped my head up, and sure enough none of the students were eating, let alone moving. They were all frozen in hopes of listening in on this conversation.
McKenzie pursed her lips. "Blake, Brentwood's quarterback, contacted you. We freaked out and deleted his text messages and number from your phone," she confessed. She hung her head low.
The cafeteria let out a gasp. Among the wave of murmurs that washed over the crowd, the words 'rival quarterback' and 'traitor' were the ones I heard the most come out of my peers' mouths. They all looked at me accusingly. I didn't blame them, because they were still brainwashed by the rivalry, and I was an idiot as Seth's younger sister going after the rival quarterback.
I eyed them warily. "And why was this bad?"
Maddie gazed down at the students. It was coming to it. Would she take my side, or theirs? Up until last year, we were class friends, not best friends. It was time to see if she saw me as as much of a best friend as I thought I saw her. Would she succumb to peer pressure or rise above it to stay true to me?
Maddie ran a hand through her hair. Her lips were in a pout. "What we did was more than just bad," Maddie said at last. "It was unfair and backstabbing. We thought we were looking out for you, but really we were looking out for ourselves and our reputation."
I crossed my arms across my chest. I wanted to seem intimidating, because I was still allowed to be mad, but I was also trying to stop my stomach from growling. "Exactly. You were bitches. But, how do you feel now?"
McKenzie frowned, uncertain of how my meaning. "Well, obviously we want to support you," she assured me. "We just don't know what the situation is currently. Trust me, we will tell you how we feel when we know how this whole thing has progressed."
Alright. They had passed. They had fixed their alignment and, for now, it seemed they were loyal to me again, rather than just Baylor. And because of that, they deserved to know the whole story.
"I never thought I would be saying this, especially with a full lunch, but come with me to the library. The school can know a lot about me," I paused and smiled at them, gently, "but some stuff I save to tell to only my very best friends."
McKenzie squealed. "Yay!"
I looked back over at Graham, who was returning my gaze with uncertain eyes. His face was morphed into one of mistrust. "What exactly are you telling them?" He whispered.
Why was he acting like this? I furrowed my eyebrows. "Everything?"
"Alexa," he hissed. "How many times do I have to tell you that you cannot treat this like I'm some regular boyfriend you found on the street. You cannot make it seem like I have...gushy feelings."
"Gushy feelings for me?"
"Yes. As in a mutual relationship."
My eyes narrowed to slits. "Oh?" I leaned back in the chair. "Gushy feelings? What the hell. Graham, how am I supposed to take that? What is this if this is not gushy feelings?" I demanded.
A sweat droplet rolled down his temple. I had him backed into a corner. He better be really careful. "It's just," he stammered under my intense glare, "I'm a football player. I can't exactly have feelings, not publicly."
"What if I was going to drop this whole thing with Blake and want to be only your girlfriend? What would you call that?"
"Erm, you liking me and me using you for sex?"
My jaw fell. Literally. It hit the floor, was bruised, and wouldn't come back up. It stayed there along with my wide eyes. He did not seriously just say that.
His eyes were steady. His mouth was set. He was dead serious. My god, he really had just said that.
"Is that what a relationship is to you?"
Graham rubbed the back of his neck. "That's kind of how it is until senior year when you're too powerful for people to think bad about you."
"What's bad about having a girlfriend and not having sex with her?" I demanded. "This is ridiculous. You're being ridiculous."
"It's just like that when we are out in public," he said quickly. "I really do like you, Alexa. I've told you that a million times."
"And I've told you a million and one times that I don't wanna lose you," I shot back. My eyes fell to my salad. "But that was the you that I used to know. The one that was honest with me and loved to act like we were in relationship even though we were just best friends, because you were proud of me. Why is this different?"
"Because this is junior year of high school and I'm the starting wide receiver," he said. "That's just how people are going to look at us."
"Oh, like I'm a whore and a gold digger?" I snarled. "Wow, so acting like that all the time will just normalize everything."
Graham grinned. "Exactly."
I abruptly stood up. I motioned to Maddie and McKenzie to get up as well. After exchanging a couple glances with their own boyfriends, they did, and they obediently came to my side. Maddie laid a hand on my shoulder to silently console me.
"Graham, here's the situation," I said slowly. "You aren't the only one for me. You don't have the power to be an all or nothing deal right now. You had the advantage of being my best friend, but right now, you are not being him, so I will treat you as though you are only a perverted stranger trying to win me over."
I turned around, but when I saw it, I went rigid. My heart stopped. My breath got caught in my throat. They were all looking at me. And what was worse is that they were looking at me with pity.
"The library?" I whispered to Maddie and McKenzie.
Maddie's hand was still on my shoulder. She gently squeezed it. "Of course."
My grip tightened on the handle of my lunch box.
Don't let them get to you. They are just jealous that they don't even have the chance to have your kind of problems, and your kind of drama.
I quickened my pace, and thankfully, after many heart-thundering moments, we were out of the cafeteria.
Once we got there, I wasted no time. I threw open the doors of the library. Ms. Rite gave me a look that told me that I was pushing the line. But she also the look on my own face and said no more. She only nodded when I passed by on my way to the study room that I lived in during the ninth grade.
When the door was shut, I slumped into a chair and buried my head in my hands. Honestly I wasn't even hungry for my salad anymore. I just wanted to put my face in it and never come back up for air.
Maddie and McKenzie sat in the chairs opposite of me.
"We don't have to talk about this right now," Maddie said gently.
"Yeah. Obviously we don't know what's going on, but it's probably not the best time to fill us in," McKenzie smiled. "Maybe after your salad."
It became obvious fairly quickly to people that she met that McKenzie was the one that lacked most of the smarts.
"We have an idea," Maddie said. "In honor of you forgiving us, McKenzie and I want to go out to dinner with you."
"Tonight?" I muttered.
"Yes," McKenzie replied. "Maybe then you can talk more freely, but even if you still don't want to, we can talk about other stuff."
"We just want you to know that we are here for you," Maddie said.
I sighed. "Thank you."
I pulled my head out of my hands to show them the most sincere smile I could manage. Obviously I hadn't been crying, but this was still a big deal, so I was overwhelmed. I had never been this mad and upset with Graham since seventh grade when he chopped off my bangs.
They still haven't grown back.
"Italian sounds good," I agreed. "I will definitely fill you in tonight. Trust me when I say that I have a lot to tell y'all."
Yay I like this chapter a lot better. Obviously it isn't as long but it's a big improvement from writing 1200-1500 words for the first ten chapters of the book.
Trust me when I say that something dramatic is coming. Can you guess it?