by CJ Adler
Kid's a looker, gotta give him that.
“So I ran into a pole, get over yourself,” I reply, unfazed, slamming my locker door shut. He will never let me live that moment down.
“You should learn to watch where you walk,” he mocks.
I scowl at him, attempting to summon a curse upon him with a simple glare.
“And you should learn to watch what you say,” I warn.
He takes up to the challenge as he glances down at me with a smirk. “Is that a threat…” he purposely pauses, building up suspense, “Aqueela Lawson?”
My jaw hits the floor at hearing his last two words. “H-how did you—”
“Max speaks too loud.”
***
I carelessly sprint across the busy cafeteria, bumping into a few people on the way, and plant myself down in the seat opposite Bells. Her cheerleader friends are there, as well as some other popular kids. But I sit where I sit. I do what I want. Nobody tells me what to do. Nobody puts Aqueela in a corner.
Out of breath yet uncaring, I begin to ramble, “Look, I'm sorry for avoiding you this past week, but Mason is so annoying, and he's always around, except for now, hence my presence, and—”
Bells places her hand over my mouth. She smiles at me and shakes her head.
“Ssh, Aqueela. I understand.”
She removes her hand off of my mouth, only for me to erupt like a volcano all over again. “What do you mean you understand!? You can't possibly understand! You should be yelling at me—”
Her hand clamps over my mouth a second time, preventing me from talking any further. “Continue this and I will be.” She laughs.
I still go on mumbling beneath her hand, refusing to quit. She gives me her famous 'be quiet or else look', in turn. I fall silent and blow out a breath of relief when she removes her hand again.
I begin talking slowly this time, summarizing with two simple words, “I'm sorry.”
Bell gives me a once-over before giggling, noting my messy appearance.
“Looking good, Lawson,” Laiken insults from a few seats down the table, clearly being sarcastic.
I'm aware that it appears as if I just ran a marathon. I practically did just so that I could speak to Bells alone without the interference of her boyfriend.
“Wish I could say the same, Edwards,” I say to him, brushing him off, not giving him my time of day. I turn back to Bells with a cheeky grin intact. “So, yeah…where were we? Oh, that's right, you were about to forgive me.”
She smiles, in turn, and waves the matter off. “It's chill. Now tell me, what happened to you?” she asks, fixing my beret in the process.
“Nothing,” I lie swiftly and change the subject. “So, girl, what's up with you these days?” I ask, trying to distract her.
She shrugs. “Same answer you just gave to my question, nothing.” She rethinks her answer, not a second later, before confiding in me. “Actually, now that you're here, I might as well tell you. Mason is acting off lately.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Off ? What do you mean by off?”
“He seems distant lately. I tried talking to him about it, but he said the same as you: nothing,” she tells me, the hurt in her voice evident.
“About around when did he start acting off, exactly?” I ask her, skeptical.
Bell furrows her eyebrows at my question but answers nonetheless, “A week ago, about the same time that you started ignoring me.”
It's as if saying it aloud makes her realize something because her entire facial expression changes. I can just see that I'm about to be put through an interrogation.
I stand up quickly, bidding her goodbye. “So, yeah, that little 'girl-to-girl' chat was fun. You know I'm your go to girl for anything, but it's time I leave—”
“Sit!” Bells snaps at me in command.
I instantly drop back down in my seat like a puppy taking orders from its master.
She eyes me in suspicion. “Did you and Mason get into another fight? Is that why you're both acting strange?”
I laugh aloud at this and place a hand over my chest in mock disbelief. I scoff. “Me? Acting strange? What in the world....” I laugh nervously. “I'm normal, just normal, in fact, you're the one acting strange, so strange that—”
“Aqueela!” Bells narrows her eyes at me in a deadpanned stare of warning. I give in under the pressure of her unwavering gaze. “Ugh, fine!” I break.
“We got into a fight last week over something stupid. I just want to forget about it.”
I wait for Bell to unleash her wrath on me, except, she doesn't. Instead, she smiles gently at me and takes my hands into hers. “It's okay. You should have just told me. You're my best friend , sister even , you can come to me about anything , even if it is about my jerk of a boyfriend. I can't force you two to ever get along, so from now on, I will make plans that involve just the two of us. I promise that you won't have to be around him, unless by choice.”
“Oh, good, because he's a horrendous human being, just a real awful person, really just–” I stop talking when I see her face. I change tactics, planting a big smile on my face instead. “How did I land such an amazing best friend?”
“Don't we all wonder?” Laiken pipes up. “Mystery to everyone.”
Melinda snickers at my misfortune. She'll laugh at anything he says or does even if it's not remotely funny.
“Lai,” Bells warns him in a reprimanding manner, “back off.”
“Alright, alright.” He surrenders, holding his hands up apologetically, knowing that her word is final. “I'm done,” he tells her, dismissing my presence altogether.
Bell turns her attention to me, ready to brighten the atmosphere, as per usual. “Tell me,” she says and glances down at my food tray packed with tons and tons of food, “do you really plan on eating all that?”
My bubble burst, I begin to tell her the entire story of my new diet that practically consists of nothing. I haven't eaten properly in the last couple of days. “Max is killing me! He won't let me eat anything. He's starving me!” I sigh hopelessly and bang my head on the table repeatedly in exhaustion as the past events of nonstop training and nonstop starving catches up to me.
“Well, eat up girly because Max ain't here and I'm sure as hell not going to stop a starved child from eating her face off!” She grins reassuringly, giving me an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
I throw my fist in the air in victory. “Whoo!” I clap my hands in excitement at the sight of the mouth-watering goodness before me, ready to dig in.
I'm about to stuff my face when I notice Bell's eyes move off of me and onto someone behind me, the smile slipping off of her lips instantly.
“What the hell is this?!” I hear him before seeing him.
I groan aloud as he makes his presence known. He sits down beside me, taking to the popular table without any worries, and removes my tray, stacked with unhealthy food, from me.
I snatch it back and hiss at him, overprotective. “My precious!”
Max always comes back to haunt me!
He begins picking at my food, lecturing me in the process. He takes the cookie off my plate and places it on his tray. “Carbs!” He yells and then takes my banana and begins eating it. “Carbs!” He yells again.
I roll my eyes. Here we go.
He proceeds in taking my chocolate bar too. He hangs it up in the air and dangles it before me. I reach for it, only for him to move it out of my reach. “Tut, tut, tut.” He waves his finger in my face, opening it. “Carbs!” He shouts again before stuffing the bar into his mouth.
It doesn't stop there.
Max picks at the rest of my food, from my lemon to my cheesecake slice. “Carbs! Carbs! Carbs! More carbs! Carbs! And more carbs!” he shouts in my ear, removing all my food and placing it onto his tray until my tray is empty.
I sigh and reach for my water, suddenly feeling very thirsty. Max tends to drain all life out of a person.
Just as I'm about to take a sip of my water, a ha
nd smacks my hand away. I slowly retract my hand with a pout on my face. Max 'tsks' me before taking my glass of water away too. “This…” he trails off and holds the cup of water before me, being dramatic as ever, “is unhealthy! Carbs!” he shouts, again.
“It's just water, Max. There are no carbs in water,” Bell speaks up, defending me as always.
He narrows his eyes at her. “And how would you know anything about dieting? As if you would know anything about carbs, just judging by your figure, that is.” He implies something that should never be hinted at to a girl, especially not Bells. He's practically begging for death and this time Bells won't show him any mercy.
“Ooh snap!” Laiken chuckles, unable to stop himself from eavesdropping. “He's done for.”
Bell raises her eyebrows at Max, stunned that he would dare go there. She cocks her head to the side, a scrutinizing gaze set directly on him. “Excuse me. Are you calling me fat?”
“Does it really have to be said when the evidence is sitting on your hips?” he asks boldly.
No one speaks like that to Bells. No one. Max has no idea who he's messing with. Bells is a sweetheart, right up until you rub her up the wrong way. She can turn turbo witch within seconds if you successfully manage to get at her.
She laughs humorlessly at his comeback as if not affected in the least. “Listen here you low life MMA wannabe, I will not sit here and take your insults when you're the 'has been, never was' who got Aqueela to sign up for the fight because you are too much of a wuss to do it yourself. You call yourself a manager when you can't even manage a toddler. No offense, Aqueela.”
Ouch!
“You call yourself a trainer? You think water is unhealthy! And I'd bet that you can barely do a single push-up. Sports clothes don't make you fit and a whistle isn't going to get you a million dollars. It would help if you actually summoned some brain power for once in your life!” Bell concludes, insulting his sports get-up in the process.
Max's jaw drops at her blatant insult and disregard for him.
I place my fist in front of my mouth to prevent myself from laughing aloud at his shocked expression. People think Bells is some kind of angel but I know from firsthand experience not to get on her bad side.
Fortunately, Bell is incapable of staying mad at someone for long. She cracks a smile at Max's reaction before grinning. “Don't be so thin-skinned,” she advises. “I was just teasing—well mostly, okay, partially.”
Max shakes his head in awe as a small smile glimmers over his lips. For the first time ever, it seems that he has been caught speechless.
I watch the exchange as Max keeps his eyes on Bells as if he physically can't take his eyes off of her. Bells seems to be caught in the same spell too, both of them completely forgetting about me.
Max is developing a little crush, which is not such a great idea considering she's in a relationship with an extremely possessive quarterback. If Mason sees this, he 'll go ballistic . Also , Max is supposed to be head over heels for me , at least pretend to be for the sake of our MMA supporters.
From the corner of my eye, I see Mason approaching with the rest of his football buddies in tow. He already seems annoyed, judging by that permanent frown etched into place on his lips. If he sees his girlfriend and Max making googly eyes at each other, all hell will break loose. He will serve Max's head on a silver platter for breakfast, lunch, brunch, supper, snack time, and maybe even teatime.
As much as I hate Max as of recently, I don't want to see him die at Mason's hand. Be it anyone else's hand and I'd allow it.
I cough awkwardly, trying to remind the two lovestruck fools that I'm still here. When they pay no heed to me, I say the words that I know with absolute certainty that will get Max's attention. “So, what about cheese? Am I allowed to eat cheese? Or does it have carbs too?”
As predicted, Max's head snaps to me as a dark glare crosses his features. “Of course cheese has carbs, you ignorant lesser!” He scolds me so that I almost end up choking on the piece of cheese stuck in my mouth. “Spit it out!” he commands, holding his hand out.
I shrug and spit it out onto his hand.
“Gross! I wasn't serious!” he whines, flinging the cheese aside as he
frantically rubs his hand against his shirt, disgusted.
Mason finally makes his arrival to his table after first having been stopped by a group of flirtatious girls. He hollers at Laiken loudly, unintentionally yet thankfully snapping Max and Bells out of it.
He reaches us in the nick of time. I wanted to leave before he got here, but I had to help out my friends first. If I had left, Mason would have caught them both red-handed. He then probably would've taken Max apart limb from limb with the help of his football team.
His gaze lands on me. People notice and the table grows quiet. It's not often that I sit at his table. I switch tables daily according to my mood.
Bells glances from her boyfriend to me wearily , afraid of another argument breaking out between us. “Hey, baby,” she speaks up, hoping to break the deafening
silence.
“Hey,” Mason replies back stiffly, not even bothering in making the effort to look at her, not even a single glance. He keeps his attention focused on me, which results in the entire table keeping their attention on me too.
As if my surroundings aren't tense enough as is, Jay Taylor, labeled as the temperamental loner of the school, appears out of nowhere. He, never to be seen in the cafeteria, takes to the last available seat beside me.
The entire table falls into hushed whispers at the sight of Jay making an attempt at talking to actual living people. He's usually not one for socializing. Also, he's not permitted to sit at this table—he's in the same boat as Max and me. However, no one dares to tell Jay otherwise, not even Melinda or Laiken.
I don't miss Mason's gaze flicker over to Jay. He always seems to lose his confidence in Jay’s presence. Mason says nothing and takes a seat next to his girlfriend.
“What's going on?” Max whispers loudly to me, trying to remain secretive
but failing. “Why's he here?” he asks, referring to Jay.
When Jay and I made the pact, I laid down some ground rules, one of which included him sitting by me during lunch. He was reluctant to agree at first, mostly because he never sets foot in the cafeteria and prefers sitting outside, but eventually, he gave in to my constant nagging.
“Don't know,” I lie, managing to catch Mason's gaze a second time.
Everyone, feeling the tension, stays quiet, awkwardly eating their food in silence—well, except for Jay, that is. Either he doesn't notice or he chooses not to notice because he's gulping down his smoothie in ease, completely relaxed.
The drop of a pin can be heard. It's that silent. The only noise heard is that of a slushy smoothie being slurped down fiercely. Immediately, everyone turns their attention from Mason and onto an unsuspecting Jay.
“'Sup, everyone,” I say with a tiny wave of my hand, hoping that they'd get back to talking amongst themselves.
I get the opposite response. All fixate their attention onto me, relieving Jay of the peer pressure, although I'm certain he doesn't give a damn.
I use my index finger to point at Jay, who happens to be the only one eating his food comfortably. “So, this is JT. We're friends now.”
My words finally register in his head. He immediately turns to me, a frown in place. “Jay. It's Jay,” he corrects me. “And I wouldn't say we're friends. I'd say we're mutual acquaintances.”
Everyone continues to remain silent.
“So, this is Jay and we're mutual acquaintances,” I correct myself much to his satisfaction. I glance over at him to make sure. “Satisfied?”
I receive a relaxed nod and a lazy grin in turn. “Immensely.”
He is the only one unaffected by all of this drama and it's all because he is so darn oblivious to his own surroundings. It's kind of cute, dare I say it.
“Mason!” Bell calls his name loudly for the billionth time
in an effort to gain his attention.
When Mason still doesn't answer her, she huffs and gets up out of her seat.
I watch in despair as she leaves the cafeteria. The rest of us are all met by silence— the only sound echoing throughout the cafeteria is Bell's heels clicking against the floors as she moves further away from all the commotion, or should I say, further away from no commotion.
It's in this awkward moment that Jay finally notices the tension building. He glances around, inquisitive, as he takes in all the eyes on us. He then leans toward me and whispers in my ear softly, “People are staring at you.”
He is so slow.
“Well, thank you, Captain Obvious and Shabalala Sherlock!” I snap sarcastically. “Oh, and they're staring at you,” I clarify.
“No, they're not!” he hisses back, irritation lacing his tone.
It's then that someone else nudges me in the ribs. I turn to see Max. He too whispers in my ear from my other side. “Sorry to burst your guy's little bubble over here but we can all hear you two!” he whisper-shouts at me in warning.
When I glance up, I come to see that all eyes are still on us, including Maggot's. I decide to stare back, annoyed with him. He's not even fazed that his girlfriend just walked out on him in front of all his pals. This continuous staring lasts for at least a minute before I finally decide that I've had just about enough. I stand up, preparing to flip Mason off, when suddenly a giant bagel is stuffed into my mouth.
“Eat up, my precious plumpkin!” I hear Max's dreaded voice once again and turn to him in bewilderment, spluttering the bagel out of my mouth in confusion.
“Carbs!” I yell at him.
It's then that I notice the skeptical camera crew watching us from afar. They are currently witnessing all this banter. Of course, Max would want to continue on with our façade despite the fact that nearly everyone is just about ready to kill one another.
Well, there goes my dramatic exit, no thanks to Max for his impeccable timing. “You're spoon-feeding me now?” I huff in exasperation as I glare at him.
He leans toward me with a fake smile on his face. “We can still save this.”