Not a Friend ✔│short story

o n e

Allie's head is buried inside a book that might be as thick as a darn brick. Even though her eyes are skimming through the words, her mind is somewhere else. Even a two thousand worded book on antimatter is not able to keep her attention from straying.
She takes a deep breath, trying to tune out the irritating noise behind her by focusing on the scenery outside, but it's just not working. 
This is one of the gazillion reasons why she didn't want to attend this darn school trip— the raucous noise that her classmates make always drives her mad. She just can't understand them...
They like to punch each other in the face just to have fun? And hitting each other's genitals is the highlight of their day? And all they do is make sick jokes about farting and... Katy Perry.

She remembers thinking that the girls in her class would be a tad bit more appropriate, but darn it! She was wrong. And it's not like she's the only person to hide behind books, there's one more, Simon. The only person with whom she speaks in full sentences. Even though she can't call Simon her 'friend', because all they do is talk about antimatter, but at this moment she's craving his company when he's probably sitting at the library, a thousand miles away, sipping on coffee while reading the brand new papers of Stephen Hawking's discovery on black holes (Simon loves black holes).
The jealousy is so deep that tears spring up.

The main reason why she agreed to this stupid trip was her mom. 
"I don't want to you miss this just for me, Allie," her mom had said when she tried to make her realize that she didn't want to go. 
"But who's going to take care of you? What if you miss your pills? What if you forget to visit the doc?" Allie had asked and her mother repeatedly told her that the caretaker would be there and her mom would be okay, but Allie is not so sure anymore. 

She stares at the blank screen, wondering if she should call her mom, but she has already done that maybe twenty times, and of course, she doesn't want her mother to get irritated. That would affect her health.

Allie understands why her mom wants her to go. Her mom thinks that her sickness affects Allie's social life, but that is so untrue! Allie has tried very hard to make her mom realize that she doesn't have friends not because others hate her, or because she is a raging nerd, but because she doesn't want to have them. Like she said, her classmates are a bunch of morons and it's so much better to be alone.
Well her mom is stubborn and here she is... in a bus full of idiots.

"Hello, can I sit here?" A voice interrupts her thoughts, breaking her imagination where she has been transported back in time to meet 'The Carl Anderson' to have an insightful conversation on antimatters and their annihilation.

She whips her head back, a little angry at the guy standing beside her, when the bus jerks on a speed bump, and he automatically falls on the seat beside her. 

"Oh, well, now I'm sitting here," he chuckles, shaking his head while he takes out his iPad and the stylus. 

If Allie could roll her eyes harder, she would have.

I swear to God, I'm gonna cry if he makes a small talk now, Allie thinks right when he says,

 "What's your name?" 

"Allie." She sighs, after a lot of contemplating whether she should just not reply and go back to the book, or give a one-worded answer with zero enthusiasm so that he gets the hint.

"Cool! I'm Kyle, by the way." He smiles, his hazel eyes crinkling while she has to control herself with every bit of energy from replying with 'Did I ask you?'

"Oooh, you reading a book? What's that about?" 

Inhale.

Exhale.

Darn it! This is getting worse than she thought.

"It's... about antimatter." She sighs, mostly expecting replies such as 'boring', or 'what? get a life, dude', or even an eye-roll, which drives her crazy because she knows that these people have neither read anything about it, nor they know anything about antimatter. She hates it when people force their opinions when they clearly don't know anything about it. 

"Oh cool! So like... can you eat that?" the guy asks, pointing towards the book with his stylus, his eyes squinting at it.

"Did you just ask me if you could eat my book?" 

He laughs, shaking his head again. "What?! No... I asked if you could eat antimatter or whatever because I saw a show where there were demons who would drink this antimatter just like humans would drink coffee."

Drinking antimatter? Is he high?

"Oh, yes sure! You can definitely go around drinking antimatter, but just a heads-up, it might make your stomach explode, make every cell in your body burst with maybe one trillion calories of energy, and make you disappear with a poof! And added to that, it might also wipe this whole country and blow up every darn thing," Allie cries as the guy's eyes grow bigger and bigger until it's practically bulging.

"I totally hate your sense of sarcasm, but holy shitting hell! That's the coolest thing I have ever heard! Can that be used as a national weapon? Oooh, can I make that in my house?" He prattles on, jumping from one wild question to the next and Allie can't help, but curve up her thin lips in the barest hint of a smile. She knows that feeling, that overwhelming buzz, a spike in the heartbeat when you know that there's so much more than this, and there are so many things left to know and learn.

"Allie, tell me every freaking thing you know about this anti-whatever!" he says with bulging eyes as he takes the book from her and flips it from side to side.

Allie rolls her eyes, sighs, and pretends to show that she's contemplating his request (even though it's not a request), but her heart is thudding, and her mind is exploding with excitement to talk about her favourite thing on this planet. 

"Meh, okay... if you wish," she starts with the pretence of disinterest.

And as the hours pass by, the sky growing darker and darker, Allie and this total stranger talk about antimatter and antiprotons until Allie's throat hurts. And, even though this guy is straight-up stupid and tends to zone out from time to time, it still makes her happy. Because there is finally someone out there who willingly wants to listen to her and has a mutual interest in antimatter.

Thank you all for giving this a chance. Hope you all liked the chapter. Don't forget to share your thoughts!