Daydream Believer

xciv. vending machines and secrets

xciv. vending machines and secrets

Rebecca was right, as usual. The cafeteria food was absolutely disgusting, possibly even more so than in middle school. Our little friend group had found a way to get around this. Each of us would buy a few things from the vending machine and we would share all of it. It wasn’t the healthiest option, but it was cheaper and tasted better than anything else.

 

Today, we had a pretty good mix of food: two bags of Cheetos, a bag of pretzels, a pack of gum, some trail mix, iced tea, water, Gatorade, Goldfish, a bag of Doritos, three bags of popcorn, and a bag of gummy worms that Aaron finished before he made it back to our table. All of that for only five dollars each, which was way cheaper than real cafeteria food.

 

Justin immediately reached for the trail mix. “I can’t wait for Winter Break,” he said.

 

“Me neither,” I said. “Do any of you have any cool plans?” I was kind of hoping they would say no. I didn’t have anything interesting going on, and I didn’t particularly want to hear about them bragging about their awesome vacations.

 

“Michelle and I are going to see a movie on Friday,” Aaron said.

 

“That’s Friday, not winter break,” I said. It was the other part of that statement that really surprised me though. I never knew that Aaron was so close with Michelle.

 

Apparently Justin was thinking the same thing. “Michelle? Aaron, do you have a girlfriend or something?”

 

“What?” Aaron said. “Am I not allowed to have friends that are girls? McKenna and I hang out all the time and you never say that she’s my girlfriend.”

 

“That’s different,” Justin said. “You’ve known her since kindergarten.”

 

“It really isn’t any different,” I said. I couldn’t help but defend Aaron. It didn’t seem fair that Justin thought that Michelle was Aaron’s girlfriend. Besides, it wasn’t really true. They weren’t even that close.

 

“Sure it is,” Justin said. “Who’s this Michelle girl anyways?”

 

I had forgotten that Justin and Michelle had never really met. “She’s, uh, just a friend,” Aaron said.

 

“I don’t believe you,” Justin said.

 

“You don’t have to,” Aaron replied. He grabbed one of the bags of popcorn and started eating again.

 

Maybe Justin was right. Maybe Aaron and Michelle were really more than “just friends.” But who cares if they were? Michelle and Aaron were both good friends of mine. They would probably be perfect for each other.

 

Still, it felt a bit awkward. What if Michelle tried to steal Aaron from me? Aaron had always been my closest friend, and I was scared of losing that.

 

I was just being silly. This was a good thing for both of them. Never mind the fact that we didn’t really know if they were dating or not. They probably weren’t.

 

I looked outside. It was snowing hard. White flurries were just pouring down from the sky. I looked back to our table. Justin was listening to music again and Aaron was eating more than his fair share of food. It was okay. I wasn’t really that hungry and neither was Justin.

Actually, I wasn’t quite sure what to think.