letters to the boy who never cared

t w e n t y - e i g h t

Summer hummed curiously as she bit into her nutella-and-jelly sandwich. "Where's Matty?" she asked through a mouthful.

Grace scrunched up her nose. "That is just wrong. It's like a baby heart attack between slices of bread."

Summer rolled her eyes at Grace, but persisted with her question that no one had understood. "Where's my little Matty boy?"

Jen shrugged. "I don't know. I'm sure Olivia's wondering too. Don't look now. She's staring daggers." Jen was sitting across from me, and glancing over my shoulder, which had to mean Olivia was sitting right behind me.

"Poor girl," I mused.

"Wouldn't you know?" Grace said, smiling teasingly over her lunch. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded suspiciously.

Jen just grinned. "Duh, Lex. He tells us everything. I'm basically his mom."

Summer nudged me with her shoulder, giggling. "Come on, Alexa. Keep up!"

I shook my head bitterly. "Wow. Okay. So what I'm hearing is that you guys formed some dumb little family bond and nicely kicked me out of it. Thanks, guys, I feel the love."

Grace snickered. "Oh, please. All we ever talk about is you, anyway." She turned to Jen, feigning sadness as she shook her head. "So slow, this one."

Blood rushed to my cheeks. "You guys are so unfair," I grumbled. Summer slung her arm over my shoulder.

"Don't take it personal, okay? We just don't like you that much." My friends dissolved into giggles, and basically, that's how lunch went: them laughing at my expense, me blushing until my head was a tomato ready to explode. Reed not being there (skipping, I guess) made everything feel like old times.

Finally, the laughter got to me. "I'm going to the bathroom," I told them, and left through the swinging doors of the cafeteria. A few seconds after I got there, someone else arrived, too.

"Hey." It was Olivia. The homely brunette stood with her hands clasped in front of her, her look a mix of defiance and determination. Suddenly, I knew exactly what this was about.

"Did you lie to me?" Her hands unclasped as she looked at me, intimidatingly,

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, Olivia," I lied.

She glared at me. "I knew there was something up with you and Matt. And then he disappeared at New Years, and then he broke up with me, and now he's going out with...whoever she is."

I blinked slowly at her. "Olivia. What's that got to do with me?" I mean, it had everything to do with me, but she didn't need to know that.

She threw up her hands, pacing on the tiled bathroom floor. "I don't know," she admitted. "But I know, Alexa. I just know you did something."

"You sound ridiculous, Olivia," I snapped, forgetting trying to be nice. "You sound obsessed. You know why? Because you are."

Olivia frowned, clenching her fists. "No, I'm not," she protested weakly.

"You are," I countered. "Why else would you care so much?"

Olivia was silent, her cheeks ablaze with fury. Finally, she slammed her palm on the porcelain of the bathroom sink. "Shut up. Just shut up. I'm not obsessed. You should just know that you're a home-wrecking slag and-" she paused, looking down at my phone. "You gonna get that?" she hissed icily.

Of course. Matty flashed across the caller ID of my phone, along with a goofy Snapchat picture of him. Now, it was my turn to blush profusely.