Little Annotations | Tristan Dugray

chapter seventeen

"Hey Tristan, I was thinking-,"

"Never a good idea," She was rudely interrupted by a guy that was sitting with him. She abruptly stopped and looked him dead in the eye, unamused.

"Do you find yourself funny, Bowman? Do you speak just to hear your voice and laugh? Is it amusing in your head? I'm sure it is. If I were as stupid as you I'd speak just to hear my own voice too- since I'd obviously have nothing else going for me." She said.

Bowman's face dropped and he began avoiding eye contact, as she turned back to Tristan to continue speaking, she saw Duncan whisper something into his ear and laugh. Anger boiled in her chest, and as she was about to rip him a new one, Tristan jumped in awkwardly.

"Okay..." He steered her away from the two, a nervous look on his face, "What's up?'

"What happened to your other friends?" She asked, looking at Bowman and Duncan with open distaste.

"Camden moved, Scott got held back, Anthony got disowned, Jackson goes to public school now," He listed, "Enough about me, what did you need?'

"Oh uh..." She didn't know where her nerves were coming from, it was just Tristan, "I was wondering if you- well I wanted to-"

"Hey Tristan! Come on man!" Bowman called, and they both turned to see three girls standing with them, one of them batting her eyes at Tristan.

"Hold on for a sec Vie," Tristan jogged off over towards them.

Taking it as a sign of rejection, she made an immediate trip to her car, throwing the bag of cookies she bought for him in the nearest trash can and pulling out. She hated being interrupted, but she hated being ignored even more. Genevieve was never the loudest person, and in the case of Bowman and Duncan, she could never get her point across because while she was smarter than them, they were louder and more obnoxious, so they made what she said seem irrelevant.

She felt mad at herself for even thinking of being upset at Tristan, and she had to remind herself for the thousandth time that he was merely her friend, so she had no right to demand more.

. . .

"Tristan, this is Cassie, Samantha, and Emily," Duncan pointed to each of the girls, who seemed a bit too old to be casually talking to high school boys.

"Emily here has taken an interest in you," Bowman laughed.

"Hi, I'm Emily," She giggled, and Tristan nodded.

"Yes, I assumed as much,"

"You go to Chilton?" She picked at his sweater, "That's nice, it's like... a private school right?"

"Yep. We're juniors. In high school," He emphasized the last two words, but it seemed to go over their heads.

"Cute." The girl Sam- or Cassie said, "We graduated last year, I miss the days,"

"Nice..." Tristan smiled and tugged on Duncan's shirt, "Excuse us,"

"Man what the hell?" He slapped Tristan's hand off, "Do you not want her? That's fine you can take Cassie but-,"

"Listen really, they seem really nice, but I'm in the middle of a conversation right now," Tristan said, a hint of anger behind his words.

"Talking to a ghost?" He rolled his eyes, pointing to the spot where Genevieve once was. Tristan's stomach fell to his feet and his face grew pale. How long had she been gone? Why didn't he notice? She was his first priority- how in the world did he lose her?

"Where the hell are you going?" Duncan yelled after him but Tristan continued to walk around the shopping area. Hoping that Genevieve somehow got lost in the bookstore- which was the reason she came to the mall in the first place.