The Downside of Popularity

17|Avoiding clichés

Jake
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The perfume of antiseptics with a mix of pills smacked me in the face the second I sauntered into the sterile white-walled Health Bay. The entire place was empty and quiet.

Well, sort of.

The only distinct sound in here was Alina's laughter somewhere behind a rolled-over pastel curtain.

It felt good to hear her laugh after what had happened earlier today. Somehow it lessened the guilt I felt about not being able to find the perpetrator easily.

Pulling the curtains aside, I entered her cubicle. The only furniture about from the fluffy bed with sea-green covers was a desk cabinet on the side. Alina didn't feel my presence in the tiny space when I walked in. She was too busy face-timing someone on her phone as she lay against her stomach, legs dangling above her head she was flipping back, releasing peals of laughter. Snort by snort.

"Hey," I said, announcing my arrival. The fact that she still hadn't noticed me since I walked in sort of bruised the attention-loving side of me.

Like a stone attached to a string, she whipped her head around, startled by my voice. "Hey Jake, I didn't hear you walk in," she said nervously, uncurling from her position most likely so I could have some space to sit.

"Hold on, did you say Jake?" a female voice interrupted. "As in the boyfriend Jake? Pass the phone over, I wanna talk to him,"

Alina stared into the screen with raised eyebrows and a contemplative face. "Just pass the phone over Lina, it's not like I'd bite him or anything, I just want to talk?"

She chewed on her bottom lips, looking from the phone to me and then back to the phone again. Then she scooted closer to my edge of the bed, holding out the phone so we could share. It seemed she wasn't comfortable with whatever talk her dear friend wanted to have with me.

"Hey," I beamed into the screen once I realized it was the girl who had pulled Alina away from me that day at the mall. "Nice to see you again," I added, watching as her eyebrows formed knots on her forehead.

"Mm, I'm not sure I can agree with you on that," she said flatly, staring pointedly at me.

I heard Alina release a tired breath next to me and I suddenly became very conscious of my choice of words. Just in case this was one of those tests girls put a guy their friend's dating through to determine whether or not he was good enough for her. The last time I took that test, I'm not sure I did well. Laurie's friend Addie ended up muttering something like, 'He's not half-bad with a shrug. That was probably also one of the reasons I got dumped. I wasn't exactly good for her, but I was somewhere along the lines of manageable.

A lump formed in my throat and I had to clear my voice before speaking. "Why? Have I done anything bad so far?" It seemed like a reasonable enough question. All I had to do was wait for her to start throwing in the 'would-you-rather?' questions.

"Oh, you've done a lot!" she breathed, cupping her chin in her palm. Above her shoulders, I could make out an open wall wardrobe in a corner and a poster of the back of a naked lady cropped on a wooden frame on the wall right next to an open door.

"Easy now, Alice," Alina scolded, with shot-up brows and a threatening stare. Somewhere in my insides, I was happy she was standing up for me and asking her friend to go easy on me.

Alice rolled her eyes at Alina with a dismissive snort and then turned her attentive, deep brown eyes back at me with the determination of a reporter trying to get Kim K to accidentally blurt out something she would call headline gold. She cleared her throat and batted her eyelashes dramatically.