Fire

Bad Reputation

The next day you drag yourself to your bathroom. Socialising absolutely takes it out of you, plus a bunch of weird rat dreams didn't help.

You throw yourself in the shower, dress in the preppy sweater and acid wash jeans combo, grab your bag and a waffle as you hurry out the door, throwing a "Love you guys" at your folks as you run out the door and jump into your car and head to Hawkins High.

You would never say it to anyone, but you deeply love learning. It didn't matter what it was: school work, lyrics to a new song, a random fact, a recipe, or a craft. Just anything, really. Learning was helping a lot at the moment with the recent breakup looming over you.

It made your friendship group a little awkward sometimes, they were all coupled up, and a few of them were still friends with your ex Trent. So if they had visited him or spoken to him, someone else in the group would take pity on you and shut down the conversation. So employing the 'I wasn't listening, I was reading my book' pose was often required to avoid any guilty feelings. It really wasn't their fault you weren't together anymore.

You had wondered a few times if they would slowly ice you out of the group just because, for some of them, it was a lot of effort to think of others first.

You were a little early, so you decided to sit on the stairs and read your book, Perfume. The vivid descriptions of the olfactory senses in the book were just a feast for your imagination.

A squeak of car breaks runs right through your bones, making you shudder. You peep over the top of your book. It was just a van pulling up, but it caused a moment of realisation. This is why the van last night looked familiar. This one is the same model. You must have been seeing it most days and subconsciously recognised it.

The bell rings, and you head to class. You quickly grab your front row seat, organise all your stationery neatly on your desk, sit up straight, and settle one hand over the other in front of you.

You scribble your way through geometry and a double biology lab. A few times throughout the day, you felt a little uneasy like someone was watching you, but no one was every time you glanced over your shoulder.

At lunch, Joe and Dawn were already at the table and waved you over once you've collected some food. As you make your way over, you are jostled by someone running past you tut in annoyance and are just thankful you hadn't opened your drink yet.

You sit opposite them, "Hi, you both ok?" You ask, not expecting much out of them.

They'd spent the last year unable to keep their eyes, hands, and lips off one another, and it really didn't matter where they were either.

Staring into one another's eyes, Joe manages, "Yep, we're real good." Which sets off a flirtatious chuckle from Dawn. Their code was not lost on you. You just chose to ignore it.

Without tearing her eyes away from Joe, Dawn asks, "How was the wedding?"

"Oh, you know...like all weddings...the usual... drinks...dancing"

"Uh-huh," Dawn says without really listening. You wonder how much you can get away with.

"Playing hairdresser...getting shouted at by some guy...weird giant hairless rats", you add calmly.

"Oh, that sounds great. So glad you had a good time" you look at them both amused and decide it is time to get your book out.

Joe catches you doing this from the corner of his eye and grabs the book from you, "Come on now. You're making us look boring reading a book whilst sitting with us."

"You both seemed pretty busy, so I just thought I'd amuse myself," you say, strained whilst trying to grab your book back.

"Hey, it's not our fault..." He starts before Dawn shuts him up with a peck on the lips.