Eden

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

The period was almost over, the class buzzing with anticipation for the lunch bell. I looked to my left, Camila sitting cross legged with her phone in hand. She was smiling at something on her screen, having already finished the test that our chemistry teacher had given us. Camila was insanely smart, never wasting more than thirty to forty minutes on her tests. I, on the other hand, wasn't. it wasn't that I didn't study -my father wouldn't let me not study, always going on a rant about how we came to this country to better our lives and not to "Join the stupid trends." I knew the information, but it came to the front of my mind slowly. But I never complained, because after all, I was still smart and I still got my grades up. My phone buzzed in my hand, the screen coming alive with a text from the group chat.

Camila:

Where are we eating lunch today? I'm feeling the parking lot or that cool new coffee place that opened in town?

Devin:

What? Coffee place? We can't just leave school for that. Instead, we'll eat in the cafeteria. Let's vote on it.

Devin was more articulate than the rest of us, always using his commas and all that, even when texting.

Colt:

I vote for the cafeteria. There's this girl in my class and I'm trynna get her attention >:)

I heard Camila scoff from beside me, obviously irritated by Colt's playboy attitude. He was always sleeping around, and Camila had a problem with it. It wasn't that she was bothered the way he abused his penis almost every night, it was the way he talked about the girls he slept with or was planning to. I, for one, was not phased by his behavior. Why? Because back at home, Nigeria, it was actually seen as the norm for young boys or even older men to talk about girls like that -it wasn't like people were okay with that kind of treatment, but it had cut so deep into the society that it was normalized beyond belief.

I typed in my vote and shut off my phone screen, preparing to leave class as the bell had already rung a few seconds ago. I shoved my books into my bag and headed out to meet Camila who was standing at the door waiting for me. She smiled at me as we began to make our way towards the cafeteria, students marching all around us, wanting to get their own destinations quickly.

"So." She started.

"So?" I retorted.

"How's life? You know? Grades?" I knew what she was doing. She was trying to talk away the awkwardness. Camila was a very talkative person, always feeling uncomfortable by the fact that she didn't know what to do or what to say to fill the void -I couldn't be more different. I was quiet and I preferred the quiet. I was more like Ivan, Camila's twin brother, their personalities sharp and contrasting. They couldn't be more opposite. Although I considered myself and Ivan to be the same kind of people, I don't think he was in his head as much as I was. I mulled over everything and anything in my head, thinking a thousand words a minute. Cade was always telling me to stop it, that it made people feel conscious of themselves whenever I stared at them for a few seconds just because they asked me where I bought my shirt from.

"Hello?" She was waving her hands in my face, she almost looked like Kerby with her short figure waving and hopping in my face. I snorted.

"I've been good. Not much has been happening these past few weeks, so it's been kind of boring sitting at home and doing assignments all day." I answered truthfully. Nothing had been happening these past weeks, and it was beginning to irk me. I think a party was in order.

"I just feel like we don't talk anymore, Vince. It's not fair how you always seem to spend your time in your room or with Cade... or both of you in the-" I cut her off with a playful glare.