That Scandalous Year

19. A Better One

MARIE

Marie planned the whole thing.

She carefully followed the group on their way to Happy Wok for their lunch break that mid-October Friday. And she knew they'd be there because she already trailed them the week before.

Those nerds lived by their routine, which wasn't that hard to track.

They were the lone group of customers that hour. Marie found it serendipitously odd. Happy Wok was always a busy place almost all the time.

Clead saw her first. Well, he was the first one who acknowledged her. "Marie? What are you doing here?"

She managed to still act a little surprised but eventually played along. "Uhm, you know, just checking out the place. Or, I don't know, maybe to have food for lunch, I guess?"

Clead disregarded the sarcasm and immediately invited her over to join them at their table by the corner near the back of the room. Marie declined at first, but then Vlad—she was secretly thankful for Vladimir—seconded Clead's invitation.

Marie sat sandwiched between Mitch and Clead. Then Vlad involved Marie in the discussion they were having while waiting for their orders to be served.

"Yo. You're the tie-breaker, Marie. I say, The Prisoner of Azkaban. Clead agrees with me. These other two say The Goblet of Fire was better halfway through in the series. What's your opinion on the matter?"

"Uh... A better one between the third and fourth Harry Potter?"

Vlad nodded while Edward intently waited for her response. Clead and Mitch were just hanging along.

"Are we talking about the books or the movies?" Marie asked. She read them, but she was the type who just read for the sake of reading. She watched the movies multiple times, at least.

"Whichever," Vlad said. "The story's basically the same, anyway."

Marie wanted to disagree and debate further, but "eh," she shrugged. "Azkaban. I haven't gotten over that part where they knocked off Snape underneath the Whomping Willow."

Vlad raised his fists in the air as if he just won a significant argument.

"There are more of these kinds of topics around our table. Don't worry," Edward amusingly told Marie. As if he meant that she was supposed to join them for lunch again. She was also secretly thankful for Edward.

Mitch rolled her eyes at Vlad. "Now that that's settled, can we move on? Since when are the two of you friends?" She asked Clead about Marie.

But Marie sensed a bit of condescension in Mitch's voice. She disliked it, but she understood why. Though it still left a small pang in the middle of her chest.

Whoever was crazy enough to mingle with her would've been crazier to invite her to a lunch table. Marie's reputation at their school didn't exactly change even though it didn't worsen.

Clead didn't seem phased by the question. His demeanor that minute suggested that he might've been anticipating some sort of wondering from his friends about his other social activities. At least, that was what Marie thought, or would like to think so.

"Oh. Marie was a, uh, source for that thing that I wrote for the paper," he replied in a voice that sounded mechanical and rehearsed.

Marie hoped Clead's friends were oblivious to the fact that he broke a rule journalists follow. She just nodded. Although, she wished he would've said something more. But what? Aside from that, the other reason for their so-called friendship was a secret that he promised to keep. Still. She also wished she could just act normally and stop pretending.