Cheese 'n' Crackers

Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Colton’s sitting at our table.

So he steals my money, almost kisses me, brakes our deal the next day, ignores me, and he still thinks he can be friends with my friends? I don’t think so.

I marched down to our table and slammed my binder down. Everyone’s eyes turned to me except for Colton’s. He’s sitting on the complete opposite side of me today, next to Cate. I looked at him expectantly, but he never turned to acknowledge me.

“What’s wrong?” Feril asked me with concern.

“Why are you slamming tables?” Jade asked confused.

“What happened?” Danny asked alert.

“What?” Lila asked confused and annoyed.

Claire looked at me with concern, while Cate and Zach stared at me with wonder and irritation.

All these reactions happened at the same time. The only person that mattered though was Colton. I don’t know why it bothered me so much that Colton was here. If my friends want to be friends with him then fine, but it just irked me knowing Colton was ignoring me. Ever since he told me the deal was off, he’s been acting all weird towards me. Like how in Physics I would catch him glancing at me, but when I turned to him, he would just snap his attention back to Jane.

Maybe it had to do with last night?

Was I really that repulsive, that he had to ignore me in order to stay sane? Who does he think I am? I won’t let people play with me anymore.

“Well?” I asked Colton. He still wasn’t looking at me. “I’m talking to you Colton,” I said through gritted teeth.

All my friends looked between me and Colton. There was an obvious tension between us.

“What?” he asked. It looked like he was talking to his nachos. He still wasn’t looking at me.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” I asked with a short amount of patience. “Why won’t you look at me?” I questioned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Colton answered.

“Why’d you cancel the deal?” I asked.

“Reasons,” he replied.

“Are we going to talk about last night?” I asked.

Now that I said it out loud, it scared me. Was he going to say it meant nothing? Would he say he wished he’d stayed? Do I care? I don’t know what to think anymore.

I thought I wanted to have fun. I thought I didn’t need a guy to make me feel complete….but isn’t that what I’m doing anyway? I want to be a player because the idea of no commitment is awesome. No one can hurt me like that. I’ve spent years watching relationships end, people getting heart broken, mistakes being made. My mom went through it, and I never want to feel that sort of pain.

But Colton.

For a split second I wanted something more from him.

“No,” he replied. That was it? No denying anything happened? No heartfelt apology? You have got to be kidding me.

Anger flared up inside of me as I stared at Colton. He was still staring at his damn nachos. I felt the stares of my friends as I reached over, grabbed the plate, and through the cheese all over Colton.

There was a large intake of air coming from all around me. I realize what I’d done just a little too late. The whole cafeteria was looking at me now. My friends were speechless. Their eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets.