Questions for Answers

Chapter Seven

"So, is he gonna be sitting with us all the time now or?" Kat said switching her attention between me and Tristen.

I laughed, "No, I just...you told me I should get more friends, so I did!"

Tristen smiled, "I really won't be a bother. All my friends are either in class or skipping school and I just wanna enjoy lunch with my new crew."

Kat gave him a look, "You sure you're not gonna get a bad rep for hanging out with a couple of juniors?"

He shook his head, "You know that nobody cares about that stuff, right? And it's not that weird once you realize that everybody hangs out with everybody. I mean, look around. There's a bunch of freshmen sitting with juniors, sophomores with seniors, we're all high schoolers at the end of the day."

"I just find it weird how I've never seen you around before. I mean, River got me up to speed on everything, but up until a couple of days ago, we didn't even know you existed. You sure you aren't, like, some creepy reporter who's pretending to be a high schooler, so he can get the latest scoop on this town?" Kat challenged him.

I hit her arm, "Be nice."

"This is me being nice, now answer the question", Kat demanded.

Tristen uncomfortably laughed, "I can assure you that I'm not...whatever you just described. I really didn't know much about River or anything that goes on around here. I just keep my head down, stay out of everyone's business, and pray that I don't get noticed in class. I don't blame you for being skeptical though, it's good that you are. But I see a little of myself in River and I want nothing more than to see this thing through with her."

I looked at Kat, waiting for an answer, but instead, she got up from the lunch table. I sighed, "Kat, where are you going?"

"Lunch's over. I gotta head to algebra", she said walking away.

I got up as well, "Want me to walk you to class?"

"Nope", she said now exiting the cafeteria.

Tristen pointed to himself, "Is it me? I feel like it's me."

I shook my head, "No, it's not. Well, maybe a little. I think she feels like I'm replacing her or even betraying her by bringing you in on what we've been doing. I tried to explain to her that after she left me at the bookstore by myself, I didn't have many options to get back home. I told her about our conversation and how I felt like you were trustworthy, but she still seemed upset that I told someone else. It was our thing. But she's the one who told me I should make more friends! I see where she's coming from, but she hasn't even tried to see it from my perspective. I mean, it's my story! I should be able to tell whoever I want about it. I don't plan to tell anyone else though. I meant it when I said the less amount of people who know, the better."

"She'll come around, just give her some time. Also, you still haven't told me what you're planning to do for my birthday tomorrow. I told you it doesn't have to be anything special, anything would be a step up from what I normally do. I don't mind just going to the lake again and talking. I really enjoyed that", he said ending his sentence with a smile.

I smiled back, "Well, I appreciate your love for simplicity, but we're doing something fun. Trisha's on that Bible retreat for a few more days and Tim's back at work, so I can go out without it being a problem. All I can say is...I hope you have good balance."

He scrunched his brows, "Wait, balance? Why, what are we doing?"

"See you later!" I said while running out of the cafeteria laughing.

For the last four days, me and Tristen had been finding each other in the halls, I've had him sit with me and Kat at lunch, and we exchanged socials so we could keep in contact even when we weren't at school. Kat made it seem like he was consuming all of my time, but in reality, we didn't see each other much. We only had five minutes in between every passing period and I had only seen him two times in those four days, and we said two sentences to each other before heading to our next class. Since he was a senior, we didn't have any of the same classes together, so I never saw him there. And finally, lunch was only 45 minutes, and we had the same lunch, so of course I wanted to spend more time with him then. But Kat was always going to be my number-one bestie.