"What are you doing?" Ariel asked her sister as she turned away from their usual table and started heading in the other direction.
Sherri shrugged at her sister. "Nothing, I just thought we could eat lunch, just the two of us today."
"Sher, I don't want to see Monty's disgusting table manners as much as you but you know the guys will just follow us and get all offended and -" Ariel sighed. "I cannot handle an emotional baseball team full of boys."
"I just could do without all the noise today. We don't have to tolerate your little babysitters club all the time, you know." Sherri snapped.
Ariel looked around, some people had stopped to listen in on them. She shifted a little, focusing on the tray of food she held.
"Geez, Sher. I'm sorry, I already told them to back off. We don't have to sit with them if you don't want to."
Ariel knew Bryce, Monty and the others could be suffocating. Hell, she had said it to their faces millions of times but they either chose not to listen or just didn't care.
It's like ever since Jeff, they had taken this weird 'caregiver' role in her life.
It freaked her out. The sports teams at Liberty High, particularly the guys had this whole 'we're brothers for life' motto. Jeff had been part of it and it's like she had adopted the role now.
Ariel didn't want to be Jeff's widow. But she didn't resist the 'protection'. The guys let her sit with them and they would never say a thing when she just decided to be quiet and look out the window. They covered for her when she couldn't sit in a classroom a second longer and had to ditch. They kept other people she didn't want to talk to away from her.
She wasn't proud to admit it but for a long time she liked hiding behind the guys. They let her grieve. They didn't ask her questions, they didn't make her talk about it, they just let her be. They let her grieve in her own way, by avoiding everything else.
"Why are you guys just standing here?" Ariel hadn't even noticed Alex Standall approach them.
Ariel looked at Sherri. "Oh we were just gonna sit some -"
"Let's just go." Sherri grumbled, avoiding eye contact with Alex as she stomped towards their usual table where their friends from the cheerleading squad sat with a few guys from the baseball team.
Ariel looked after her sister in confusion. "Sherri's being so weird." Ariel spoke aloud.
"Yeah." Was all Alex said before he also started heading towards their table. Ariel followed him.
She could hear a couple of girls talking about Hannah from one of the tables.
She looked around not knowing what she was looking for but soon realising that she didn't know where Hannah sat. They had eaten lunch together once. Yeah
Ariel had seen Hannah sitting alone and had joined her. But after that, she didn't even remember thinking of eating with Hannah again. Not even once. She hadn't even thought to invite Hannah to eat with her and her friends.
Ariel felt ashamed. What did she think? That eating with Hannah once had been enough? That was so selfish of her. Why hadn't she thought to check if Hannah had someone to eat with the next day.
Maybe she ate with Clay? She thought. Clay usually ate lunch alone as well. Sometimes her and Jeff joined him.
Jeff would have thought to invite Hannah to eat with him. Because Jeff was a considerate person, unlike Ariel.
Jeff didn't really have a fixed table because he was welcome everywhere and he took advantage of it.
At first, Ariel had been irritated by it. She wanted to sit with her boyfriend at lunch but she also wanted to sit with her sister and her friends like she was used to doing.
