At this moment Tom Drew appeared in the scene, the one you know, yes, Rose. He studied with Michael, remember, and was kind of a "fake delinquent", the second-in-command of a group of baddies that scored 70 in the tests and wore uniform prettily. He smoked only once, and never answered rudely a teacher. This kind of baddie.
Anyways, Tom carried a tray distractedly and passed by Michael and Cindy in the climax of their tension; in that sad moment, he tripped in his shoelaces and the tray flew from his hands; there was only a cup with orange juice on it (have you ever seen a baddie drinking orange juice?), but it had a good flight until it hit Cindy's shirt. Orange juice is a crap when it dirties something; but Cindy was moveless, probably because her anger was internal. Tom got up on his feet as quick as a flashlight, but not quick enough to slip through Michael's grip, that held firmly his necktie and... well, you know when two guys fight over a girl? Michael was madly sick, I recall you, and he would really have hit Tommy if he hadn't been so diplomatic, although he was supposed to be a baddie. I won't tell you Michael's ugly swearing as he almost spitted in his face, while shaking him by the collar, nor Tom's funny face to Cindy, with a reproachable air of "such a possessive boyfriend, gosh". You can imagine that by yourself – what matters is that it was all so sudden, but Tom's fell had called attention. Many students looked around and the girls screamed as they saw Michael about – who knows – to punch him, so Cindy got up dryly and stared at the full cafeteria with lots of eyes over her and her dirty shirt. Her purple eyes shone, hate, evil, with a sick desire of revenge, not only for that, but because of all they did to her. But she said very calmly to Michael:
"Leave him" he obeyed mechanically, like a puppet in her hands, hot face, fast breath; everybody whispered about Michael Stormfield's madness, illness and reverent worshipping towards that odd butterfly girl. But, some dude commented with a smirk, idiot he was not, "because the bitch was a good hottie". How come they didn't know her? What was her name too? It was unfair that Michael could always get the tasty ones, even sick. No, another replied with a teasing chuckle, she had got him. "Just look at his face" they said "He's a man in love. Totally lost for her" The girls were pale with envy and feeling ill. Ellio Young looked at Michael very disturbed; Gabriela went to ask Tom if he was ok, and as she acted as if everything was under control and talked casually, lots of boys followed her, Tom's group. Cindy said nothing, but walked firmly towards the door, with her book in the right hand and a stone face that silenced all the mouths around her. When she reached it, she turned back and stared at Tom like trying to burn his soul. He smiled.
"I'm sorry, Miss Flynn, I tripped. Do you want me to lend you another shirt?"
"No way you're doing that, you son of a bitch" exclaimed Michael eagerly, without being able to contain his rage. However, a cold glance from Cindy shut him up. The unexpressive Cindy he had met the day before... only it was getting interesting, and that "son of a bitch" had to interrupt it... he should get darned...
"It's ok, I don't care" said the little girl, walking away with no more words. The whispers came back as soon as she left, but Michael didn't stay to hear them – he quickly took two cherries from his plate and ran after her with no other excuses then a "go to hell, Drew", while Tom Drew laughed to his friends and threw disdainful glances of pity to his back. After he left, he turned to the ones that were still talking about what had happened and said in a funny voice, "You all, shut up already. There's no reason to pay heed to him; he'll be the one to go down there much earlier than it seems"
"For pity sake..." sighed Ellio Young... and everybody chuckled, deciding to ignore Michael Stormfield and his issues since then.
