Monsters Are Forever

19. Mia's Mistake

Anna sat down at lunch, trying to pretend like everything was ok. But she still caught herself sneaking glances across the cafeteria. Rudi was talking to her friends a few tables away. Anna breathed a small sigh of relief, glad that at least one person didn't seem to care too much about what she was doing. Slowly, she looked a few tables to the left. Summer gave her a knowing nod, and Anna dipped her head back down to the history book she had out in front of her. She knew she'd told both Summer and Rudi that she'd break up with Luke, but she hadn't quite gotten around to it yet. Still, she knew she was going to have to do it soon. This weekend, she promised herself firmly.

"Everything alright?" Luke asked somewhat stiffly, sitting down across from her. Anna tried not to feel guilty; he hadn't actually sat next to her since she'd started hinting she might not want to see him so much – after the movie just over a week ago.

"Of course." Anna looked up at him with what she hoped was an innocent expression on her face.

Luke turned, trying to see what she'd been staring at. Anna sneaked a glance out of the corner of her eye, trying her best to be subtle. Summer wasn't looking at them anymore, leaving Luke unsure of what had been bothering her. Anna breathed a small sigh of relief. She knew he was starting to get suspicious. And if he asked her, Anna knew she'd break down and tell him; she always had been terrible at keeping secrets. But he didn't say anything, and Anna was glad she wouldn't have to be admitting anything right now. Mia came up to the table, and Anna was grateful for the distraction.

"How are you?" Anna asked a little too brightly. Mia paused for a minute, as if trying to figure out some hidden meaning in Anna's question.

"I'm fine." Mia said finally. "I told you that – everything's taken care of."

"Really?" Anna asked, suddenly realizing Mia must be talking about Rudi.

"Yeah." she said, setting her backpack down on the ground and taking the seat next to Luke. She lowered her voice as she added, "Actually, if last night's anything to go by, I should be doing great."

"Well...that's good." Anna nodded, suddenly wishing she hadn't said anything at all.

Mia was looking just a little too excited about something, and it was making Anna nervous. It wasn't that Anna thought Mia was lying exactly. It was just that Mia had promised her at least twice that this was all sorted out, so her comments didn't exactly have a lot of weight at the moment. Besides, Anna really didn't want to think about any of that right now; Rudi stalking Mia was the whole reason Anna was in this situation in the first place. The only reason she'd even said anything was to avoid having to actually have a conversation with Luke.

Anna took a deep breath, trying to calm down. She could still see Summer out of the corner of her eye, so she angled herself away. There – that should help. Now, she just had to think about something else. If she could just ignore Summer and put Rudi out of her mind, maybe she could stop feeling so guilty about sitting here with her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. At least the rest of her friends showed up not too long after. With the table full, she didn't feel quite so awkward. She could pretend that maybe she was sitting here with a friend of her friends, even though that obviously wasn't true.

Zev sat down beside Anna, and Carmine passed him her sandwich, just like she did almost every day. Anna watched as he took it from her and started to unwrap it. She stared at it a minute, trying to figure out what Carmine had actually brought. Peanut butter and jelly, Anna thought. She started running through what kind of jelly was that color, mostly as a distraction. Apricot, maybe?

"Everything ok?" Zev asked, leaning away from her just a little as he eyed her suspiciously.

"Oh...yeah. Sorry." Anna hadn't realized until that moment that she'd actually been staring at him a little too hard. Maybe she should find a distraction that wasn't one of her friends.