New Starts

Chapter 6

After grabbing a wrap and chips I looked towards the cashier. It was Britney. I walked slowly to the counter and handed her the money. She glared at me and grunted when she gave me my change.

I turned around to see Aria standing there with a tall brunette behind her. The brunette was texting on her phone and wore black Ray-Ban glasses. She glanced up when Aria mentioned her name, "Eliza, this is Isabelle. She's my roomie."

Aria was looking between India and Demi with a confused expression. I decided to introduce them, "Aria, this is India and Demi. I met them in art." Aria still looked confused so I added, "I invited them to come and have lunch." Aria didn't exactly seem like, how do I say this nicely ... the sharpest tool in the box but for what she lacks in brains she makes up for in cheeriness. She broke out into a grin and said, "Great! Now we just need to find somewhere to sit."

We turned towards the tables to find all of them taken. To my left India and Aria sighed as Demi muttered "Shit." Isabelle was still staring at her phone, oblivious to our problem.

"Personally, I think we should go eat in the toilets." We all looked at India incredulously, "I mean no one will be there, there'll be somewhere to sit then," she continued.

"I saw this post on Instagram and it said that computer keyboards can carry more than 200 times as much bacteria as a toilet." added Isabelle, glancing up from her phone.

"Isn't eating in the toilets off fucking Mean Girls?" asked Demi.

Luckily a certain grey-eyed somebody caught my eye and gestured to his table in the far corner. I noticed Percy and another guy with blonde hair sitting next to him.

"Hey, there's a table over there where we can sit." I said, nodding to the table.

"Lead the way." Demi indicated to the general direction of the table, looking bored.

India seemed to realise that the table was full of guys and she slowed slightly; I dropped back so I could talk to her.

"You alright?" I asked her. She shook her head in return and took a slight step back. I'd figured she was shy, but not this much.

"If you want, I can go sit in the toilets with you if you don't want to sit with them. But they're honestly not that bad, I've talked to James and Percy and they seem pretty decent but I don't know about blondie." I told her. India contemplated this before nodding her head slightly and moving towards the table. I gave a shrug and followed her.

The only seat left was between James and India so I sat there and started my lunch. James and Percy both offered 'hellos' as I sat down which I returned with a smile. The table lapsed into silence and I wasn't sure if I was the only one who was feeling the awkwardness, but as I was looking around the table I noticed Percy glancing between people, before he looked at me and we smiled at each other.
"So ... how's life?" I voiced my go-to ice breaker. Everyone was staring at me except for Isabelle, who was staring at her phone instead. Some were smiling, some were glaring. The glaring ones consisted of Demi and blondie, the guy sitting on the Percy's left.

"What?" I asked him before he turned his head to glare at his food, I blinked at him and went back to eating my lunch. Percy noticed the glare and awkwardly cleared his throat;

"Eh, Eliza this is Adam, he rooms with me and James. Adam this is Eliza, she lives across the corridor from us." He finished with an embarrassed smile. Maybe he was embarrassed because his friends was being hostile for no reason whatsoever. Maybe he was embarrassed because every time he looked at India they both blushed immensely. I smiled to myself at their behaviour.

"To answer your question," shit, what question? I looked at James.

"Life's good. No different from when I saw you this morning." Finished James, oh, that question.