Seeing You - Boys of Tommen

I Just Wanted To Eat My Sandwich

September 5th, 2005

Patrick:

It was the first day of school, and I thought it being my last first day of school it would feel different. But it felt the same as all the others. 

Hugh and I were standing in the hallway, getting our lunches out of our lockers when he surprised me by asking something of me.

"Hey, lad um, Claire and I..." He looks down, "Uh.. Claire is real worried about Liz."

"Okay." I respond, not knowing where this is going. 

"I was hoping you could talk to her."

"Why can't you talk to her?" I ask, and he cringes. I was worried about Lizzie too, but that fucking thing she said to Katie about her starving herself was way out of line. The look of pure shock and shame on her face was heartbreaking. It took everything in me to not run after her, thankfully Hugh did. 

I always blamed Lizzie's actions on her trauma, and excused them. But this was different, Katie wasn't doing anything. When she fought with Gibsie, it was unwarranted but he fought right back with her. It takes two, and he not only meets her every blow, but antagonizes her. Katie however, has no interest in getting mixed up with Liz's venom. And yet, she is always dragging her into it.

"I...I tried, and she didn't want to hear it."

"What makes you think she'll listen to me?" I ask, not wanting to confront Lizzie right now, afraid of what I might let slip.

"She listens to you....and you're good at this kind of thing."

"When have I ever given the impression that I'm good at 'this type of thing'?"

"You just are, okay?" Hugh drawls.

"I don't know, lad." I say, and as I do Lizzie walks right around the corner, her eye line moving immediately to meet Hugh's. Hugh is then pushing me into her, and I want to throttle him. 

I love my friends, but they're always putting me in the middle of their drama, because they assume I don't pick sides because I don't voice my opinions. I'm a mute as Gibsie says.

I take a few steps from Hugh, who is now pretending to be busy looking for something in his locker, despite it being empty. 

"Did you need something, Feely?" Liz asks, and I immediately want to confront her, for her words towards Katie, but I somehow stop myself.

"Yeah, um...how are you doing?" I ask. I just wanted to eat my sandwich.

"Fine." She answers looking me up and down curiously, "why the sudden interest?"

"Claire's worried about you." I deadpan.

She sighs in annoyance, "well you can tell Claire, that she can talk to herself, and to stop sending people to do it for her."

"You're mad at her for being worried?"

"I...She doesn't need to be worried, she's just being paranoid."

"Okay."

"That's all?"

"Is there more?" I ask.

"You've been mad at me since the camping trip, what gives?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit." She replies, glaring at me.

"You were snoring really loud, could hardly get a wink of sleep." I say, with no emotion.

"Ha ha." She deadpans, clearly not amused. "No, the reason you're upset, is because I hurt princess Katie's feelings."

"Princess?" I question.

"Just admit it."

"I'll admit that it was a bitchy thing to say to someone, let alone to someone in front of a group of people."

"Whatever, she started it." She says, shrugging.

I can't help myself, "oh right, asking someone why they put marmite on their toast, which is absolutely disgusting by the way." I say too quickly, "warrants accusing her of starving herself to death, in front of all of her friends."

She levels a glare at me, and looks past my shoulder at something, but I continue, "would you really say she started it?"

"Well, none of them are really her friends are they? She just follows Hugh around and you guys ignore her, we don't even realize she's there most of the time." she asks slightly raising her voice. "Isn't that right?"

"What?" I ask, confused. Until I get a shiver down my spine and look back to see Katie standing a foot away from us, clearly having at least heard Liz's last comment. 

My stomach dropped, her eyes were wide and held so much sadness and Hugh was visibly cringing, and is reaching out a hand to catch her arm before she walks away. But she just slipped past him and walked away, pulling out her phone as she became smaller in the distance.

"What the fuck, Liz?" Hugh asks.

She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes, "she was the one eavesdropping."

"You knew she was there, you raised your voice." I say, willing myself to stay calm. 

"Why did you have to say that, Liz? You know....She's not exactly doing well." Hugh says, his face red with anger. "Why?"

"She's fine."

"What do you know?" I ask.

"Oh no poor little princess, wants attention so she stops eating, and what do you know? She sure is getting it."

"You don't know what you're talking about." I snap. The idea of Katie wanting attention, was ridiculous. She had been diligently hiding her habits for years, and now because of one slip up, Lizzie was airing out her business for everyone. 

"Liz, please just leave her alone." Hugh pleads.

"Whatever." She says walking away in the direction of the lunch room. 

"That went well." I say, sarcastically. "So much for my special skills." Hugh doesn't respond, he's typing away on his phone.

"Katie's going home." Hugh leans his head back on the wall, "I'm so fucking tired of all of this drama."

"She's going home?" I ask.

"Yeah, she said it's because of cramps...But it's Lizzie." He then mutters under his breath but I just catch it, "It's always Lizzie."

We join our table for lunch, and the drama's continues to unfold. Shannon's crying while Johnny consoles her because Joey and Tadgh both got sent home for fighting with Ronan, and Hugh is arguing with Gibsie, because he's got his little sister sitting on his lap, and is hand feeding her bakery. 

In true Tommen fashion, our group ends up in all out brawl, with other players on the rugby team. It started after Pierce and Danny made some fucked up comments toward Claire, and it only got settled when Johnny came back and pulled the captain card.

It was however entertaining to watch Principal Twomey, upstaged by an eighteen year old. I went a little harder than I should have in the fight, considering these were my teammates but it felt good to let some steam out, and I think Hugh was feeling the same way. 

Thank for reading!  - H <3