"Lizzieeee," Amy whined, "please come with us. You have to try the chai tea at Arnolds." Lizzie liked Amy, but she wasn't a huge fan of her asshole boyfriend.
"Fine, I'll go." Lizzie said putting her homework down. "I'm tired of bio." Lizzie joined the group of Amy, Maddy, a girl named Elsie, Kyle, and a guy named Adrien.
They all got in line at the counter and suddenly Kyle started laughing. "Oh my god guys look who works here." Lizzie cast her eyes to the cashier and saw it was Alex Price. He looked cute, but Adrien started laughing too. "He's so awkward."
The three other girls just rolled their eyes, as though they were used to it. They certainly didn't care, or they would've said something. When they reached the front, Kyle ordered first. "I'll take a cappuccino." He said without bothering to look at Alex.
"Same." Adrien mumbled.
"I'll have a chai tea." Amy pipped up. Elsie and Maddy ordered as well leaving Lizzie to ponder the menu. "Hurry up, Lizzie. Just get a chai tea." Maddy said impatiently, yet still in her bubbly voice.
"Um, you guys go ahead and find seats, I just need a minute."
"Okay, fine but that means you're paying for yourself." Kyle said. Amy shoved him slightly but Kyle tossed Alex his cash. Alex fumbled with the money and grabbed Kyle's change.
"There you go." He said quietly, handing Kyle his change. Kyle snatched it up and hurried behind the others.
"You know, I might just get a chai tea." Lizzie said laughing. Alex offered small smile and wrote down her order. She gave him her money. "Go ahead and keep the change, I hate spare coins." She said. "Hey, I'm sorry about Kyle and them." She started. She didn't know where this confidence was coming from but it felt wrong to say nothing. "They're okay people really, I'm just not sure what their problem is sometimes."
He looked at her for a second with a confused look on his face. Then, he glanced around quickly and made his voice more quiet. "Why are you even friends with them?"
She was taken aback by this question. "Um...I..."
"Lizzie!"
"...Should go." She finished. "Talk to you later though?" She asked. He nodded and she went back to her "friends."
"You look really cute today, Lizzie." Amy told her. "We should go shopping together."
"Yeah, okay fine. Hey, so um, why do you guys hate Alex so much?" She asked.
"Why do you care so much?" Kyle responded. Amy shot him a look but shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "What's to like, really?" Kyle continued. "He's just weird, Lizzie."
"That's not whyyy." Maddy cooed.
"How about you shut the fuck up, Maddy." She just laughed and wiggled her eyebrows at him. "Fine." Kyle grunted. "Because Maddy feels so inclined for me to tell you my life story..."
"Alex stole his girl!" Maddy interrupted in excitement. Lizzie's mouth dropped open and looked to Amy.
"Not her." Kyle said rolling his eyes. "This dumb girl I used to mess around with." Amy cleared her throat but Kyle continued. "Real pretty, but real dumb. Anyway, she talked to me about dumb crap like how I never listen to her, or whatever. She was so over emotional. Anyway one day she started crying and she told me that if I wasn't going to try and comfort her, she would turn to her 'best friend' Alex and then they dated for a while. Of course she's not completely brain dead and broke up with him after about three months."
"Oh." There was a silence. "He's not that weird, though."
"Just drop it, Lizzie." Amy murmured.
***
"Lizzie, you're late." Mr. Hamilton said. "You missed your chance to pick your partner for the project." She looked to Amy and Maddy who looked at her apologetically as they wrote together on a scrap of paper. "Oh, Mr. Price, perfect timing." Mr. Hamilton said sarcastically and Lizzie turned to see him enter the class. "You two will be working together since you can't seem to show up to class on time."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hamilton. I promise it wont happen again." Lizzie apologized, but she was happy she would get to spend more time with Alex. He had been on her mind a lot lately.
"It better not."
She and Alex walked to the back of the class. "Hey." He said smiling.
They tried to work for a while but couldn't get to any real ideas. "Look, I think we're going to have to work on this after school." Alex said chewing on the eraser of his pencil.
"Ew, stop!" Lizzie said laughing. "And yeah, sure."
He smriked. "Bad habit. Okay, lets meet today at the coffee shop?"
"Yeah, sure." Lizzie had to admit, she was excited.
