Forever (Original)

Forever [11: Charades]

Forever: Charades

Monday morning, Maria passed Sean in the hallway. He kept his eyes on her as she walked to the classroom. Mark was already there and sat in his seat with the Asian-looking girl next to him at the front of the classroom.

“Mark, will you please switch seats with me?” Maria asked quietly.

“What’s wrong with where you sit?” he asked, glancing up from his notebook.

“Please, Mark,” she whispered. “I can’t sit with him!”

Mark looked to the door and noticed Sean come in with his eyes on Maria. Sean sat in his seat, but didn’t move his gaze from her.

“He looks like a creep,” Mark whispered.

“Hey,” the girl next to mark said. She had straight black hair that fell past her shoulders and down her black, bright brown eyes, and a kind smile. Maria knew she could trust her. “If you really don’t want to sit next to him, I will. He is a creep, but if I sit next to him, I’ll keep him in line.” She stood up and gave Maria a quick hug and whispered in her ear. “I saw what he did on Friday, I would have tried to help you, but then those other boys came.”

When they pulled apart, Maria smiled at her.

“I’m Brookelle, by the way,” she said.

Maria nodded. “I’m Maria,” she replied, taking her new seat next to Mark.

“I know,” Brookelle said and walked to the table with Sean, who glared at her.

“Has she always gone to school here?” Maria asked, trying to find any past memories with Brookelle.

“She moved here in eighth grade,” Mark said, raising an eyebrow. “You realize she sits with us at lunch everyday, right?”

Maria blinked, and looked at Mark, and then at Brookelle on the other side of the room, them slumped in her seat.

“Guess I never noticed,” she mumbled.

Mark snorted with laughter as the bell rang. “You seem to do that a lot.”

Maria shot him a glare before snickering herself.

“Oh, hush,” she said.

~x~ 

“Kirsten and me broke up,” Cadan said, sitting at the three-person table that used to occupy him, Kirsten, and Maria.

Maria looked at him in shock.

“But you guys have been dating since middle school,” she protested.

“Don’t act like you’re not happy about it,” Cadan said with a smirk.

Kirsten walked into the science lab, but ignored them both and sat with bleach blond girl wearing nothing but pink near the front.

Cadan wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“Why did I date her again?” he asked.

Maria shrugged. “You were desperate?”

Cadan let that mull over. “Yeah, I kind of was.”

Maria laughed propped her head on her hand that was supported by her elbow against the tabletop.

“Either way, I have my eyes on another girl,” he said with a grin. She looked over at him to find him staring straight ahead of him. She followed his eyes to see the back of a head of a black haired girl.

The girl was messing around with her pencil, and it suddenly flew out of her hands, hit her arm, and falling to the floor. She turned to bend down and pick it up. Maria’s jaw dropped and then she giggled.