Colors

Chapter 12

When lunch came Stacie couldn't wait to tell Victoria about Steve. His whole plan to get her to like him was ridiculous. When Victoria came over to the table Stacie told her everything that had happened in P.E. and in the hallway. By the time she had finished they were both laughing at how ludicrous this boy was. "That's really pathetic" Victoria said when she stopped laughing. "It really is" Stacie agreed as Jared sat down in between Victoria and Stacie. The tables in their cafeteria were circular and Victoria had sat across from Stacie, hoping she could get them to sit next to each other. "Whatcha talking about" he asked. Victoria explained what had happened with Steve. "You're right, that is ridiculous" Jared said when she was done. Victoria stared at him expectantly. "What" he asked when he saw the look on her face. "Well," said Victoria, "don't you feel jealous at all." Stacie rolled her eyes and shot Victoria a look that said be quiet. "Um," said Jared sheepishly "I don't think I exactly have the right to feel jealous about anything in Stacie's personal life. I'm just someone who randomly got in the way of things." "Aww" said Victoria. Jared's face turned red and he looked down at his lap. Stacie just stared at him with an almost sad look on her face. "You're not." Stacie began, not knowing exactly what she was going to say "You're not just somebody that got in the way of things." Jared looked up at her. "You two are so cute" Victoria said. Stacie rolled her eyes at her. She knew better now than to retaliate because it would lead to even more awkwardness.

"Are you really not going to say anything more" Victoria mumbled. Stacie looked at her. "Whatcha say?" she asked. "Well," Victoria complained, "he just said something really cute and then you said something cute and now you're just gonna act like nothing happened! This is unbearable." "Well what am I supposed to say?" Stacie asked her. "I dunno, maybe that you like him" said Victoria. Stacie groaned and put her head down on her arms so her face was hidden. Jared was confused. "I don't quite know what just happened" he said to Victoria. "Well the gist is," Victoria said, "Stacie likes you, and she won't admit it and when I bring it up she gets all embarrassed, and then you just sit there because you don't want to upset her or something and she doesn't know what to do and I think it's adorable." Stacie made a high pitched noise of agitation from under her arms. Jared didn't say anything but looked at Stacie as she lifted her head so her eyes were showing.

After a couple seconds of silence, their attention was diverted by a teacher yelling at someone. Apparently he had been throwing food. After a minute or two of yelling she made him stand up. She did a sweep of the cafeteria with her eyes until finally settling on their table. She pointed towards them and told him to sit there for five minutes without talking to think about what he had done. He swaggered over and sat down. He sat down next to Victoria, looking at his friends with a smirk, causing her to scoot over. That, in turn, made Jared scoot over until he was right next to Stacie. When his arm touched hers and the colors bloomed before her eyes. She knew that Jared was seeing them too and looked up to see a faint smile on his face. Stacie still had her head in her arms so she sat up. The guy was just sitting there. She didn't know him and by the looks of it, neither did Victoria or Jared. They all sat there in silence with the guy mouthing words to his friends. Eventually the teacher came over and told him he could go and he practically ran back over to his friends. Victoria moved back to where she was but Jared didn't move, and quite frankly, Stacie didn't want him to. She didn't want the colors to go. Victoria looked over at them. "Aww" she said. Jared blushed and moved over. Stacie looked over at him while the world faded back to grey. She reached out and grabbed his hand under the table. The colors reappeared and Jared looked at her. Stacie blushed and looked down at her lap. She started to move her hand but Jared squeezed it softly. Stacie smiled and looked up. "What?" she asked, seeing Victoria. "You two are just adorable, I know you're holding hands beneath the table" Victoria said (more like yelled).

The teachers called them to leave so they got up but Stacie didn't let go of Jared's hand. They walked side by side so no one would see and no one did. They were almost to the door when Steve came over. "So, Stacie-" he began before seeing Jared. "Oh hello" he said. "Is he your boyfriend?" he asked. "Um" said Stacie, not knowing what to say "Uh..." she continued, looking up at Jared. "It's... complicated" she finally said. "Oh" said Steve with a smirk, "well then I guess you're still open, right.". "You know what" said Jared, "that's just rude. Don't say things like that." "Oh, and you're gonna stop me" Steve said with a laugh. Jared let go of Stacie's hand and stepped forward. Jared was taller that Steve just enough that his eyes were at Steve's forehead. He tilted his head slightly. Stacie didn't exactly know how but it was actually sort of intimidating. Steve stepped back half a step. "Whatever" he said and walked off. Stacie stepped forward to Jared but was cut off by some students. He looked over at her and shrugged his shoulders. They were whisked away from each other in the growing crowd by the door and went to their separate classes.