Finding Family

Chapter 11

 "A food fight!?! Are you kidding me!?!" Mr. Daniels practically had smoke coming out of his nostrils. "You guys are better than this. You're some of my best students. What were you thinking?"

Nobody said a word. Nate was trying to get sauce out of his ear, and Ben had taken his soaked shirt off. Peyton held Sabrina's hand as she pretended not to be crying, but we could all see her shoulders shaking up and down. Mouth had guilt written boldly across his features. To top off our disheveled group, Rory and I sat their like puppies. Her eyes glued to Mouth's sad face. My eyes longingly scanning every contoured inch of Ben's bare chest. Our tight little group looked as though a bomb went off around us. Something had snapped, and I realized in pain, that we'd never go back to where we were.

Mr. Daniels saw the pain on our faces and sighed. "You guys, are the first group I've seen in a long time to form such a tight group from multiple grades in the first month of school. You're a teacher's dream of a friend group. You're smart and you work hard, but you're also athletes, who know how to balance time and have fun. You teach and learn from each other. You respect each other, and other students. I refuse to let that vanish. Starting this week every Sunday, you've lost the right to leave campus, and you'll spend four hours with me team building."

"Respectfully Mr. Daniels, can't you just give us normal detention where we won't have to talk anymore?" Asked Ben.

"No."

The next day Rory and I walked into breakfast, and our table was empty. We searched the whole room and found Ben and Nate at a table with other soccer players. Sabrina and Peyton were giggling with some cheerleaders at the table nearby. Nate and Peyton kept shooting quiet yet flirtatious smiles at each other. Sabrina and Ben did everything they could to avoid eye contact. Mouth sat with some science kids I'd seen him say hi to in the hallways. Rory pointed to some other sophomores waving her over to eat with them.

"We can sit with them." Rory suggested.

"You go," I said. "I... I'm not hungry anymore. I'll see you at class."

I threw out my bowl of cereal and sped towards the door. I vaguely noticed Ben grunt something and follow me out. He slammed the cafeteria door behind us. "Can you believe Sabrina!" He muttered angrily.

The first closed off space I could find was a janitorial closet, and I walked inside to get away from him. I sat down on the floor. Suddenly hundreds of memories of middle school lunches spent in a closet flooded my find. I had finally made friends, and I was going to lose them all. They would all find new friends, but I wouldn't. I would be alone all over again, and I couldn't do it. I felt sobs rising up from my chest, and my throat closing making it hard to breathe.

"Amy, are you alright?" I heard Ben ask.

I couldn't open my mouth to respond without gasping. Slowly the handle twisted and Ben opened the door. He looked at me and gave me this look filled with sympathy and care. That was all it took for me to completely break apart. I sobbed into my hands gasping for air. Ben crouched next to me and rested his hand on my shoulder.

"I don't... I can't." I sobbed. "I don't want to be alone."

Ben tilted his head slightly to the side as the corner of his mouth lifted sympathetically. Nate had worried about me a lot in middle school. Ben knew about how lonely I had been. He knew that our group were the first friends I'd had in too long. Ben lowered himself onto the floor next to me.

"Shhhhhh." He whispered as I gasped for air, sobbing uncontrollably. "Slow down. Slow down. Sloooow down. Shhhhhhh. Slow, deep, breathes. Slow, deep, breathes." He stood up and grabbed a small paper bag from a shelf and brought it to my mouth, squatting next to me. I took the bag with one hand as he delicately held onto my other. He wrapped his free arm around my shoulders. "Breathe into this. Slow down, slow down. Just breathe."

I took a few long ragged breathes into the bag, and my breathing began to return to normal. Keeping the bag on my mouth I gently rested my head on his shoulder as he rubbed his hand up and down my back. I closed my eyes and set the bag down. It felt so comfortable, feeling his warmth radiate through my body. I sat up and gave him a weak smile. "I'm going to be fine," I said shakily.

"You're going to be fine." He said with a quiet confidence.

"Thank you."  I said softly.

"No problem." I stared into his into his deep brown eyes and felt my insides begin to melt. Our faces slowly began to move towards each other, and then we simultaneously pulled away.

"I should..." I muttered.

"Yup..." He answered avoiding my eyes. I stood up and walked out.

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Authors Note:

Ok, so I tried something new for this chapter. I used a scene from Grey's Anatomy (So credit to them) and tried to make something exciting happen. Let me know what you think (If anyone is actually reading this). Good? Terrible?

Thanks,

xoxoxoxo