Corrupted Jewel

Thursday- End of Lunch (section 2.2)

"Strange and Beautiful" by Aqualung

Ø  Thursday, End of Lunch-CCHS Commons/ Jonny and Tiffani

Jonny grabbed an apple and a worn composition notebook out of his locker and headed toward his favorite spot at the school, the corner bench in the commons.  It was a fairly well hidden bench that was usually overlooked or ignored because it wasn’t well kept or pretty like the other benches, but it was perfect for hiding from the world that way.  As he got closer to the bench he saw that there was someone already sitting there. It was “her”.  His breathe caught in his throat letting a weird gurgle noise escape.  Her back was turned to him.  She was concentrating heavily on her drawing again and not paying any attention to what was going on around her.

He sat on the far end of the bench away from her.  “Parker, I know Eleanor sent you out here to get me to come back inside, but you don’t understand what I’m going through.”

“‘Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood’ or at least that’s what Oscar Wilde thought,” Jonny smiled at the back of Tiffani’s head.

She turned around slowly.  She pulled her gaze up from the worn stone of the bench slowly to meet his eyes, “You’re not Parker.”  She blushed.

He turned around in a circle so she could get a full view, then responded “Nope, not Parker in the least. I’m Jonny.”

She didn’t say anything at first; she just sat there blushing and then put her face in her hands.  “I think you’re right, or Oscar Wilde is anyway.  Girls don’t want to or need to be understood all they need is a good man to love them.”  She pulled her hands away from her face smiling shyly up at Jonny. “My name is Tiffani.”

Jonny looked into Tiffani’s bright green eyes, and just about the time he thought he just might drown in them, she shot off the bench.  Jonny gave her a confused look, “Where are you going so quickly?”

The words coming out of her mouth were quick and deliberate, “I’m getting away from you to save my ass.”  She jogged off to join her group just walking out of the cafeteria, her cousins.  Jonny could almost feel the sting of the glare he was getting from Eleanor, only to be soothed by the dorky, flirty wave coming from Lillian.

As soon as Tiffani and her cousins were gone, Brenna, Shawna, trailed by the guys walk out of the cafeteria when they notice Jonny standing by an empty bench looking dumbfounded. They all stopped dead in their tracks trying to figure out what he was doing.

“Someone should probably go talk to him,” says Brenna. “But I think that it should be one of the guys. Vincent, can you go see what’s wrong with him?”  Vinn cringed at the sound of his full name.  Brenna was trying as hard as she could to pawn the unpleasant task of talking to Jonny off on someone else.  Vinn had to choose to accept the task since denying would most likely be deemed insubordinate; the consequences would have been hefty.

“Yeah, sure,” said Vinn. “Hey, Jonny, wait up!” He turned around to the rest of the group and waved, “See you guys later.”

Vinn runs up alongside Jonny who is about to walk off toward his class.

“What it do?” asked Vinn. He was trying his hardest to make the conversation casual and flow; which was hard because Jonny usually avoided Vinn. They didn’t hate each other by any stretch; they just didn’t have anything in common to talk about. “Why do you look like you have no idea who you are?”

Jonny understood fully that Vinn was not asking questions out of the fullness of his heart but was asking them because Vinn was following instructions. Jonny phrased his reply carefully knowing that whatever he said would be repeated to the girls later, “’Cause the weirdest thing just happened. I was talking with this girl and out of nowhere she just runs off like I missed something or said something wrong.”

“Did you do something wrong?” Vinn prodded for as much information as he could squeeze out.

Jonny thought on the idea, replying the incident in his head, “I don’t think I did. I was just looking at her and then she ran off.” Jonny sighed, he noticed Vinn open his mouth with a smirk in his eyes, “And don’t say some smart ass comment. I am not in the mood.”

Vinn closes his mouth pitying Jonny by keeping the smartass comment to himself; he stops walking and lets Jonny continue on by himself. He was not about to start something in school that he knows that he can settle outside of school.

Post your comments!!!