The Ones That Got Away

"Let me help you."

Rrrrrriiinnnng
Finally, lunch time. I'm starving. After math I told Sam what my next class was and he gave me directions to get there. Before he went to his next class he gave me a toothy grin and told me good luck.

Now I'm following a herd of kids to the cafeteria. Well, I wouldn't say following, I was kidnapped and dragged to the cafeteria by a herd of hangry students. I walked out of class, as one normally would, but I walked right into a giant moving group of hungry, angry, and bored beasts called students. Those students sprinted to lunch in a tight pack taking up the whole hallway, sucking other unwilling students into the herd. "Oh!" I yelp as the person in front of me suddenly stops, making me run directly into him and fall backwards onto the floor.

The guy I ran into turns around and gasps. "I'm sorry, Rome! I was hoping that if I stopped the herd would go around me!" Great, it's Sam again. I ran into him, literally, again. "It's fine," I tell him. "The floor was there to catch me." I pat the floor and start to gather the stuff I just dropped. As Sam was hoping, the herd did go around us. It was just us and the contents of my binder in the hall. "Let me help you." He suggests bending down to pick up a stack of papers. "No, I can do this myself." I argue, trying to grab the papers before he can reach them. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful.

"Why won't you let me help you?" He questions me as he holds the papers above his head. "Because," I jump to grab the papers but can't jump high enough. "I don't want help. I can-" I jump again. "-handle life-" jump "-on my-" jump "-own." I glare up at him, giving up on reaching my papers. "Now please give me my papers." I hold out my hand for him to them in. Sam looks at my hand, then looks at me, then at my hand again. "Okay." Is all he says. Slowly he lowers my papers to my hand. "Thank you." I say, reaching up to finally grab them. "But," he draws out the word, bringing his arm (and my papers) up with it. "What?" I whisper. "No buts!" I exclaim, glaring at him. "You," Sam continues pointing at me. "Have to sit with me and my friends at lunch today." Seriously? That's what I have to do? He could've just asked! "Fine, whatever." is all I answer with. In return he smiled at me, handing me my papers. "Let's go, I'm starving." I complain after I finish putting my binder contents back together. "Lunch is this way." He says, taking my sleeve, and pulling me to the cafeteria.

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"Hey, guys!" Sam stops at a table, letting go of my sleeve. "This is Rome. She's new this year." He continues. "Rome," he turns to me. "These are my friends." He points to a muscular redhead aggressively tapping his phone screen. "That's Henry." Sam explains. "He drops his phone everywhere." As Sam said that Henry drops his phone. Oh, but he could drop it anywhere. But no, he drops it right into the school's spaghetti. "Not again!" Henry whines.
Again? "And that-" Sam says pointing to a blonde girl wearing all black and listening to music. "Is Laura."

Sam pulls off her headphones making her loud rap music audible to people within five feet of her. Laura glares at me, sort of like that rude guy from math. But Henry stands up and introduces himself. "Hello! My name is Henry." He starts. "So I've heard." I answer back. "I'm Rome." Henry looks at me closely. His brown eyes studying my face. Why does everyone I meet today do this? "What?" I ask, slightly annoyed. "Nothing. You just look familiar. I don't know where I've seen you before, though." He says it like it's nothing.

  Henry looks familiar, too. And I definitely know where I've seen him before. He's a criminal, just like me. He was robbing money from a store while I hijacked a car. This was a few years ago though, and we both got away with it. Do Henry's friends know he's a criminal? Are his friends criminals too?

  For the rest of lunch Henry kept giving me weird looks. Sam and Laura didn't seem to notice. Sam was talking about a jerk in one of his classes and Laura was listening to him, studying his expressions and just him. Studying the way his head moves, his light brown hair moving into his eyes. How his tan skin glows with his happiness. How- now I'm doing it. Stop it, stop it, stop it.

  "I need to start going to my next class." Laura tells Sam through a smile. She should smile more. She has a beautiful smile. "It's on the other side of the school, if I don't go now I'll be late." Sam checks his watch. "Damn." He mutters. "I should start going too." They both throw the rest of their lunches away, Sam waves before he goes, Laura just glares at me.

  "I'm gonna head to my next class." I tell Henry as I start standing up. I don't really feel like sitting at the same table with someone giving me weird looks for another ten minutes. Before I can fully stand up Henry grabs my arm, pulling me back down. "What?" I ask him, feeling very uncomfortable. Henry's dark eyes glare directly into mine. "I know where I remember you from." Is all he says.