Poison- H.S

two

When I get to the commons, I spot Matt sitting at a table full of people. They sit across the lunch room, surrounded by multiple tables.

Matt has lots of friends, he always has and he always will. He's just one of those everybody guys, everyone loves him. I don't think I've heard of anyone who doesn't.

Everyone looks so happy. Talking and laughing amongst themselves, probably sharing all of their greatest summer stories. But I'm not in the mood to share my story. It's rather a depressing one anyways. I don't want to look at them, talk to them, or even fake a smile for them. I just want to be alone.

I almost crack a smile at my own bitterness, but it doesn't fully form.

"Off to the bathroom again," I mutter under my breath. I see no other option since all of the other tables are filled up anyways.

I make my way out of the lunchroom and across the hall to the bathrooms. Luckily all of the stalls are empty, so I walk inside the biggest one and lock the stall behind me. I close the toilet seat with a paper towel before sitting down on it.

Since it's the first day of school and the bathrooms probably haven't been used much, it smells like a mixture of cleaning sprays and sanitizers throughout the air. The scents burn my nose.

My dad was able to pack me lunch this morning, a tuna fish sandwich and a small bag of carrots. I don't particularly like tuna, but I'm hungry and don't have any other option. My breath will smell terrible after eating it, so I'll probably have to buy a pack of mints from the vending machine.

I sit quietly eating my lunch, staring blankly at the stall's grey wall. This tiny grey wall in front of me, barely tall enough to cover my head when I stand up, represents my life right now, blank and one small blow to the center will have it hurtling across the room. Also it smells a bit too much a hospital.

After I'm able to swallow the last bits of my food, I pull water out of my bag. The water is warm of course, but I drink it anyways, washing down the foul taste of fish.

When I exit the stall, there's a girl standing in front of the mirror, fixing her hair. She stops for a moment to stare at me as I walk out of the bathroom, her eyes following my every move.

"What?" I say a bit harshly, not meaning too. Sometimes I just sound cranky, it's just how I am. I try to recompose my face so I look more approachable, but my left eye twitches. 

"Nothing," she says quietly and goes back to fixing her hair.

I leave the bathroom on that note, already forgetting what the girl in the bathroom even looks like, and throw my trash in the nearest garbage can.

There's no one by the vending machine, so I make my way over to it without encountering anyone. I pull a couple of quarters out of my bag and place them in the coin slot. With the amount of change I gave I can either get a pack of gum or a roll of mints, I decide on the roll of mints.

As I look for the code for the mints, I hear footsteps walk up behind me. My heart beats a little faster as I feel their close proximity. It bothers me not knowing who is standing so closely behind me, but I ignore it and concentrate on getting my mints. I've already forgotten the code.

I search for the code again and type it into the key pad quickly. As the metal rings spiral out, the paper on the packaging catches the tip of the spiral and doesn't fall to the bottom of the machine. I stare at my mints for a second, not understanding why they aren't already in my mouth, then press the numbers on the machine again, hoping it will move and I'll get my mints. Unfortunately, the machine doesn't budge and I sigh in frustration.