Baby Fat

eight

Bradley walks into the kitchen, wearing somber clothes: black three-quarters sleeves shirt, black jeans, black shoes.

"Looking festive," Cassandra greets him. He rolls his eyes and continues to walk to the foyer off the living room. "Breakfast?" She calls out to him.

"I'll eat a granola bar in the car!" He yells back. He grabs his backpack and walks into the garage off the foyer. He gets in his car and drives to school.

When arrives he strolls to his locker before he goes to his homeroom, which he has with Hannah. He sits down in the seat he sits in everyday and his stomach grumbles from the lack of food. He pretends not to notice it.

When Hannah walks in, she doesn't sit by him like she usually does. Instead she walks towards Matt, the football player she's been messing around with, and kisses him on the cheek.

Bradley finds this peculiar, mostly because it's been two weeks since Matt started to actually acknowledge Hannah and she's already in love with him. Well, maybe, not love but definitely infatuated with him.

He doesn't say anything. He just sits quietly in his seat for the rest of the time and pretends to read a book while he's really just fantasizing about Leo—but no one has to know that.

By the time the bell rings, Bradley's managed to think about seven situations that lead to him kissing Leo. He knows none of them would ever happen, ever, but he still likes to think about it.

"Hey," Hannah calls out to Bradley from behind him. He's walking towards his locker and looks over his shoulder.

"Hey." He acknowledges and waits for her to catch up to him. She jogs to him and smiles.

"What class do you have again?"

Bradley does the combination for his locker and opens it. He grabs his Advanced Chem book, folder, and notebook before closing it.

"I have Advanced Chem. With you." Bradley rolls his eyes.

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot. I've been really messed up lately, I've been forgetting everything." Hannah laughs. She runs her temple with her hand and then rubs her eye. Bradley should be more concerned, but he isn't.

"I'll see you in class," Bradley says, slightly annoyed. It's been three of the four minutes they get to get from class to class and he really doesn't feel like being late.

Hannah nods her head before sauntering off to her locker somewhere on the other side of the school.

Bradley walks into Advanced Chemistry and takes his seat at his lab table. He waits for Hannah to arrive, seeing as she is his lab partner, but the bells rings and she never shows up.

He waits for a few minutes, knowing that Hannah is known for being late. Ten minutes into class, she still hasn't shown up. Bradley gives up hope at twenty minutes and starts the assigned lab, without her.

•••

By the time lunch rolls around, Bradley has seen Leo once and Corrie twice. He hasn't seen Hannah since the incident in the hallway—coincidentally, Bradley hadn't seen Matt in the class he had with him second hour.

"Where's all you food?" Corrie asks concerned. He's looking at Bradley's nearly empty tray with confusion.

This time, Bradley doesn't blow up. Nonchalantly, he lies, "I ate a big breakfast. Dad woke up early and made pancakes."

Corrie nods his head unconvinced but drops it.

Bradley pokes around with his food, cuts it up into small pieces so no one notices. When he goes to throw his food away, no one said anything.