Strangers, Friends and All the In Between

Chapter 3

Lunch came quickly as the one class went by with haste. As I said before, I kept losing my focus within the class time and time again. Those green eyes just within my peripherals. Anyway, my group, along with our new member, sat at a table from the day prior. Our group never really sits in any different order. It tends to stay the same with Ryan on my left, me, Sam on my right (which was previously unoccupied), Amy, John, and then finally Justin.

"What do you think, Aaron?" I hear Sam ask of me, pulling me from my thoughts.

"I'm sorry?" I ask in response, allowing them to know that I didn't hear their conversation.

"I told you," Ryan laughed out to my left. The rest of the group laughs along. "You're always off in your own world and never seem to bring anyone else with you."

"Yeah, sorry. I suppose it just comes with the lack of sleep," I say, smiling and rubbing the back of my neck, a blush lightly coming to my cheeks. "I know it's gotta be annoying; I can't help it."

"I think it's quite adorable, actually," I hear Sam say to my right. I choke on my food. I look to her only to see her eyes already looking into mine. No one else seemed to catch the comment as they had fallen into their own conversations.

"What?" I ask, my blush growing a few shades darker. Sam took notice to this, showing that she saw by a smirk on her face.

"You heard me," she replies, moving her face closer to mine, resting them onto her hands that she laced together and put them on the table. Her face was now only a few inches away from mine.

"I need to use the washroom," I say, quickly standing and rushing to the washroom that's just outside the lunchroom.

I step inside the washroom and move in front of a sink, wetting my hands and lifting them to my waist to cool down my skin a bit and recollect my thoughts. Once I've removed them, I look into the mirror to see a face staring directly at me, still bearing a smirk.

"Why'd you leave in such a hurry?" Sam asks, changing her voice in an attempt of sounding innocent. "The fun was just starting. You ruined the moment."

"W-What are you doing?" 'Did I just stutter? God, I'm so pathetic.' Sam chuckles at the sound of my vocal screw up.

"What makes you think that I am doing anything?" she asks, beginning to walk closer to me. I can't conjure up any words as a form of rebuttal at the moment. She stands right behind me, trapping me against the sink. I turn my body around to face her and meet her gaze, but find myself averting my eyes downward. She puts her hand against my chin and lifts it up, forcing me to look her in the eyes. "God, you're so beautiful," she expresses, breaking the silence I'd had put us in. Her face moves closer to mine, hers not even an inch away. "You really wanna know who's captured my heart? This beautiful girl who dresses very androgynously, has quite a deep voice for a girl, and goes by the name of a boy all of which causes people to think she is one even though, by my guess, she is actually a they. And you wanna know the best part? I've only met them yesterday." Her face is close enough to mine that I feel her breath on my lips. And in a moment, she pulls away and walks out, leaving me in the washroom by myself.

"What the fuck?" I query out loud to myself as I stare there, baffled at what just happened.

I shake my head before exiting the washroom and heading back to our table within the lunchroom. I sit back down in my seat and pick up my food to take a bite. I look to the corner of my eye to see Sam looking at me. She puts her hand on my upper thigh and turns back to her food, leaving her hand where it was. I have no idea how to respond so I just try to quickly finish my lunch, seeing as the lunch period was almost over and we were to be leaving the lunchroom soon.