That Girl.

chapter 7

They were all comfortably seated at the dinner table. I sighed heavily, forcing myself to be civilized as I strolled annoyingly towards them. Luckily, she was seated next to Luke, across from me and Ant. Wait, that means I have to look at her?

"Hey how's your ankle dude?" Luke greeted, waving his hand, in mid-air, enthusiastically.

"Yeah, its fine I guess," I mumbled as I seated myself down.

"What happened to your face?" Luke tilted his head to the side a little, squinted his eyes to get a clearer view of my left cheek.

"Nothing, I face planted," my excuse caused Ant to chuckle and Laura to roll her eyes. Damn her!

"You face planted?" Luke wasn't convinced.

"Yeah...Hey you made my favourite!" I changed the topic quickly as my eye caught sight of the ravioli dish in the middle. One hand instantly shot for the spoon as one grasped the plate. At that moment, I realised that her hand was also on the spoon, none of us was about to give in. We shared a laser beam gaze before I snatched the spoon subtly away from her.

"Thank you Laura, you're so kind for letting me have the spoon first," I smiled sweetly at her. As if he had seen through the mini war, Ant tried to hold in laughter; Luke looked surprise.

"That's weird. I never thought Laura would let you dig in first. I mean, that's also her favourite. The other day, she nearly bit off my head when I was about to taste it," Luke laughed nervously.

"Well thanks for your kindness," I repeated as I spooned half onto my plate.

"No worries," her fake smile was sickening as her foot came into contact with my chin. My hand holding the plate wobbled a little before I sent daggering stares her way. She averted her eyes elsewhere, a grin forming at the corner of her lips. I inhaled deeply, calming my boiling hormones as continued to spoon half of the left over.

"You're taking so much already, why don't you just take the whole bowl then?" Luke joked sarcastically. Ignoring the sarcasm, a happy grin made its way on my face.

"If you insist," I reached out but the bowl was immediately snatched away by Laura.

"Mine!" she bags it.

"I totally forgot that you guys are 17," Luke sighed.

"You're 17 Laura?" Anthony started.

"I will be in the next fall," she answered, putting ravioli in her mouth.

"I'm turning 18 in January so I'm not 17," I stated instantly, not wanting to be classified the same age as her.

"More like 5, mentally," she sniggered under her breath. My fist clenched tightly around the fork and knife. She's so lucky we have an audience at this moment.

"So Laura, do you have a job that you do on the weekend or something?" Anthony coughed; his attempt of changing the subject.

"Yeah...sort of," she jumped a little at the question before murmuring a soft reply.

"What do you do?" I asked curiously. As if not expecting the question of me, Laura's eyes showed hesitant.

"I work part-time at a place just on the outskirt of town," she responded bitterly, as if not wanting to talk about it; as if the subject has made her uncomfortable.

"So do you work on the weekends only?" Anthony continued.

"Yeah, weekends only. I'm usually picked up on Friday after school, and stay over the weekend at a friend's house," she mumbled as she slowly put food in her mouth. Her tone of voice was somewhat suspicious, as if she was hiding a secret. I don't even know why I cared so much anyways.

"Why don't you work somewhere closer? There a pizza place a few blocks away that's hiring at the moment," Luke suggested, not looking at his sister.

"It's okay, I get good money there," she smiled weakly at her brother, a scene that I haven't seen before, "I don't want to depend on you too much,"

"You should learn from her Nate, look at you, depending on your parent's money," Ant blurted out, making me cough on my water.

"I am working in my own way! I'm practicing hard," I argued.

"I hope so," Ant teased. For some reason, Laura has been surprisingly quiet, very unlike her arrogant self.

"Do you like football Laura?" Anthony continued to ask her. Does he like her or something?

"No, I find it stupid and a waste of time," she spat, subconsciously earning herself three pairs of stares.

"If I may ask, why?" Anthony's tone changed immediately.

"Nothing of your interest," she retorted quickly; everyone continued to eat their food in silence, not daring to ask anyone any question.

Once we were done, Luke and Laura excused themselves.

"What a night," I yawned as I help Ant pack up.

"What a lonely child she is," Anthony sighed.

"What are you talking about? She's rude," I sneered.

"Yeah, because she's so lonely. Can't you tell?" Anthony said monotonously.

"She's weird?" I added, "I wonder what job she does. She didn't offer the place's name,"

"If she wanted to tell you then she would, that's the type of person she is Nate," Whoa, someone's being weird.

"Are you interested in her or something," I joked.

"Hmm...Would you be okay with that?" he raised his eyebrow. Would I? Why would he even ask that?

"Why wouldn't I be?" I commented as I eyed at his suspicion.

"No your right, why wouldn't you be," he laughed to himself. For some unknown reason, I felt a pang at me chest, immediately, my hand came up to clutch the shirt.

"What's wrong?" Anthony's eyes flashed with worries.

"Oh, nothing, I think I've just practiced too much. I'll go rest now if that's okay," Why was I even asking his permission?

"Err, yeah sure," he studied my unusual behaviour.

 A/N: Sorry about the boring chapter, but this is important :(