Skinny Love

I walk down the 12th grade hallway, feeling slightly hopeless. The first day back from a long weekend is always met with the harsh realization of more time in this barely livable school.

I spot Jake, grabbing something out of his Locker, mumbling something irritatedly and twirling the combination.

I put my hood up and do my best to disappear into the crowd of other students before he has the chance notice me. I'm not sure why I do it, I should want to talk to him, but I keep walking down the hall; trying to avoid teachers and friends that are bound to ask how my weekend was. It's way too early for my brain to function.

I pass through the door into science and slide into my seat. James, an admittedly nice football player, looks at me with a friendly expression, and goes back to saying something rather loudly to one of his friends. I  can't blame him for ignoring me, if his friends even knew we ever talked it would be social suicide for him.

Class passes slowly. James softly asks me what the deal with me and Jake is while we copy notes from the whiteboard.

"What deal? There is no deal," I mumble back.

"Sorry for asking. I guess i was reading too much into it" He says, not sounding the least bit sorry, but also not sounding irritated or offended by my harshness.

"I guess," I say, my voice softer this time.

The bell rings and James strides over to his friends. He leaves the room with a pretty redhead fawning over him.

Why do football guys get all the luck?

My next two classes, math and english, pass without anything of any interest happening. I wss blessed with independent studying in math and silent reading in english, allowing me to not have to do anything remotely challenging.

I walk down the stairs with a knot of dread settling deep in my stomach. The Cafeteria. I wonder how slow I can possibly walk, or if I would even be able to form a plan in the time it would buy me, but my musings are cut short by a wail of my name.

"Lainey!" shouts Shay from near my regular lunch table, quickly running over to me and grabbing my arm.

"You would not believe what happened. So it turns out my boring fuddy duddy of a sister decided to tell my mom about that thing that happened last year with Kevin. So mom is like bitching me out and I barely slipped out of the house in time to catch the bus and Kevin isn't being helpful at all," she somehow manages in one breath, still dragging me over to the table.

I mumble something that I hope will console her and she bounces off to Kevin.

I do love her, but sometimes her energy is too much for me, and I find it hard to be too concerned about Kevin when I know he's the 10th 'Kevin' this year, she always seems to have a new boy and a story about how the last one was the worst yet. She does seem to like this one particularly though, this being the second time she's claimed him as the love of her life. Though he seems just to be along for the ride.

I sit in between Jake and Emma. Emma is my best friend, well, sometimes my best friend, sometimes a stranger who pretends not to know me.

Jake grabs my hand, and joins in with Kevin in listening to Shay, who seems pleased with all the attention she's getting. Emma eyes up Shay like she is some kind of poisonous animal.

I'm not quite sure why Emma even sits with us anymore. Considering she almost always leaves within five minutes of arriving. I figure, well I hope, that this is just another one of her phases and she'll go back to being my best friend soon enough. I don't acknowledge her facial expression and pretend to listen to Shay.