Falling to Pieces

Chapter Two

"Is everything okay?" Maddie asks, looking worried. She slowly bites the cookie.

"Oh, um, yeah. Everything's fine," I reply.

It's so obvious that I'm not fine. And Maddie knows it. But I know that she won't say anything confirming she knows it, she's not good with words. She's told me that a ton of times. Not like I'm good with them, but I have to say she's worse than me. She won't say anything about it because if I were to tell her what's wrong, she wouldn't have a clue what to say.

Jacob Freeman walks by and I bite my lip. He's another one of the school heartthrobs, but I feel like he's harder to talk to than Christian.

"Okay," Maddie says. "As long as you're fine... let's go. I don't want to be late for class."

I slam my locker shut after I get my books and start walking to class, with Maddie following me. As I'm turning a corner, I notice Sophie walking up to Jacob with a smile on her face. I stop and stand behind the corner, only sticking out my head.

"Hey Jacob."

"Ohhh," he answers, smiling after he pivots and realizes it's Sophie. "How's it going, Soph?"

Hmm. Seems like they're good friends.

And once again, Jacob's in my grade. Not hers. I guess Sophie either has a thing for my peers, or thinks that they'll be easier to "get" since they're younger. Or both. Either way, it's bugging me.

"It's going-um... good. Good," she stutters.

"Oh, good."

"Oh yep yeah it's all good, man," she says nervously.

Dang, Sophie's bad at talking to guys. I never really paid attention to that, mostly because I've never been around to witness her talking to them. I'm not great either, but at least I don't say "it's all good man". Man? Real good Sophie. You don't refer to a guy you obviously like, especially Jacob, as 'man'. It just... no.

But Jacob doesn't seem turned off or anything by her reply. Actually, he can't take his eyes off her. Sophie notices this and a smirk appears on her face.

"So, anyways, tonight, you wanna go to the state fair?"

Sophie beams. "Of course."

"What are we doing?" Maddie questions, probably giving us away.

And that's confirmed by Sophie spotting us. Good job, Maddie. She knows your voice.

She grabs hold of his arm and whispers something, and they walk off.

"I was trying to see what Sophie was up to," I explain. "But you blew it."

"Blew it like a bomb?" She smirks, trying to pull off yet another bad joke.

"Sure," I laugh, just going along with it. Her laughter dies down and her smile quickly disappears. "But seriously, sorry. I was confused."

"It's okay, I heard enough," I assure her.

* * *

When it's time for lunch, Maddie and I arrive to the cafeteria late, since she wanted me to talk to our math teacher with her about an upcoming project.

"Sorry I held you back. I just didn't want to talk to Mrs. Gibbs alone."

"Doesn't matter. It's not like they're going to run out of food," I reply.

"Yeah but now there's probably going to be no seats left!" Maddie complains. But then her voice softens up, "sorry."

I grab a tray and look at what's left. Pizza-- junk, french fries-- junk... and then I see a yogurt parfait. I grab it without hesitation and also get a tiny bag of carrots.