Invictus

Chapter 2: Paranoia

I spent the next three days with Donnie on edge but it wasn't because of the note. It was because Donnie was not his usual talkative self. I couldn't help but think that it had something to do with what I did at Saturday's game. He hid it well, or tried to at least. I had to fight for time with him and that's not something that had ever happened before.

I called him to game all three nights after school and he had a different excuse each time. Donnie's parents refused to buy him a gaming system so he always came over and used mine whenever he was free and Tia wasn't there. 

We still had eaten lunch together everyday, but something was off.

To make matters worse, it felt like everyone's eyes were on me.

Every few bites of food, I'd take a look up and scan the room to see if someone was watching me. Who knew, maybe I'd catch my threat breathing stalker eyeing me up and we'd have some epic comic book worthy battle.  Most of the glances I did get were in passing, nothing alarming, which ironically made it all seem more alarming.

I went down to my plate and back up. This time I caught a girl in a red and black cheerleader top cautiously staring. Even though she knew she was caught, she tried to play it off like nothing had happened. Then one of her friends peered over at me with a similar anxious look.

I didn't recognize any of them, that meant they were JV.

I turned back to Donnie who was sending a text, he was wearing a soft green polo that complimented his coffee colored skin and khaki shorts. Why the kid wore shorts with winter on its way, I had no idea.

He didn't acknowledge me, so I went back to my mashed potatoes, turkey and green beans.

When I looked up again I saw a table filled with burnouts, stoners to be exact, laughing at us a few feet away. One of them seemed to be pointing at me. 

I tapped Donnie on the shoulder to get his attention.

"What?" He asked, his eyes still glued to his phone. 

I pointed towards the table of nameless and unimportant potheads.

"You think they talking bout me?" I asked him.

Donnie stared at them for awhile and then turned back to his phone.

"I think you imagining stuff, bruh." He said with a groan.

"Maybe or maybe I should go see if that's true." I said, my eyes still fixed on the kid with the outdated punk rock tee and unkempt hair.

"Maybe you should chill dawg. Since when do you care what people think? Before you was on the team people was laughing at you all the time." Donnie gave a smiling chuckle to himself and I threw him a playful hit to the shoulder, returning his smile.

"Dude." Donnie rubbed his arm where my punch landed, both our smiles disappearing simultaneously.

"Sorry." I told him.

I really needed to stop doing that.

"You gon' be stopping by tonight? Tia won't be home till late, so we don't have to worry bout her trying to take my VR rig and sell it." I gave a breathy laugh.

Donnie gave a big grin.

"Can't man."

"Why not?"

"Got plans." He said with a smirk.

"Since when do you got plans to do anything other than football and chill with me."

"Since football season is over and I found someone prettier than you, that's when," he winked at me.

"Oh." That made sense. He hasn't been available because he's been seeing someone.

"When did this start?"I asked him. 

"Few days after the game."

"Who is she?"

"Girl from Wendell Phillips." Donnie's smirk turned into a full blown smile.

"That's the team we played for the championship game." I told him.

"You know it." There was a smug satisfaction in his deep voice.

"So you two dating or what's up?"

"We just talking. Only been a few days."

"Nice." I said, my voice a little more jealous than I would have liked.

Donnie noticed but tried to pretend like it didn't happen.

"She's got a young attractive female she can bring along with her if you wanna join us Friday." The way he said it would have made most people think that he was being nice, that this wasn't an invitation so much as it was him being polite. But I had known Donnie for a long time, this was him throwing me a bone. He wanted me to tag along, he knew I was taking everything hard.

It was nice to know that life was doing me a favor, I took his offer.

"Seriously?" I said it casually but inside I was radioactive with excitement, especially given the fact that my thoughts had been suicidal over the past few days.

"Yup, she was the one who suggested a double date actually. Take the train to Chicago after school and beat the rush hour traffic, if you're down?"

"I'm down." We bumped fists and a weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt like a small piece of my life might be returning to normal.

"You had me worried there for a minute." I told him.

Donnie looked up from his phone.

"What? Thought I've been avoiding you the past few days cuz you killed some kid on the field?" His tone was serious, but he meant it in a mocking sort of way.

"Honestly... Yeah, I did."

We both stared at each other for a second in silence. Donnie broke it first with that beaming smile of his.

"People get hurt man, it happens. Freak accident is all it was. Don't take it personally." Donnie got out of his chair and pushed it back under the table.

"Powder puff leagues are coming up." Donnie said, backpedaling away from the table.

"What's that mean?" I asked.

"Means you emotional like a girl sometimes. Just a thought, but maybe you should go all out, you know fully commit to 'your team'."

I gave a fake laugh. "Funny. Where you going, we still got five."

"Got a call to take." He smiled back at me, waving his phone as he said it.

"See you tomorrow?" He said as he walked off.

"Wait I thought you was giving me a ride home after school?"

"Can't man, got homework." Donnie gave a very crude hip thrust and winked at me.

"Human bio, got it." I gave him a playful smile back showing I understood his meaning.

"Something like that. Tomorrow, text me." Donnie turned and walked off towards the gymnasium.

"Have fun." I said, waving to him

I finished off whatever the mush on my tray was and waited for the bell to ring. When it did I looked back one final time towards the cheerleaders table to make sure I wasn't still being watched. To my surprise, I wasn't.

Maybe Donnie was right, maybe I was acting crazy.

But I wasn't being paranoid, it was true. They were watching me. I shouldn't have let it get to me, but of course I did. Follies of youth I suppose. A loner like me just couldn't take all that negative attention, and what happened next was a direct result of all that pressure.

It's something that still scars me to this day.