Alcohol and My Know-It-All

4 Lunchroom Tactics

AN: shoutout to the homie alyssa

Leo's hand held onto my shoulder to balance me. That same electricity from the party flooded through my veins, heating my cheeks. "What are you doing here?"

His hand dropped, grazing my arm smoothly as it did. "I go to school here now." I stood speechless thinking about my encounter with Damien a second ago, and my friends that stood beside Leo with their jaws dropped.

I took a deep breath to keep my mind from truly short-circuiting, "since when?"

Leo chuckled just as the bell went off singling three minutes before class. "I still have to find my locker but I'll talk to you at lunch." He walked away from us. I internally scolded myself for jinxing everything. I hit my head against the locker, groaning.

"Who was that?" Calliope whispered her tone astonished.

My face grew even more red, my lips in a firm line. "That was Leo."

"And how do you know Leo?" Adelaide's voice was playful.

"I might have made out with him at that party you two left me alone at." My throat felt thick. The two of them might have been overwhelmed with happiness that I finally had a guy in my life but I, on the other hand, was only disappointed in myself. I knew I shouldn't have gone to that party. Calliope took my arm, pulling me off of the locker.

"Class is about to start but we'll talk about your lip-locking activities later." Calliope handed my arm to Adelaide and walked off toward her science class. Adelaide and I had English first and luckily the classroom was a couple rooms behind us. I dragged my feet causing Adelaide's huff of annoyance as she yanked me along.

The second bell went off just as she grabbed the door handle. The room was silent as we walked in, Ms. Reynolds, about to take attendance. I had her last year and let's say I was definitely not her favorite. She looked up from her clipboard with a non-surprised expression, "Thanks for joining us, Sage." Ms. Reynolds completely ignored the fact that Adelaide had been late too but instead started taking attendance.

I scanned the room for an open table for the two of us, but of course, my eyes landed on Damien. He dropped his gaze almost immediately. I noted his clenched jaw and balled fists. The table behind him was the only empty one, Adelaide noticed where I was going and shook her head. I continued to sit down in the seat behind him, and Adelaide sat down a second later rolling her eyes. This probably wasn't a good idea since by the looks of it he's pissed, but lately, nothing I've done has been a good idea so what does it matter?

I was paying attention throughout the class the best I could, every now and then Ms. Reynolds shot me an annoyed glare. She was going on about the year's curriculum, which in all honesty I didn't care about at all, and frankly, if I had to read another Shakespeare book I'd actually drop out of school. 

My eyes flickered from her to Damien at one point. He was so close to me and for some reason, I felt the need to say something to him. It was so easy to ignore him during the summer when all I had to do was delete his messages and stay away from parties. But now he's literally in arm's reach for such a long period of time that it felt so irregular to not talk to him. I know it was a mutual break up for the most part, and that all we ever did was drink the days away but-

The next bell rang and everyone stood up. I sighed, shutting my eyes tightly. When I opened my eyes again most of the students were gone. Adelaide was talking to the teacher so I stood up and gathered my things. She turned around with a smile and gleefully walked over to me. "Guess what?" Adelaide smiled widely.

"What?" I shook my head. What could possibly make someone so happy when discussing anything to do with English?

She leaned in as if telling me a secret, "we're reading the Odyssey this year!" Definitely not Shakespeare but equally as terrible. I mean why torture students with words that make absolutely no freaking sense and sentences that take up half the page?