Lakewood✔️

Can we talk?

I was coming out of class when Luka walked up to me and asked, "Can we talk later?"

"Um, yeah, sure."

He walked away, and I stood there and groaned inward. Let's see; this means I'm going to get the same spiel I got from Damon. Yeah, no, thanks.

At lunch, I didn't bother touching my food. I was too busy thinking about how to avoid talking to Luka. Let's see, if I go down this particular hall, I could sneak out and head home, but that would take me right by the parking lot. Or I could climb through the window and cut through the woods, which avoids the parking lot altogether. Window it is.

"Malia, hellooooo," Niko said, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh, what?"

"I asked if you wanted to head to the pizza place after school with us," Niko repeated himself.

"Um, maybe."

"You haven't touched your food," Luka said.

"Not hungry. You know, since I'm preparing myself for 'our' talk later," I shot back. Luka gave me a look and tapped his fingers on the table. I just rolled my eyes. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, and I'm not going to subject myself to that again.

*****
I made sure I got everything I needed before my last class. The teacher usually left a window open, so I would wait until the students went and climbed through it.

Once class was dismissed, I pretended to finish up my assignment and waited until everyone left. Then I tossed everything into my bag and climbed out the window. I jumped down. Thank god it wasn't a second-floor classroom.

I made my way to the woods, but the minute I reached them, I got a terrible feeling. Yeah, no. Not today big foot, not today. I changed course and went back to the school and hid until I knew everyone would go.

What I didn't know was what was going on in the woods. I wouldn't find out later when dad called.

I hid behind a dumpster for a while, and just as I was about to leave, I heard footsteps. I stayed put. I had heard enough stories and saw enough to know when to stay and when to go.

I saw the footsteps underneath the dumpster, and they were black boots. They were muddy and had something wet on them. I heard something hit the dumpster; then I saw the shoes leave.

I waited and peeked around the corner to make sure the coast was clear when someone tapped me on the shoulder, causing me to jump.

"Jesus! Don't do that!"

"Why are you hiding behind a dumpster?" Luka asked.

"Because I wanted to know what it felt like to be Oscar, the Grouch," I said, rolling my eyes. I looked down and saw Luka wearing black Nikes. Well, that's good, he wasn't wearing boots.

We stood up, "Seriously, though, why are you here?"

"Well, I thought about going through the woods, then I got a weird feeling, came back this way. Thought I heard something and hid behind the dumpster," I said partially lying.

"Why the woods?"

"I thought I would go for a nature hike," I said casually, and he gave me a look. "What?"

"This excursion wouldn't have anything to do with me wanting to talk to you, would it?"

"What?! No. Not at all," I said. He arched an eyebrow at me as I said, "Look, I'll save you time. You have no interest in me. The kiss was one of those things. You're just gently letting me down. About sum it up? Good talk."