Just a Scratch

Chapter Thirteen

"It's so crazy seeing everyone again!" Teresa laughed while walking towards our lunch table with Emilee as Alexa trailed behind. She looked like a flower that was wilting.

The usual sounds of conversation filled the cafeteria but I was stuck in my own head, wondering what Will had meant by "we'll talk more at lunch". Was there anything else to really talk about? I also wasn't too sure how well it would go over with Rosa. He had said that she was acting weird lately, and I didn't want to be anywhere near that.

"I'm so happy I didn't stay home," she added as they sat down.

"Yeah, me too," Alexa sarcastically muttered under her breath. We sat together, Teresa chatting away, Emilee listening while munching on some carrots, Alexa glaring off into space, and me, trying to get rid of the peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth. That is, until someone pulled up a chair and sat next to me.

"Hey," Will said. His voice made me jump and my table stared at him with a mixture of confusion and surprise.

I didn't know what to say except, "what the fuck?"

With a roll of his eyes, he pulled out his paper lunch bag, "wow you always have such nice greetings for me."

"I'm just... what are you doing sitting here?" I asked.

"I wanted to talk about what Mr. Howard thought when you turned in our project," he stated like it was the most obvious think in the world. "Are they okay?" He nodded towards my friends and Teresa who were thoroughly taken aback by his presence.

"Uhhh, yeah," I put my hand under Emilee's mouth to close it and shot a look to them that said stop being weird. "Sooo, the project?"

Will took out his sandwich and began munching away like nothing was out of the ordinary, "yeah. Sorry for missing school yesterday. I got this really random bug and was sick all day." He wouldn't meet my eyes and I figured he actually had a family thing going on, but I wasn't going to bring it up.

"Mr. Howard was a little disappointed that you weren't there but it wasn't that big of a deal," I shifted in my seat and popped a few grapes into my mouth, "he said that he'd hand them back tomorrow or Thursday."

"Tomorrow? Isn't that a bit soon?"

"Yeah," I laughed and shrugged, "but you know the man. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even go home until he's finished grading all his papers."

I shifted my attention to the other three girls sitting at the table. They were all leaned over and staring at us with such intent looks that I felt like an animal in a zoo. Before I could tell them to piss off, another chair was dragged up to our table and set up next to Emilee and across from Will.

Rosa stood like a statue towering over us before planting her cute lunch box on the table and sitting down in the seat.

The table was met with another round of shock and silence as she took out a Tupperware container full of salad. Everything that was happening felt like The Twilight Zone, from Teresa to Will to Rosa.

What the hell is going on here?

"Uh... hi?" I said cautiously.

"Lilah." She gave me a small nod, "so what're we talking about?"

Will looked genuinely confused as to why Rosa was sitting with us (and a bit annoyed), Emilee's face was turning bright red (for some unknown reason), Alexa was shooting me weird looks (that I tried to ignore), and Teresa looked like she was enjoying a reality TV show fold out in front of her, with me in the center of it.

"I was just asking Lilah about our English project. Why're you here? I thought you had a student council meeting," Will said.

Her ice cold eyes studied her boyfriend with annoyance, "it's Thursday."

Then silence...

"Ooookay, so is it just me or is this really awkward?" Never had I been happier to hear Teresa speak, "so you're in student council? Back in Mexico I have this one friend who-" there she went, talking up a storm and filling the silence with much needed noise. Rosa had stumbled into a trap that very few people are able to escape.

Will crossed his arms while he leaned back in his chair and watched his girlfriend with contempt.

The thirty minutes crawled by until the bell finally told us this social nightmare was over. As we got up and tossed are garbage away, Will brushed up against me.

"Sorry," he whispered.

"For what?"

"For this lunch from hell," he glanced at Rosa who was somehow caught up in another conversation with Teresa.

"Uhh, it's fine," I said as we walked out of the cafeteria, "but you could've just asked me about the project during class."

Will didn't respond so I glanced up at him. His eyes were looking away from me but I could see that the tops of his cheeks were a light pink.

"You don't need to be embarrassed," I laughed and his face only deepened in color.

"Geez, you're so annoying."

"Yeah yeah," I poked his arm, "we're enemies or something, right?"

A small smile appeared on his face and a light laugh escaped his lips, "right."

-

A/N

I'm soooo sorry it took so long to get this chapter out!! It's also kind of short but I just needed to get writing again.