Madness

22; Lie

CARTER

"Carter!" I hear someone yell from behind me. I turn around as I see Nathan walk towards me. I gulp and bite the inside of my cheek nervously.

He furrowed his eyebrows as he approached me. "Are you okay?"

I step back away from him, "S-Stay away from me."

His concerning face slowly turns into a fit of laughter.

"You know I can't do that," He lets out as he continues laughing.

I roll my eyes and quickly turn away from him. I take this as my chance to get away from him and quickly walk away.

"That was a close one.." I mumble as I make my way into my first class.

I notice Landon on his phone as I approach him and sit beside him. "Hey," I greet as I pull out my notebook from my backpack.
He glances at me and turns his phone off, putting the screen face down.

"Whats up princess?" He nonchalantly replies.

I shrug, trying to hide the blush that was beginning to form onto my cheeks.

The teacher then walked in as the bell rung and began the lesson.

*
*

"Nathan tried to approach me." I blurt out.

Landon's head snapped towards me. "What?!" he whispered.

"Nathan—" I begin but he cuts me off, "I know what you said.. what did he say?"

"He just tried to approach me then when I told him to go away he began laughing and I took off down the corridor." I say in one breath.

He clenches his fist around the mechanical pencil he was holding as it snapped in half.

I widen my eyes and look around to see no one noticed this happening.

I move my hand on top of his and squeeze his. "Hey, calm down. It's okay." I whisper soothingly to him. He quickly moves his hand to intertwine our fingers as the broken pencil falls onto the table. I bite my lip nervously and smile.

"You okay?" I wonder.

He nods, "As long as you are."

I slowly smile and look back towards the teacher.

Lunch

"You are sitting with me," Landon states as he wraps an arm around my shoulder protectively.

I shrug, "Alright,"

We make our way into the cafeteria and towards Vienna, Xavier, and the rest of their friends. I think I remember their names..

Luke, Matthew, Talon, and another guy I do not recognize. He kind of looked similar to Talon though, maybe siblings?

Landon sits beside Xavier and I sit next to Landon as Talon was sitting across from me. "What's up C!" Talon greets as he smiles at me.

"You remembered calling me that?" I queried.

Talon nods as he intertwines his fingers together and leans his chin against them, "Of course, I wasn't that drunk!"