Girl's Up In The Atmosphere

Chapter 3

Austen

“You attract too much attention!” she says.

I looked at her like she was some foreign animal and thought, are you fucking kidding me?!

“You are so fucking dense, you do know that don’t you?”

“What do you mean?” Her face was filled with confusion.

“You—your-- Never mind.” I squeezed her hand and headed for my usual table.

Jasper, Liam, Sam and Josh was already there. We’ve been together since grade school and it was pretty funny how we got to be friends.

“You’re new girlfriend?” Liam pointed at Arianne with his fork.

 “Hell no, who the fuck will go out with him? “

I looked at Arianne and was not really surprised at her choice of words. I looked at my friends and their jaws just dropped except Sam, nothing really fazes him. He just continued eating his lunch.

“Half the school.” Sam replied.

Arianne looked at him and said” Then there must be something really wrong with them.”

He looked straight at her and smiled. “You catch on fast.”

“I’m offended; don’t group me up with them.” She said with mock hurt.  She shrug out her hand from my grasp and walked towards Sam.

She held out her hand and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Arianne, you can call me Ari.”

Likewise Sam shook her hand. “I’d never think that, Sam’s the name, it’s great to finally meet a sane female around here.”

“I know what you mean.” She smirked.

“Come on Arianne let’s get some food.” I felt a little tug in my chest that I’ve never felt before.

It felt different.

“Kay, Aus.”

* * *

Arianne

“Your friends are cool.” I commented.

“They are.” He answered in the tone that was obviously saying ‘I’m sad, depressed or something went wrong’.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as we lined up to get lunch.

“How do you know there’s something wrong?” He smiled slightly amused.

“Well, your voice would have this kind of tone that says something is wrong.”

He shook his head and started smiling.

“What are you smiling about?” I was confused, he was sad then happy, is something happening that I should know about?

“Nothing, come on let’s get our food, I’m hungry.” He took my hand abruptly and went in front of the line.

“Hey Aus, it isn’t right to cut line.” I told him.

“One cheeseburger and two plates of barbeque fries, one coke, one bottle of water and a piece of chocolate cake.” 

“Aus, did you hear me?” I was frustrated that he just cut line and nobody said a thing.

“I heard you but they don’t mind, you don’t mind right? He was talking to me but staring at the guy behind me.

“I d-d-don’t mind.” He answered with a hint of awe in his voice.

 “See, Ari, he doesn’t mind.” He said looking at me.

“Come on, our order is here, let’s go so he can have his lunch.” He told me as he carried our order in one hand and gently pushed my back with his other, heading towards our table.

I looked back and most of the students stared like we were exotic animals going extinct. We reached our table and we both sat down. I looked at all of them. I looked at each of them closely for the first time. True, at first glance you could call them attractive but when you really look closely they all had a distinctive feature that makes them, them. I knew, without  a doubt that this was THE CREW, I just didn’t want to believe it.

“Aus, what class are you in? My voice remained calm but I was as sure hell not feeling calm.

“Someone told you about the classes I see.”

“Cut to the chase Aus, tell me.”

“THE CREW.” He sighed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I felt utterly betrayed.

“Because if I told you, you wouldn’t have come here, you would have chosen a different school.”

“You knew I didn’t want attention.”  Sounding as hurt as I felt.

“Didn’t want attention?” Dawn said in disbelief.

“What? You think I’m lying?”

“No, it isn’t that but the fact that you wanted to be invisible crossing your mind is. Have you looked at yourself recently?” Shaking his head he looked at me like I’m stupid.

“Why? What’s wrong with how I look?” Did I look stupid? Is there something wrong with my face?

“Aus, I feel for you bro. No wonder.” After saying that line he got up and left.

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