To You, Who Left Me Behind

Part 3

The rest of the weekend goes by uneventful and Monday morning I'm waiting at the bus stop. Mige shows up a few minutes later and at first we don't say anything to each other but then make small talk. Classes, homework, and the like. We don't mention Friday night. But I do notice a difference in Mige's attitude toward me, even as he goes toward the back of the bus where some of his friends are waiting for him. I wonder why he brought me to that night club. Did he bring any of his friends there before? Another girl perhaps?

Whoa there, Zo, what's going on here? What do I care if he brought a girl to that club? It's none of my business anyway. Now I'm brooding for the rest of the bus ride. Then I brood during the first few hours of school. Before I know it, it's lunch time.

After I pay for my lunch I look around the cafeteria and realize for the first time I feel a twinge of nervousness. I don't know where to sit; or rather, who to sit with. Which is kind of silly, seeing as how I've never cared before where I've sat in the cafeteria. Mostly I've been sitting alone. The twinge in my chest disappears quickly and I start looking around for an empty table. I spot one toward the window and weave my way over. I set my tray down just as Cori does. She startles, looking up at me. I try to smile reassuringly as I sit down.

"Go ahead and sit down," I tell her, gesturing to the chairs next to me.

"U-um, uh" she stammers. "Sure." Cori sits on my left, pushing the red frames of her glasses up her nose. We eat in a companionable silence for a few minutes.

All of a sudden, four sets of trays are set down as Mige and his friends help themselves to our table. Whoa, wait, what? I just look around in confusion at the teenage boys sitting to my right, talking, laughing, and now, eating. Mige is right next to me and as he picks up his slice of pizza he winks at me and takes a bite. I'm ready to punch him.

"Excuse you," I say to him.

He raises his eyebrows in question.

"We're sitting here."

Mige looks around as his friends go quiet. "There's enough room for all of us. Chill out, Teague, all the booths are full."

I look around; sure enough, the booths lined against the wall are all occupied. They're pretty popular; it makes you feel like you're sitting in a restaurant rather than a school cafeteria.

"Well, you're making Cori uncomfortable." We both glance over at Cori, who's eating her sub sandwich with her head down, looking at the other three boys nervously.

"Naah, she's fine," Mige brushes it off with a wave of his hand. "Besides, you gotta socialize your nerd every once in a while. Get 'em used to human contact."

"She's not a pet!" I snap.

One of Mige's friends—short brown hair, I don't know his name—leans over towards Cori. She looks up at him, wary. With a dead pan expression he asks her, "Wanna be my hot Asian waifu?"

Both our eyes bug out as the rest of the table erupts into hyena laughter. My shocked expression turns to a glare and I'm ready to tell this loser off when Mige puts his hand on my shoulder, preventing me from standing up.

"That's not exactly how you ask a girl out, bro-bro," he says, wiping tears from his eyes. "You need to ask her out on a date first before you ask her to be your girlfriend."

The brown-haired boy nods, as if Mige made total sense and turns back to Coriander. "I'm sorry," he apologizes. "Do you want to go on a date sometime? We could go see a movie or something."