Heartbroken

Chapter 6: Milo

"Hey Milo!"

"What's up, Milo!"

"Milo!"

"How's life, Milo?"

I sighed as I walked through the halls, making my way slowly to my first class, unknown teenagers calling to me. My response: ignore them. They only wanted to be my friend because my family's rich.

I'd rather be lonely.

My eyes scanned the hallways, people, classrooms, never staying still. A group of girls gossiped about boys, and a kid labeled as a "nerd" walks by, his nose stuck in a book, glasses pushed up as far as they could go.

I took my headphones out and shoved them into my ears, playing some music as I tried to ignore the outside world. I close my eyes for a moment, cutting out all light.

I heard the grunt before I felt the impact. My eyes shot open, my headphones falling back around my neck.

"Sorry..." Allegra murmured as she leaned over and picks up her fallen stuff. "I wasn't looking,"

I could only let out a soft "oh". She got up smiled, the one with her eyes.

"Oh! It's you." she exclaimed when she saw my face. I didn't reply. "See you later, I guess," she walked away. I watched her retreating back, confused as to why I couldn't say anything. I shook my head, pulling my headphones back on, shoving my hands in my pockets, and walking on to my class, forgetting about the world.

Ding!

The lunch bell rung.

Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, march, march, march. Down the halls with teenagers screaming, shoving and laughing, living their lives.

And I, surrounded with every passing breath, every passing moment, every passing life.

That sounded really poetic. I'll have to write it down sometime. I tapped my thigh to the beat of the music as I walked to lunch, my face impassive.

In the lunch room there's a room full of people ranging from fifteen to eighteen, all dumb in their own way. But then there's Allegra.

She sat with both legs on the small lunch seat, her eyes roving a piece of paper while she ate. She was on the middle table in the lunchroom, but no one sat by her.

I ran into a sign that gave the lunch special. Today: Pizza! It yelled in all caps. I rolled my eyes. No one can be that excited about pizza.

"PIZZA!" a boy screamed in all caps, thrilled, and almost knocked me down as he barreled past to get to the line.

Nevermind. I sighed. Pizza it is.

I got my greasy pizza from the greasy lunch ladies, and spotted Allegra again as I tried to find someone to sit with. A couple of groups called my name as I passed, but I didn't want to sit with them.

"Can I sit here?" I asked Allegra as I sat down on the other side of the table, a fry hanging out of her mouth like farmers do with wheat. She half smiled and shrugged, continuing reading her captivating article about how the Whooping Cranes are going extinct. As her hand moved across the paper, marking certain words, her shirt sleeve rode up a little, revealing a splotchy bruise, vague pressure points showing the shape of a hand. I narrowed my eyes, but Allegra didn't seem to notice. She looked up.

"Sorry for running into you this morning. I had to drop Mercy off late and was a little rushed."

"How is she, by the way?"

"She's human, that's for sure," Allegra laughed. "But she's actually doing a lot better thanks to your dad."

I raised my eyebrow at that comment.

"No, really, he's helping her a lot. She loves him."

I grimaced.

"What's wrong?"

"I... it's... nothing..."

She shrugged. "Is it because you don't like him?"

I looked down at my pizza, trying to pin down what feeling I was experiencing.

"I've never met a teenager who admits that they like their parents. But then again, I don't talk to many people." she shrugged again and continued to eat.

I ripped off a chunk of the crust on my pizza and chewed it slowly, trying to organize my thoughts and feelings. I decided to change the topic.

"What is that paper for?" I asked, figuring this was a good change because I'm genuinely interested.

"Creative writing. Mr. Beltran wants a story about an animal."

"So you chose one that's going extinct?"

"I figured that I can give the main bird some tragic backstory; dead parents, terrible sickness, things like that."

I nodded my head like I understand, which I kind of do. I wonder if she knows what it's like to have just one parent.

We continued to eat in silence, not really knowing what to do. The bell rung again, and all the kids raucously made their ways to their next class, mine and Allegra's being AP chemistry.

We walked to the class together, but we never said a word.

"Shut up and sit down!" Mr. Weiss yelled, slapping his desk with a yardstick. Some kids snickered, falling into their desks, waiting for Mr. Weiss to talk.

"Today you will be split into twos so that you can do a project or whatever."

Some groaned, others shared hopeful looks.

"Can we pick our partner?" A student asked. Mr. Weiss grunted, waving his hand in annoyance, as if to shoo a fly.

"Fine."

I looked around, trying to keep my head low, and I noticed that Allegra is doing the exact same thing. I hesitated before standing up, ignoring everyone else as I walked to her desk.

"Hey," I said, trying to sound nonchalant. She looked up from doodling on her arm, a small smile playing across her lips. A flicker of uncertainty passed her face, but it's gone before I looked again.

"Do you want to be my partner?" she asked before I could form the words. I stared back at her, realizing how pretty her eyes are. I shrugged.

"All right, back to your seats," the teacher barked. "I suppose that you want to know what you're doing for your project, yes?" he didn't wait for an answer. "In the next week you need to take pictures of six biotic things and six abiotic things. Create a PowerPoint from them and state how they are all related. Understand?" he glared at the class. The bell rings. "There's more information on my website. When is it due?"

"One week," the students echoed as they hurriedly left the room.

"Hey," Allegra walked up to my desk as I stood. "Can we do this project while Mercy is with your dad?"

"Yeah, of course."

"See you then," she waved and turned, sort of bouncing on her heels as she left. I stood there staring at the doorway until Mr. Weiss grunted and rolled his eyes, shocking me out of whatever I was in. I dropped my bag on one shoulder, continuing on to my last class.

"I can't wait," I whispered under my breath.