My Heart's Choice (On Hold)

Chapter 37

The cafeteria buzzes with conversation, and the spicy odour of chillie sauce fills the air.

Penny glares at Dylan, "No reading at lunch!"

Dylan's eyes go wide, perhaps trying to figure out how she saw that he was having an open book under the table. He quickly flips it shut, nevertheless, and pops it into his backpack.

"Is that a rule?" Riley smirks from his seat beside Penny.

Penny scoffs, looking irritated and glares at nothing in particular. A soft chuckle escapes Kenneth's lips as he watches them.

Kenneth raises his eyebrows at me, sipping a bottle of coke. I shrug, not knowing what else to do.

Penny is super grumpy when she is mad. And by the way that her nose is permanently curled up in disgust, such behavior is to be expected.

"But, why is it wrong to read?" Seth asks looking totally clueless.

Penny glares at Seth too, her lips pressed against each other to a tight line. Nora and Seth joined our lunch table, now that Rhea had chased them from their previous one.

"The rules apply only at lunch," I explain matter-of-factly, before Penny can crush the can of soda, on which she has a rather firm grip.

"Oh," Seth says, looking like he is sitting at the middle of a bunch of morons.

He has an arm around Nora, and gives her love-sick glances from time to time. I guess that she is the only reason, why he agreed to join our lunch table.

Riley picks at the French-fries on Penny's tray and she slaps his hand away. He gives her a goofy smile, at which Matthew bursts out laughing.

"Dude... Dude," he manages through his laughter, "You really like her, right?"

The whole table goes silent, except for Matthew's seizure of laughter and Dylan sucking the last of his lemonade, through a half-chewed straw.

Matthew's laugh comes to an abrupt stop, his eyes bulging at the intensity of Penny's silent glares.

"Sorry," he mumbles, his voice sounding husky with his accent.

Seth rolls his eyes, looking around to make sure that no one is watching. Nora clears her throat.

"We are going out to the movies today," Nora announces, her eyes sticking to mine, "Both of you wanna come?"

For a second my mind reads her 'both of you' as Mason and I. But then reality slaps me hard. It's over.

"Yeah sure," Kenneth runs an arm around my shoulder, smiling down at me.

Heck! Why is my life so messed up? I am the fake girlfriend of Kenneth, now.

Gosh, this is ridiculous!

Nevertheless, I smile back at him, taking in the bright Earth-like eyes and the soft smile. I feel my skin burn at the places that the tips of his fingers rest, on my shoulder, and the fact that my stupid stomach is doing somersaults isn't helping at all.

"We'd like to join too," Riley attempts to copy Kenneth, by running an arm around Penny.

Dylan chokes on his second cup of lemonade, erupting with a series of coughs.

"Gosh! Don't touch me," Penny stabs Riley's fingers on her shoulder, with her plastic fork.

"Alright, alright. No touching, no reading. I get it. Your table, your rules. That's fine," he holds his palms up in an act of surrender.

Nora turns to Penny looking nervous, "Do you wanna go?" she gulps when Penny's glare lands on her.

"Uh, no she can't," Dylan wheezes, rubbing his chest after his unexpected coughs, "Uh, I mean, you know, we... I mean she has to tutor me."

Riley's eyebrows shoots to his forehead, as he nods slightly, watching Dylan curiously.

"That's right. Thanks for reminding me, Dylan," Penny says, folding her arms across her chest.

Penny? Tutoring Dylan?

I don't know which is more absurd. The fact that Dylan needs a tutor or that Penny would tutor anyone.

Dylan gives her a sweet smile and goes back to sucking his lemonade through an almost cracked straw.

"Okay. Maybe someother day then, babe," Riley says, going back to munch on his sandwich.

No one has dared talk about my apparent breakup with Mason, and I am thankful for that. Unknowingly, my eyes drift to Mason sitting with Rhea on his lap, her face hovering just inches above his. Rhea catches my eye and goes for the kiss.

I cringe. I have no idea why I am bothering about Mason, when I should be enjoying my life, now that I am a free bird.

That's what I got to do! And that's what I'm gonna do!

"Okay then," I say, laying my fingers infront of me, "the movies, huh?"

Nora's smile widens, and she desperately wriggles out of Seth's arms to lean forward on the table.

"Well done," she winks my way.

Although I still have no idea what I did so well, I wink back at her.

***

Nora and I warm two of the hard plastic seats in the bleachers, with so much sitting on them. My eyes cross with trying to keep up with the fast ball, which is being passed from one arm to another, so fast.

"Argh! I hate football," I groan, raising my palms in the air with frustration.

"Don't decide too quickly. You have to watch a real game to love it," Nora says sounding absorbed in the drills taking place on the field.

What can I say?

I let out a huge sigh. How the heck can I to forget my first ever time at a game? I got punched, then declared as a girlfriend, forced to a match and a party, and met the girl who's sitting right next to me, and her brother, all in one day.

Whoa.

Nora insisted that we wait for Kenneth and Seth to be done with practice, watching them from the bleachers. I proposed that maybe we can read at the library, until they were done, but no. We have to appear so desperate and so much in love, in order to avoid further hassle with the huge drama that is taking place in our lives. Nora's words, not mine.

So here we are, watching our so called boyfriends go through drills and stuff that I don't even understand.

I force myself to watch the team play a mock-game, in their sweat covered clothes. I don't realize that I have been watching Mason for a long time, until he glances around the bleachers and catches my eyes.

A surprised smile tugs at his lips, but in a second it is gone, replaced by confusion.

He halts in his tracks, looking at me curiously. Then his eyebrows slightly shoot upwards as realization dawn on him. I'm here for Kenneth, not him.

He spins around to face his team in a group hug, his arms around the shoulders of two other guys, and his name on his back, captures my eyes.

Young
01

Get your eyes off him!

I mentally curse myself for being such a freak.

"Don't you think that it's going to be better if we stay for them outside, at the parking lot?" I ask nervously, my fingers fidgeting with the hairs on my arm.

Nora gives me a long look, but agrees at last.

"Okay," she says, "This game's boring!" she huffs.

"Don't decide too quickly. You have to watch a real-" I begin, but Nora's annoyingly loud groan cuts me off.

"Oh God! I know!" she pulls at her hair, glaring at me.

I follow her outside, covering up my giggles with a cough. We drop onto one of the stone benches at the perimeter of the parking lot. The surface feels so cold and comfortable after an hour or so on the butt-numbing plastic seats. I pull my emergency novel out of my backpack and dive in. Nora follows my lead and pulls out a book from her backpack, and both of us fall into a deep silent read.