I Probably Hate You

Two

The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom. The first face I saw when I stepped into the hall was Sophie Garcia's.

Sophie was number 27 on my list. She'd tripped me sophomore year on my way up the bleachers at a soccer game. At least 30 people had seen that.

When she flashed me a smile as she passed me I ignored it and walked ahead.

Kyle Dalhousie nearly bumped into me when I reached my locker. He cursed when he saw my expression "sorry um....Dana" I didn't bother correcting his mistake.

Kyle was number 14. He'd spiked my coke freshman year at my first ever high school party.

I shut my locker after I'd gotten the books I needed and headed towards my next class, Home economics, when suddenly my name was being called by none other than Gaten Fallbrook.

What was this? Talk to as much Melvins as you can day?

He was a good ten feet behind me so I saw this as my opportunity to fetch my earphones out of my pocket and plug them into my ears.

"Hey! Diane"

I stared at the floor as I kept on walking. I could see that his feet were now beside mine. "It's so weird knowing this is our last first day back to this school"

I shoved my hands into my coats pockets and pretended to be very ingrossed in the song I was listening to.

He stepped in front of me and held up the cord of my headphones. "This isn't even plugged in"

I didn't look at him, but I focused on the cord "huh. Weird"

And those were the first two words I'd ever spoken to Gaten Fallbrook. 'Huh' and 'weird'

I almost laughed, it's not that I cared about first impressions, let alone what Gaten thought of me. But still.

I awkwardly shoved my headphones, which I hadn't actually used, into my pockets

"Did you want something, because I don't want to be late to my class"

"Who do you have?" Gaten asked

I hesitated "Mr. Lance"

"Wow, I have him too. No wonder we're heading in the same direction"

I hadn't thought much about the fact that he was walking in the same direction as me. There were several other classes he could've been headed to.

Yet, it was home economics, the same class I had.

"Dandy" I said

If Gaten detected any sarcasm in my voice, he didn't show it.

Some guy I didn't know called out "Hey, Fallbrook!" And nodded at Gaten as we passed him. He hesitated as he looked at me "um.. Melvin?"

Now two things alarmed me at that. The first was that this guy I couldn't place knew my surname and the second was that Gaten walking beside me probably made it seem like we were friends or something, and I did not want people to think that.

Fortunately, my phone rang just then, and the caller ID told me it was Grandma calling me. I took this as my opportunity to be left alone and stepped into the nearest ladies room after saying I needed to take this call

"Hello?"

"Grandma, what is it? I have a class to get to. I was late to homeroom, I don't want to be late again"

"Hold your horses, alright? I just wanted to make sure you packed Mia's lunch. I told you, only the Lord knows why, but that kid only eats her sandwiches when the peanut butter is in the center with the jelly around it, and she likes her sandwiches cut into triangles. Did you cut her sandwich into triangles, sweetheart? "