APODEMIA ➣ ||P. PARKER||

•chapter thirteen•

"Hey, dude." I greeted Bryan, boy with pale skin and curly dark chocolate hair, blue eyes that resembles jewels, I settled down next to him at lunch table, taking off my backpack and putting it on the floor beside me. I picked up my sandwich and took a bite out of it, tasting the ham, cheese, and mustard.

"Hey Al," Bryan replied, scrolling through his phone, he was on Pinterest, again, and looking at pictures of men, mostly actors. He seemed to pause to think for a moment, "How do you like him?"

I leaned on his shoulder, looking at his screen, and a picture of a bare-chested guy was on full display. I felt indifferent about the man on the screen. "It's okay."

He scoffed at my bland reply, "Well I'm still saving it."

"Won't your boyfriend get jelly?" I teased in a whisper, making him giggle and swat me away. Bryan has a boyfriend but he goes to another high school.

Samantha, a girl with honey brown skin and long hair down to her hips, it's always in a braid though, she was another friend of mine I made in class. She sat down just before I took a bite of my sandwich, she commented on the picture of the guy on Bryan's screen when he showed her. "Yeah, I've seen hotter."

"Oh did you watch the drama yet?" Samantha asked me, leaning across the table.

"No," I answered, a bit hesitant.

Just then Tracey, another friend of mine I made, heavily dropped her tray of food down onto the table and sat down next to Samantha, making Bryan lift his eyes from his phone screen, Tracey leaned down at us and seethed, "This motherfucking idiot cut me in line and his bitch ass invited friends over to cut me more- fucking I want to slap them in the face and hack off their-"

"Woah- woah, calm down," Bryan placed his hands up. "I'm sure karma's gonna get back at them."

"Well bitch I hope it does cause I'm pissssesd," she dragged out, her face a bit red from anger. "I gotta quiz in algebra next period and fucking-" Tracey shut her mouth when a teacher walked by, who was scanning the cafeteria for any trouble.

Bryan, Samantha and I covered our mouths to stop our laugh, once the teacher passed we resumed to talking.

Lunch went by smoothly with laughs and random topics, and fortunately, so did the rest of the day.

Eighth period ended and I met up with Tracey at her locker. "Bye" Tracy waved at me, making her way to one of the exits.

"Bye," I replied and saw the smile she returned before exiting to the school parking lot, where her mom was to pick her up.

It felt nice to have friends who would say 'good morning' to you in the morning and 'goodbye' before leaving school, but that was about it on my friendship with Tracy, Samantha, and Bryan. We weren't close at all, I never felt like I fitted in with any of them, I was like the fourth-wheel.

I walked down past the art hall and to the locker area, there I see Flash and a few more students who were yet to leave.

"Hey," I started, a small smile on my face. "You ready?"

"Uh, yeah," he closed his locker and slung on his backpack. "You would not believe what happened in Algebra today, that Parker kid-"

"You always talk about him," I snickered, and remembered that Peter was back at school today, he was absent yesterday and the day before. His uncle Ben had passed away, and if I know anything about losing someone you care about, I know that it's painful. Painful was a simple way to describe it.

Flash very speedily told me why had happened today in class with Peter, he made motions with his hands and pauses for dramatic effect.

"Sounds like you really hate him." I dragged out sarcastically after he had finished.