I Probably Hate You

Five

I frowned glumly at a set of lockers the next Monday morning. I'd made the mistake of waking up extra early today, and since I was back to driving to school by myself like the previous years, I hadn't had to deal with an irrational argument between Mia and Ed, so I'd arrived half an hour before the first bell.

"Did my locker hurt you?" An immensely deep voice said next to me.

I turned confusedly towards the guy, recognizing him as the guy who'd greeted Gaten and I the previous Monday when I was heading to Home Economics. He'd somehow recognized me while I hadn't a clue who he was.

"Excuse me?" I said

"What with the way you've been practically glaring at it for the past minute or so. I was just wondering"

"You must be confused" I said, giving him a tight lipped smile "that's my locker"

He stood in front of the locker directly beside mine. His back was to the locker as he banged it with a fist. "I'm positive this my locker" he then proceeded to turn the lock and opened it. He turned back to me, giving me a weird look.

I stepped forward and turned the lock of my own with a brow raised "so am I" I said, knocking at the open door with my shoulder. Up close, I took in his features for the first time. He had a buzz cut, but judging from the hair that was starting to grow back it looked like a pale shade of blonde. He was tan and bulky. He looked like a jock to me.

He gave me a smirk "so we're locker buddies, it turns out"

"Right"

I turned to actually take out my books for the day when he started up again "so you're a friend of Gaten's, huh?"

"No!" I said, sharper than I'd intended

"Woah, woah" he raised his arms "it was just a question, relax"

I sent him a glance then went back to shoving books into my bag.

"I was just wondering, it's not a big deal"

"Right" I said for the second time.

"You know," he began "I don't think we've ever spoken before, at least not properly"

I hummed a random sound in response.

"In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't seen much of you since middle school..."

"Cool" I said, rummaging through my locker to find my spare pen that I'd tossed in last week.

"So you're the type of person who lies low?"

My head was practically shoved into the locker at this point. How had this gotten personal again?

I raised a brow "sure" I said once I'd finally found my pen

"You're not very chatty, are you?"

One corner of my lips raised slightly "bingo"

An awkward silence followed as I waited for him to leave so I could leave.

"That's nice. I guess"

I nodded

"So are you a friend of Gaten's?" What the hell was I doing, carrying on with the conversation?

"Yeah. Yeah" he shrugged "he's a cool guy"

"Mhmm" I really wanted to leave but I tried not to make it too obvious.

He stared at me as if expecting me to say something. When he realized I wouldn't, he said "I'll see you around, then?"

"That's pretty inevitable at this point, isn't it?" I gestured towards our lockers.