I Probably Hate You

Seven

Eleanor and I had come to an agreement, after much bickering and arguing (which we barely ever did, mostly due to Eleanor's collected personality, not mine), that I had to sit with the golden quartet every week for a certain amount of days.

Eleanor's minimum was one day whilst my maximum was two days.

It was meant to be subtle so they didn't notice we'd formed a sort of system. On the days I didn't sit with them, the No days, I was either sitting with Eleanor and her friends or enjoying the solitary of my car.

The days I was sitting with them, the Yes days, I would usually stare at nothing unless I was directly addressed. It was a little awkward, and Gaten would no longer seem all triumphant when I sat with them.

In fact he just seemed calmly pleased most of the time, oddly.

Mallory wasn't so bad. She didn't talk about me, or her for that matter, she always talked about something else, everything else.

Walker only spoke of 'controversial topics' mostly things he thought about food or school or romance that just about everyone else disagreed with. What was there to think of him, really?

As for Jean, the days where he didn't have practice were usually my No days. Jean was on my list. I wasn't about to get all buddy buddy with someone I hated

And Gaten, well...... He was on my list too. But Gaten was different, Gaten was Gaten. I still hated the guy, but the situation with him was a whole other story.

He'd speak to me whenever I'd go silent and sometimes I'd reply for the sake of being polite but most of the time I'd give him brisk answers that weren't really answers.

October 31st had always been a mediocre day for me.

I'd stopped trick or treating just about the time my dad had died, and I certainly didn't go to any Halloween parties. Except the one where I'd drank a spiked cup of coke freshman year . But those were my naive days.

Today at school was an exclusive costume day. The school did this every Halloween, anyone who wanted could wear their costumes to school. And it was safe to say that just about everyone wanted.

Eleanor had chosen to go as a vampire. She had several favorite vampire characters from several books and couldn't decide which one to go as so she decided she'd go as a vampire. Clad in a lace black dress with black tights and black boots. it was safe to say she'd aced the look.

I'd curled her hair (which was thick and black. That  definitely gave her some brownie points) as she'd drawn herself thicker eyebrows and applied faux blood to the corner of her mouth. We'd also gone out last night and bought her stormy violet contacts from our local drugstore.

Ed was dressed as Elvis. He dressed as Elvis every year and had had the costume since middle school. Grandma had tried to convince him that it was getting a bit too small for a rapidly growing young man but it was to no avail.

I was wearing my favorite yellow windbreaker and a pair of mom jeans. Maybe if I'd worn a red hat people would've thought I'd gone as Paddington.

Again, mediocre at best.

In the cafeteria that day I was making my way to 'Eleanor's table' when I caught the eye of the last person I wanted to make eye contact with.

One of the last people, at least

Mallory laughed at my expression and waved me over.

Now I considered Mallory as nothing more than an acquaintance at best, but I still sort of respected her, and it was rare I respected anyone at my high school, so part of me felt obligated to turn instead towards their table.