And Then There Was Vince

Chapter 6: Junior Bitch

I sat in homeroom that morning, only three seats behind Ashley, feeling worse than I had in several years. She was talking, smiling, laughing and joking. It's as if she wasn't affected.

And I realized right then and there that she wasn't. She didn't need me. She could completely and successfully live without me in her life. I was the one who was dependent on her.

Had Corinne and Mandy ever been so friendly to me before she included me? No. They hadn't. Corinne and Mandy had been Ashley's.

I didn't even have my own friends without her.

She didn't look at me once before the bell rang, and quickly abandoned me behind a wave of curls.

I skulked to the first of my classes. Trigonometry with Mrs. Walters. Today it was trig with Mr. Black. I hoped nothing was seriously wrong for us to have a substitute.

He passed out thick packets for us to work on, and as always I was scratching my head before problem number two. I mostly just sat there and doodled.

English buzzed by much the same, but I was practically a zombie by the end of it.

Thankfully, the end of English also meant the beginning of lunch.

I sat down alone at a table, not really wanting to pretend at being anyone's friend. Coincidentally, the rotation had left Mandy and I in the same lunch group, but I knew her table was far out of my current reach. I was more or less content to be a loner and wallow in my own sorrow.

"Mind if join you?" A familiar voice asked.

It was Vincent.

"No, not at all," I half-stuttered, surprised he also had the same lunch time as I did.

"I never realized you were in here before," he stated, echoing my thoughts.

"Me neither," I said, "but I guess neither of us ever really looked."

"True," he said, biting into an apple. "You were usually over there caught up in whatever with the other bitch."

I glared at him over my untouched tray.

"Don't start this again," I groaned.

"I won't," he promised, pretending to zip his lips. "I do want to sit with my friends, though. Just thought I'd invite you since junior bitch won't."

"No thank you!" I snapped, refusing to sit with someone who continuously insulted my friends.

"Suit yourself," he answered, before scooping up his food and retreating to a table filled with his interesting, alternative group.

I spent the rest of lunch sincerely regretting my decision. They all looked like they were having a good time, and I most definitely wasn't.