Grace

Three

"Who is she anyways?" his friend Toby asks at the lunch table as they both hide their eyes from her as she passes by their table. "Is she new?"
"I don't know," he mumbles under his breath, picking at his food.
"You don't know?" Toby prods.
"She moved here from New York."
"What's her name?"
"Grace."
"Not gonna lie, she's cute" Toby pauses, taking a gulp of his soda and nearly choking on it laughing at his friend trying to hide the fact he's bothered by that. He leans farther over the table. The boy next to him stares intently into Toby's azure eyes urging him to speak. "Tell me again what happened over the break?"

He groans, covering his face with his hands before shaking his head. Toby rolls his eyes, looking back over his shoulder at the girl, long legs and auburn hair braided down her back. "It's kind of a long story."
"I'm sure there's time," Toby says with a slight smirk. "Lunch is about forty minutes long."
"I just ran into her when we were both out in the rain, walking," his cheeks are painted red as he stares into his friend's eyes. "Like she fell over and everything. She was like crying and stuff already. And I thought it was my fault because you know, I wasn't watching where I was going and all."
"Why was she crying?"
"I don't know, she never told me."
"And how exactly did it go from, you knocking her over whilst looking like a freak wearing all gold, to your bed?"
"It's not like it happened overnight," he frowns, his heart racing at the memory. "It took the whole break and it's not like it's going anywhere anyways."
"Okay, hold on," Toby swallows his bite of the sandwich his mother made for him that morning. "So when did you guys have sex then?"
"Thursday."
"And she called you?"
"Yeah."
"Then why is it not going anywhere?"
"She invited me over to sit outside with her while it snowed. We barely talked."
Toby leans back in his chair, shaking his head and watching as a few freshman girls walk by the table, laughing too loudly and elbowing each other. "What?"
"Girls want you to come and sit and not talk, it's not a bad thing."
"But it wasn't like that nice, comfortable type of silence. It was just... Awkward"

Toby purses his lips, rests his elbows on the table, and takes another glance three tables away at Grace. She's sitting silently with a few girls from her third period class. She didn't particularly like them, but they had invited her to sit with them and she didn't think sitting alone would be any different. She glances away from her book, over her shoulder, past Toby, and right at him, but he doesn't see her, for he is staring down at the table, drawing endless shapes with his finger.

Toby raises his eyebrow at him. "What are you drawing?"

He shrugs.