True Love

Chapter 10: Laney

Laney looks inside the cafeteria at the hundreds of students piled inside. Laney dreaded the cafeteria because of the crowdedness and loud noises, but tolerated long enough to buy her lunch and pass by a few people. Today she was breaking her normal habit. She finds a group of familiar faces and smiles. "Hi, everyone," she says warmly to the group. The others turned around, some giving hugs. She sits down in the nearest seat.

Harry smiles, "So how are you doing?" 

"Okay," Laney says returning the smile. She opens her spoon from the packaging, and dipping it into the cup of strawberries.

Someone else at the table says a joke and everyone except Laney laughs, obviously an inside joke. "Wait you're dating?" Laney asks in shock to Harry.

"Yeah," he says nonchalantly, as if it was obvious. Laney even though she hanged out with Harry and his girlfriend, Julia, she was always confused on the status of their relationship.

Laney didn't like relationships or even the thought of dating. Unlike many of her peers she preferred not to occupy her mind with dating, or what attracts a guy. She suddenly remembers the time she told someone how she felt about him. Her face contorts as she silently scowls herself, she didn't want to remember that day, the day she lost one of her closest friends.

After that day, Laney became more defensive of her emotions, especially when asked. Her reaction caused awkward conversations from the generic questions of, "How are you?" and "Are you okay?". She would only smile when annoyed or sad, seeming happy when nervous, and laugh when she successfully scared someone. It was in a way, compensating. Compensating for the emptiness, the sadness to be filled as quickly as possible, like filling up a well with dry sand.

She looks up, hoping no one was looking at her, that no one would noticed her prolonged silence. She stares at her mostly untouched tray of food and sighs. She didn't eat much normally. "Hey what book is that?" Laney says to insert herself back into the conversations.

The person sitting across her was brought back into reality, "Oh, it's a Sherlock Holmes story." she says, closing the book, flipping it over delicately as if looking at it for the first time.

"Oh, nice. Did you know about the TV series they have on that?" Laney says, happy that she new a few things about Sherlock.

Moments later the conversation ends with the ring of the bell. Laney secures her uneaten lunch, and heads to her next class. She passes by the rest of the thousands of students attending her school. She walks upstairs, dreading her next class; not because of class, or the teacher but because it was were she was most reminded of the horrible day she so desired to forget.

Hello, sorry for the wait you guys. So here is another chapter.  I hoped you enjoyed or will enjoy the chapter. If you would like to recommend anything or want to tell me what you like about the story or have a question please comment below and on a similar note, vote, please I will greatly appreciate it.