I Wouldn't Mind

Chapter 2

Lunch finally arrives and I only feel partially excited. In my dad's drunken state he neglected to leave money out for me to actually get food. This is a fairly regular occurrence so I'm used to it. Allie or Violet always give me something from their lunches if they see me without anything.

I walk into the cafeteria to see my friends at our usual table with trays of food already in front of them. Walking towards them I see an apple and a bag of carrots already in front of my usual spot. 

"Hey guys, thanks for this", I say tearing open the carrots. 

"No problem, babe. It's Thursday so we figured he'd 'forget' your lunch money again", Violet says making air quotes with her fingers as Allie nods her head in agreement

It's not that they're judgmental. They know about how things are at home and how Dad likes to go out on Wednesday's after work. They always make sure I have something on the days they expect him to be too hungover to take care of me and know I give whatever cash I have to Darcie so she can get food.

"Anyway..." Allie says leaning across the table towards me. "I saw you walking the new hottie around the building earlier."

"I'm not even going to ask why you weren't in class. But yeah. Mr. Dean asked me to show him around since I really don't need the extra time to study for the exam tomorrow." I say shrugging off the encounter with the new kid in town.

"He's way too hot for this dump of a town", Violet says as we all nod in agreement.

"Yeah and he has an attitude for a city too", I say under my breath.

I look up to see both Allie and Violet staring at me with little smirks on their faces. 

"What?" I ask.

"So this tour of the school had more talking than you're letting on?" Allie says, I'm sure hoping for something interesting to start happening in this town. 

"He tried to flirt I think? You guys know I'm not interested in dating or whatever he has in mind. I'm too busy trying to get out of here to look for a reason to stay", I don't even think about what I'm saying as the words fly out of my mouth. 

"So you think you'd stay for him?" Allie asks.

I choke on my bite of apple and sputter furiously, "No that's not at all what I was saying. I just don't have time for anything else and I won't even entertain the idea of it". 

I look up to see their faces drop as they stare at something behind me. I turn around just in time to see Cassidy, the mayors daughter and school bitc.. I mean mean girl, coming up to me. 

The problem with Cassidy is her constant need to be the center of attention. Her and I used to be best friends before my Mom died and I started to close people out. Violet and Allie were the only ones to stick with me through it. I don't know what I ever did to Cassidy to make her hate me so much, but it seems victimizing me is her favorite pass time. 

"Hello Troll and friends." She says with a fake smile as her little group laughs.

I roll my eyes and sigh out, "What do you want Cass?"

She quickly drops the smile and squints her eyes at me, "Don't call me that. Anyway, word says you were seen pretty close to the new guy Alex. I just wanted to make sure you remembered your place in this town. You aren't the girl a hot guy like him goes for. So keep your head down and stay out of my way. Got it."

"I wasn't even going to talk to him past showing him around the school, so go for it Cassidy." I reply turning back towards my sad excuse for a lunch.

I hear the sound of footsteps walking away and assume they left. 

Looking up I see my friends holding back laughter.

"What?" I ask not waiting for a reply as I get up and leave the cafeteria.

- - - - - - - - - - 

I make it half way to the front entrance prepared to go home when I feel someone grab my hand. Spinning around I see none other than Alex holding my hand. 

It takes me a moment too long to pull my hand away, but when I do I look up at him with a scowl.

"What do you want"?

"I just want to make sure you're okay. It looked like those girls in the cafeteria said something to really upset you", Alex says looking at me with concern and pity in his eyes.

I hate that look.

I roll my eyes and start to walk off, before turning and throwing over my shoulder, "I don't need your pity, dude. The cafeteria was nothing I'm not used to so I'll be fine".