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"So, my house? After school?" Abbie and Sam nodded frantically at my suggestion; apparently, we all had updates and were dying to tell each other as soon as possible. I was ecstatic for us to finally hang out again—it had been ages.
My eyes looked past Abbie as I noticed Luke, Michael, and Calum walking in our direction. Luke put his finger to his lip, telling me to stay quiet, and he snaked his arms around Abbie. She was startled at first, but realized who it was in mere seconds. She smiled and turned in Luke's arms before greeting him with a kiss.
As if it was becoming natural, Calum migrated to me and Michael migrated to Sam. Calum was all smiles as he walked up to me, and I couldn't help but smile in response.
"What?" I asked him, thinking he was cute.
"I missed you," he said quietly, making sure no one else heard. "Do you wanna go to that burger place after school?" I glanced over at the girls and sighed quietly as I looked back at Calum.
"I have plans with Abbie and Sam after school, I'm sorry."
"That's okay," Calum told me, continuing to smile. "I can't steal you away from everyone."
"Maybe tomorrow?"
"Uh—yeah, I think that'll work." Calum smiled and gave me a nod. "This is going to sound very kindergarten, but... do you want to sit with me at lunch? I was thinking about it, and I don't know why I haven't asked you sooner—"
"Yes, Calum. I would love to."
. . .
"I can't believe we're sitting with them," Sam said, hanging her head as we got into the lunch line.
"What do you mean?" I asked her, wondering why that had put her into a funk.
"Look, I'm almost fully over the whole thing, but... I've hated their lunch table since junior high. It's hard to shake my entire being from existence." My eyes rolled and Abbie, who had joined us, laughed at Sam.
"I can't believe we're sitting with them, either. Their table sucks. It really depends on the day if I can tolerate them or not." My stomach started to tie into knots as I became nervous. "I still put up with them all, though, so it's not that bad."
"Maybe we shouldn't sit with them."
"Maya—"
"No, I'm serious. Maybe it'll be weird." Sam and Abbie both looked at me and cocked an eyebrow at me.
"Maya, don't let us get into your head. It'll be fine." I sighed, but agreed that it would probably be fine. We all got our trays and walked toward the table; there were people surrounding it and I was worried we wouldn't even have seats. As we got closer, it was clear that Luke had saved a seat for Abbie, Michael had saved a seat for Sam, but Calum had not done such a good job.
