At the End of the Garden

Chapter Ten

I tried to get my Dad to call in sick for me the next day. He usually always would if I asked, even if he didn't really think I was sick. I got unlucky. My mum was still home when I got up and she didn't buy my fake coughing act, not even for a second. I found myself nervously going in for another day of school.
Angie had moved seats in Form to be with her new friends, officially. The day before she had just sat ignoring me with her chair as far away from me as possible to prove her point. So I didn't speak to anyone in Form today, in my first lesson I had a short two minute conversation with the person I sat next to. In my second period I spoke to no-one at all. But I shared this lesson with Sidney, and as we were leaving he caught up with me.
"I haven't got a detention after school today." He started. "Do you wanna catch up on everything... or not?"
I thought he was an idiot. After yesterday, it felt like Eden was going to take his fight to him rather than keep bickering with me about things. I also thought I'd achieved what I'd aimed to with Sidney. Eden was 100% jealous because of us. But, that didn't mean I didn't want to waste my time with Sidney anymore. I really did. I probably wouldn't talk to anyone else today and Sidney had the amazing ability to make me laugh.
I nodded. "Do you want to meet at the gates again."
He seemed pleased by my response and agreed. I wondered if he always enjoyed meeting up after school like I did. Even if we were talking about a dead girl.
He must of have learned some sort of lesson after yesterday. He didn't talk to me once in Maths. Not that it stopped him turning around to talk to other people. He smiled at me when he walked in late, and again when we made eye contact a couple of times. Not that I was staring at him, but he was the most interesting thing in the room. I was eaves dropping into his conversation subconsciously but avoided joining in to avoid aggravating the robot sitting next to me. I must have been desperate for social interaction because, near the end of the lesson, I managed to make Sidney smirk by checking an imaginary watch on my wrist. Eden didn't say anything. I didn't say anything to him. Sidney said nothing to either us.

Lunch was what I was dreading the most. I wasn't excited to spend the most of it in the toilets like I did yesterday. People looked at you weird when you were sat by yourself too.
Today, I tried to hide in the back corner of the monochrome cafeteria, but it was still difficult to avoid peoples gazes. It was so packed in this room that there was no such thing as a table to yourself unless there was a group of fifteen of you. I couldn't avoid the people on the other end of the table noticing me. I was lucky that I was sharing it with some Year Eights or Sevens, who wouldn't know me. But my luck ran out quick.
"Excuse me."
The voice was so quiet I barely heard it.
"Do you mind if we sit here?"
I didn't bother to look up. I just nodded. It's not like I could do anything to stop them. The voice sat two seats down from me and I could only see his hands while I adamantly looked away. Curiosity eventually made me look up to see who it was. The last time I saw him he's been so reserved he was hardly noticeable, so it took my a while to realise he was the boy Sidney and I had spoken to before with Renée. I think his name was Michael. It wasn't long before the other half of the duo joined him.
"You didn't wait long." Renée said. I could recognise her voice without looking up, it was loud even when it wasn't.
"Sorry." Michael answered. "I wanted to get a seat, it's busy today."
Renée must have given a physical response, like a shrug, because I didn't hear her reply. Once she'd sat down, the two started talking to each other. Both of them. Michael was talking very little when I last saw him and Renée didn't shut up. Now, they were responding a replying to each other equally. I obviously hadn't been part of their conversation, whether I could hear it or not, but Renée eventually noticed me there.
"That's Angela's friend, right?" She started saying, as if I wasn't there and couldn't hear her. She'd clearly forgotten my name. "Oh and Eden Quinn's girlfriend."
That was me.
"Marie." Michael told her.
At the sound of my name, I pretended I hadn't been listening the entire time and looked up at them.
"How comes you're sitting alone? What's wrong with Angie?" Renée said without a hello or any type of greeting first.
"Um." Was the first thing that came out of my mouth. "I don't think she wants to sit with me."
I hoped they wouldn't ask why.
"She's a bit like that." Renée said, nodding to herself as she did. "Why can't you sit with your boyfriend?"
"Ren..." Michael said her name calmly, though it seemed like a warning for her to shut up. "Don't be rude."
"Come-on! No-one would be surprised. It's weirder for her to sit alone."
"Sorry." Michael apologised on behalf of her friend. "She's a bit - she always says the first thing that comes to her head."
"It's fine." I felt obliged to say. If Renée hadn't of intimidated me so much I became to uneasy to feel anything, I might have been offended and argued with her.
"Why do you go out with him anyway?" Renée continued despite everything. Michael's apology hadn't stopped her. "He doesn't seem like, I don't know, boyfriend material, or human material. We think he's paying you."
"Ren!" Michael said. He seemed more embarrassed than .
"What!" Renée responded.
"It's fine." I reassured them again. In fact, Renée had almost made me laugh with her comment. It made me wonder if money was good compensation for being 'Eden Quinn's girlfriend.' When I got nothing else. "He's not paying me."
"Maybe you should ask about that. He doesn't seem that nice."
As he told Renée to be nice, Michael seemed to be holding back a laugh this time.
"He's not that bad, most of the time."
I'm not sure why I bothered defending Eden. I tried to wrack my brain for an example of him being romantic. It was difficult when I couldn't remember any recent conversations that hadn't resulted in a fight.
"Sounds like a very loving relationship then."
"Oh my God." Was all Michael could say.
"I'm just saying!" Renée was happy to offend me, but obviously felt the need to explain herself to Michael. "He can't be that great if she can't even sit with him at lunch."
"You don't say that kind of thing out loud!" Michael whispered loudly back at her.
Between them, the pair were quite comedic. In the end I found myself more amused than annoyed.
"It's okay..." I felt like all I'd done was repeat myself. "Honestly, the most emotion he's shown is jealousy."
I don't know why I said this. It must have been the lack of social interaction I'd had all day that caused the words to fall out of my mouth.
"Jealous? Oh, right, of Sidney, yeah we heard you cheated with him or something."
"I did not." I scoffed. That was exaggerated.
"It's just a rumour, no-one really believes it. We think its funny that Eden could drive you to such a thing."
"I'm - not like that." I said, defensively. I didn't really know what I was like though. Was I much better than... an adulterer?
"Sidney's weird. Most people think you'd have higher standards."
I wanted to defend Sidney, but the first time I felt Eden's struggle about the rumours. If I took Sidney's side, it wouldn't help Eden at all, or mine. I didn't think I wanted anyone to see me as, well, slutty was the first word that came to mind.
But the term 'weird' was strange coming from Renée. Not only had she failed to interact with me normally since she sat down, she looked odd. She had obviously failed box dip dyed hair (that was definitely against the uniform code) and still wore trousers to school. She was weird.
"You shouldn't say that about him." Michael said.
"You're right." Renée said, then laughed to herself. "I need to make sure I don't say it to his face tomorrow."
I didn't get a chance to ask what was happening tomorrow.
"Anyway." Renée carried on speaking, "if Eden's only stroppy about you talking to other guys then you should question if he's worth the money."
"What money? Oh right."
Michael agreed with his friend. "It's not a crime to friends with a boy."
They were wrong. No. They were right. It's just the opposite of what Angie would have said. But they wrong, because I'd caused all this on purpose.
"Being a crap boyfriend, now that's a crime!" Renée seemed to find herself really amusing.
"I've sort of earned it." I said.
"All I'm saying is," Renée began, "as rumour has it, Sidney is more like your boyfriend than your actually... hang on I don't even know what you've done to make people think that..."
"They were together the other day." Michael answered, then instantly apologised when he realised he was fuelling his friends rude remarks.
"Right." Renée remarked. "Not like we caught them snogging, though. Yeah, rumours are a pain, that's out of order."
Michael seemed to have given up trying to scold his friend. But I was more embarrassed than angry, and after that had passed I found myself smiling into my lap. "Thanks for um..."
I wasn't really sure what I was thanking for. Maybe just for talking to me. Maybe because I thought they said the opposite of what Angie would have told me.
"De nada, costs nothing to give a stranger relationship advice." Renée said, with a mouth full of food. "Don't date a robot next time."
"He isn't a robot." I said, but with a lighter heart than before. These two didn't quite have the situation right, but it was reassuring anyway. They took my side, perhaps wrongly, which caused me to shyly look away to the floor. I remembered the chocolate bar Sidney had given was still there, I hadn't taken it out my bag last night. Once the three of us finished eating, I pulled it out of my bag and offered to share it with Renée and Michael.
"For the... advice." I told them when they gave me questioning looks. "And, maybe bribery, um, if you let me sit with you two more often at Lunch."
They looked between each other, and I got worried they'd say no.
"If Angie doesn't want you, you can't be that bad."

**********

Hi! Small note to say I'm not sure if I'll able to update next week. I'm going back to Uni so may be preoccupied with packing/unpacking. But who knows, maybe I'll take initiative and edit the chapter early.

Also I don't even know if anyone would care. Leave a vote or comment to let me know someones there. Please, I'm craving attention.