Nomads

Chapter 32

It was strange how much changed after Luca's friends finally accepted Mara.

When walking in the halls of school over the next few weeks, people pointed and whispered less and smiled and waved more. They seemed to realize that she wasn't going anywhere once his friends accepted her as Luca's girlfriend. It felt like they were being nicer to her so her boyfriend would like them more.

She hated thinking that way and tried to have a better attitude about the new changes, but it frustrated her that people were treating her differently now that Luca's friends had made her part of their group. Once the 'golden circle' started chatting with her in classes and greeting her in the halls, it was like the whole town followed in their footsteps in trying to make Mara like them.

Luca's friends also invited her along every time they were hanging out as a group. Which was surprisingly often. Sometimes it made Mara miss the days when it was just her and Luca doing homework after school together. She still saw him every day; they still met up in the mornings and spent time together. But even that time was getting cut short with class workloads getting heavier. It also didn't help that he was spending more time with his friends. And she wasn't upset about that at all, it was just... Different.

It wasn't like she disliked spending time with them. She just didn't want to spend all her time with them. But part of her did want to spend all of her time with Luca, so she felt conflicted. She wanted him to have fun with his friends, with her and without her, but she kind of missed getting to be around just him all the time.

It didn't help that she often felt out of place when spending time with Luca's friends. She was aware that the only reason they interacted with her was because she was Luca's girlfriend, and for some reason it made their attempts to include her feel insincere. She was sure that they didn't actually want to be her friend; they only wanted to make her feel included because it would make Luca happy.

Which is one of the reasons why she still ate lunch with Jo. While it was sweet that Luca's friends wanted her to sit with them at lunch, just the thought of eating with them all made Jo uncomfortable and Mara wasn't going to abandon her. Besides, Jo had chosen to be her friend willingly, without being suspicious of her, and before she knew that Luca was Mara's boyfriend. And Mara really appreciated that.

"Hey, Naomi?" Maggie called from beside her, snapping Mara out of her unpleasant thoughts and bringing her back to the history lesson.

"Yeah?"

"The girls and I were thinking of going to the mall today. Wanna come?"

Mara left her stomach churn. She hadn't spent time with Luca's friends without Luca before. "Just the girls?" She mumbled.

Maggie nodded her head excitedly with a beaming smile. "Yep! We're thinking of looking at dresses for the winter formal."

"Winter formal?"

"Yeah! The Friday before winter break, there's a school dance. Do you wanna come dress shopping with us?"

Mara shrugged, biting her lip. "Sure."

Maggie's impossibly wide smile got even bigger. "Great! We're meeting at the front gate after school."

Mara nodded, opening her mouth to say something but the bell signaling the end of class drowned her out. She sighed, playing with the hem of her olive green sweater as she watched Maggie start packing her things. "Sounds good," she mumbled under her breath.

It did not sound good.

And it wasn't at first. When Mara walked out of the school and saw the three girls chatting and laughing with the boys by the gate, her stomach sank. She almost walked past them and went home. But Sarah looked up and waved her over before she could put that plan into action. Sending a nervous wave, she walked over.