January 3
Calum shoves his textbooks and notebooks into his backpack and hurries out of his journalism class.
It was lunch time, and no guy will ever waste a single second of their lunch time.
Calum walks into the lunchroom, and immediately spots his friend Michael.
He waves ecstatically at him, and he feels a lot better that Michael didn't seem like he forgot about him.
Calum slides into the seat next to him.
"I need to go get my lunch, save spots for four people."
"Okay," Calum replies, wondering why he needed to have spots for four more people.
It was usually just the three of them, Calum, Michael, and Luke.
Luke comes out of the lunch line and sits across from Calum, giving him a big smile. "How's the first day back?"
Calum sighs, rubbing his temples before reaching into his backpack and grabbing a quick lunch he threw together. He usually buys, but he wasn't really in the mood for school food today. "Man, it's horrible. I've been through so many years of school, and so many weeks of breaks, yet I still can't manage to remember how to really cherish those breaks." He says, half-joking.
He nods. "Well, I think Michael and I cherished ours quite well, haven't we, Michael?"
Luke and Calum both look up at Michael, who's sitting next to Calum. "That's right, my friend."
That feeling comes up into his stomach. It's the feeling of betrayal and loneliness. Calum gives them a small smile and quickly pretend to be fascinated by how two pieces of bread can hold cheese, tomato, lettuce, and meat together.
Why didn't they ever seem to invite him? It wasn't fair, Michael and Calum have been childhood friends since Kindergarten, and even though Luke and Calum have been best buds for a long time also, he came in second grade.
This was stupid. Calum was pretty much a grown man, he was going to turn 20 soon, and he was here feeling horrible because his two best friends spent time together? It could've just been his own fault, that he seemed so reclused this break, right?
Suddenly, to his horror, Ashton slides into the seat next to Luke, diagonal from him. Next to him is Ella Aspen. Calum didn't even know she went to their school.
He continued pretending to be interested in his sandwich.
Calum could feel Ella's piercing blue eyes on him, before they went to look at Ashton. Was she part of their "friend group" now? Because the bigger this gets, the more pushed out of it Calum was, and if he didn't have Michael and Luke, he wouldn't have any friends, guaranteed.
"Hey Calum." Ashton says.
Calum looks up and gives him a smile. "Hey Ashton."
"In case you guys don't know her, this is Ella. We're in Spanish together." Ashton beams.
Ella gives everyone a shy wave. "I'm Ella."
She purposely avoids Calum's gaze.
Everyone starts digging into their food, carrying small conversation.
Calum finishes his lunch, and as he got up to throw away his trash, Ella and him lock eyes.
She quickly looks away. Why did she hate Calum so much? What exactly did he say yesterday? Or was she just shy because of the environment?
Calum suddenly forgets everything he was thinking about because she walked into the room.
Winnie smiled, and sat down in the table in front of them.
Her hair flowed down her back effortlessly.
Calum sighed inwardly, prying his eyes away from her presence. He threw his lunch away and sat back down.
"Hey Calum, we're gonna go out to eat tomorrow, wanna come? The weather's supposed to be nicer," Michael teased playfully.
Calum gave him a genuine smile. "Sure, why not? Where to?"
"Let's just meet at Chipotle, instead of meeting here." Luke said.
Everyone nodded.
"Yeah okay." Calum said, trying to contain his excitement.
His friends and he always used to grab lunch out together, and it was good to know they still were including him.
Only, this time, Ashton and Ella were tagging along.
Calum thought Ashton gave him a bad vibe.
As everyone departed to continue their classes, Calum and Winnie bumped into each other.
Luckily, nothing spilled.
"I'm s-sorry." Calum stammered.
"It's okay," Winnie said sweetly, locking eyes with Calum.
Her eyes were beautiful.
She was beautiful.
And she walked away from him, out of his grasp, and into his mind.
**
hope you enjoyed!
vote, comment, share please! thanks for all the reads and votes so far!
ps. do you believe in love at first sight, or should i walk by you again?
hehe bye x
