“Nope.” She shakes her head. “No lesson.”
“Huh…” I trail off, not completely convinced. “Well, good for you then. Does that mean you’re going to tell him yes?”
She shrugs. “Unless I change my mind.” She then drinks some of her water. “Ya know, I haven’t seen Brayden yet. Did he say anything about missing lunch?”
“We didn’t talk this morning,” I reply, forcing myself to sound nonchalant, “but it’s not like he always has to sit with us. He can sit and eat lunch wherever he wants. Or he can just skip lunch if he wants to.”
I need to make this Liam-thing happen ASAP.
“Mm-hmm” is the only response she offers, and then we eat our food in silence. I tell myself that it doesn’t bother me not knowing where Brayden is, but more-than-likely he’s probably with Beth—and I can feel my appetite starting to vanish again.
He’s not your boyfriend. You shouldn’t be worried about where he is or who he’s with.
“Mind if I sit down?”
I mentally curse myself for wishing that was Brayden’s voice.
“Holt,” Lora says, looking past me, “hey.”
“Sure thing, Holt,” I answer for Lora, getting up from the table, “you can have my seat.”
Lora’s eyebrows crease as I grab my stuff. “Meg—”
“I’m not really hungry,” I interrupt her, “I think I might walk around some before the bell rings. See ya in class.”
She’ll probably lecture me later, but I don’t really care, I need to get out of this cafeteria. So, after ridding myself of my food and tray, I leave the cafeteria and start strolling down the hallway.
In all honesty, I should probably walk outside so I don’t get stopped by a hall monitor…
I decide to play it safe, and start walking toward one of the exit doors—until I hear someone say my name.
It’s Brayden. I don’t even need to look over my shoulder.
“Hey,” he greets me, appearing by my side, “where ya going?”
Pssh, I don’t owe him any kind of explanation.
I offer a half-shrug, not bothering to say anything.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, now looking confused. “Why are you upset?”
I purse my lips. “I didn’t say I was upset.”
“Well, it’s pretty obvious that you are,” he replies with a short laugh. “So, what’s up? Did something happen?”
“I’m fine,” I lie, crossing my arms, “and I’m going to go now…okay?”
“Wait, wait, wait,” he says, stepping in front of me, “is it something I did? This is the first time we’ve even talked today.”
Exactly.
You’re not together, Megan. Stop it with the angry girlfriend attitude.
“I’d rather not talk about it.”
That didn’t sound girlfriend-ish, right? A friend could totally say that.
He proceeds to sigh. “So, it is something I did. Just tell me, Meg…or at least give me some kind of hint.”
Dang, he’s gorgeous. I know he’s really on my nerves right now, but once again—there’s no denying his good looks.
“Megan,” he says, his voice lower than before, “what’s going on?”
In that moment, I find myself wishing things were different.
I wish he wasn’t talking to me as a “friend.” I wish I didn’t have to feel guilty for finding him attractive. And I wish that somehow Lora is right about Brayden liking me.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wro—
“Hey,” he interrupts my thoughts, his fingers grazing my arm, “I can’t fix this if you don’t tell me what I did.”
You made me like you again…that’s what you did.
“You didn’t do anything,” I lie, taking a step back, “I just—today’s just kind of a bleh day, I guess.”
There, maybe he’ll leave me alone now.
He doesn’t look convinced though. “Are you sure I didn’t do anything wrong?”
“Positive,” I force myself to say, “like you said…this is the first time we’ve even talked today.”
“Well—”
“I should go,” I cut in, knowing that any further conversation with him right now wouldn’t be a good idea, “I don’t want to get detention for loitering in the halls.”
“Right, right,” he agrees with a nod, “I’ll see you later though—yeah?”
Not if I can help it.
I offer a tight smile. “Absolutely.”
——————
I haven’t seen Liam at all.
And trust me—I tried. I was almost late for three of my classes because I kept “hallway searching.”
I’m starting to wonder if he even goes to this school, and if that was actually him I saw outside the other day. Maybe it was just some guy that looked like him. Either way: no success.
On another note, Lora scolded me during gym class for bailing at lunch …but thankfully the conversation didn’t last long. She did, however, inform me that she and Holt are supposed to be going out on Saturday. Yeah, she officially told him yes at lunch. For both of their sakes, I hope it works out.
And now I’m heading to the main entrance/exit doors, ready to just GO HOME. I’ve managed to avoid Brayden since we talked earlier, and I’d like to keep it that way.
“Hey, Megan!”
Well, there goes that plan.
Are you kidding me? I was so close!
“You feeling better now?” Brayden asks, coming beside me. “Or is today still bleh?”
“Both, I guess,” I respond in an uninterested voice as I mentally curse, “at least school is over though.”
Go away, you amazing smelling pain-in-the-neck!
“Tell ya what,” he drawls, NOT going away because he apparently can’t read my mind, “why don’t we go do something? Just let your mom know I’ll take you home afterward.”
Say WHAT now? No, absolutely not. I can’t “go do something” with Brayden!
“Come on, Meg,” he says, pushing open one of the entrance/exits doors, “let me cheer you up…it’ll be fun, I promise.”
I push open the other door, then step outside. “No thanks.”
But guess what? I totally want to say yes.
And that’s totally wrong.
He
