Myne swears on his life that he hates this stuffy school's cafeteria; the lines are the longest he's ever seen since being put on this damned earth. And Gracie blabbering in his ear and pushing herself into his personal space just to talk shit makes it even worse. Being sick like Emily sounds like a dream at the moment.
"Can you believe it Christina?" Gracie drawled sticking her spoon into her cheese cake and taking a small chunk, with a smile on her face.
"It's totally believable since she broke up with him like a week before she hooked up with Charlie." Christina answered not even giving Gracie a glance. The girl had been trying to get everyone at the table into her gossipy little world, but Christina wasn't biting.
It's now time for lunch and yet the topic of discussion is none other than some random nobody called Rachel who left her boyfriend Sam and got her bread buttered not even a week later, so they assumed the hook up was always on the side. What makes things even messier is that Charlie ;her boyfriend, and Sam, her hook up have known each other since middle school.
The change in topic to a failed relationship was one Myne career little to nothing about. Myne would rather they talk about how they did on their pop quiz that he flopped. He opened the page to the Chemistry paper and just went straight to sleep. Literally, it's like the equations put a sleeping spell on him.
On second thought, he would rather sit here and talk about the messy relationship than them telling him about their immaculate grades and he'll settle for this over talking about Nike like he was some god again, Nike this, Nike that. Myne was appalled to say the least at how a school could kiss so much ass, well the ass of one boy.
Myne looked over to his friend analyzing him as if he hadn't seen him before, eyes going up and down to take in his outfit. And of course he dressed the part, always perfect just like his club of six, Myne excluded. Obviously.
Dressed like the cover model of a futuristic biker magazine. Jawline sharp, piercings gleaming. Hair gelled like he knew cameras were on him 24/7.
He looked away with a sigh and focused on his lunch tray. Mystery meat. Some sad-looking mashed potatoes. And vegetable that might've been mutants in disguise.
The smell made him consider skipping meals for the rest of senior year. But before he could poke at the food, Christina slammed her tray down and leaned across the table. "We're going shopping after school. You're coming."
"Huh?" Myne blinked. "Who's we?"
'Were'nt they just talking about Rachel's Scandal; sudden topic change for what?' Myne thought tapping his fork against the tray.
"Me. Gracie. You. Nike's probably gonna tag along. Maybe Jonathan if he doesn't disappear again. And Michael, if we find him."
Myne scrunched his nose. "What for?"
"Outfits. The party's this weekend, remember?" Christina rolled her eyes like he was dumb. "And no, you're not wearing that ugly flannel again."
Myne glanced down at his shirt, half-offended. "This flannel has character."
"It has holes," Gracie said through a giggle.
"That's called ventilation."
"Ventilation? Please Myne, that shirt is older that Mr. Vince himself, the president if you didn't get that." She tapped her Acrylic French tips on her own silver tray like she didn't just insult Myne clothing decisions.
Sure he didn't dress the best, sure he loved his Flannel shirt, but damn no need to come for his history knowledge. Especially about some president that was in control for like a week before he was assassinated.
Hey? at least he knew that much.
"Wow, look who's learning about the history of their home country." Myne sarcastically replied eyes rolling like they wanted to escape his eye sockets, quickly too. "Fine, but I am not spending all of my weakly allowance at that place." Myne grimaced at the memory of the last time they had gone to the mall to purchase some items that Emily wanted and a couple art supplies for Jonathan only for him to spend his money on some stupid fake gold chains.
"Good." Gracie squealed happily. Like a literal squeal before she took up her tray to get to her next class. "Se ya'll later, got swim class right now, and you know how that goes?"
'Of course'
"Yeah yeah." Christina waved her off like a fly.
Myne noticed after the most talkative person went away that Nike, Jonathan and Christopher had been quiet the entire time, which is weird, especially Christopher since he would be cracking jokes every 2 seconds like usual. Especially at Gracie.
Myne leaned on his elbow, eyes flicking back and forth between the twins, Jonathan, and Nike.
They were too quiet.
Like… unusually quiet.
No jabs, no jokes, no "remember when you fell down the stairs in 9th grade" or "remember when you accidentally kissed Miss Lucy," roasting session. Memories he wished evaporated like his courage every other week.
Christopher hadn't even insulted Gracie once during lunch. Jonathan hadn't said more than three words since the bell rang. Nike barely spoke at all, which wasn't weird exactly, but even his usual brooding had some rhythm to it.
Now? It was just silence. And not the comfortable kind.
'Are that about to drop me?' The thought dropped into Myne's head like a coin in a deep well. He tried to laugh it off internally.
'They're your friends, stop acting like you're in a bad teen drama.' But it didn't work. His brain was already off the rails.
'Maybe they're getting tired of you. Maybe they're gonna ditch you. Maybe today's the day they finally say it out loud.'
He looked at Nike again, then Jonathan, who was staring at his tray like it would give him life advice. His brain was working overtime trying to read the room.
'What if they're mad at me? Did I do something? Did I say something? What if they're just waiting for the right moment to blow up on me? In public? Like some kind of social assassination?'
His stomach turned and it wasn't because of the mashed potatoes.
"Shopping after school then?" Nike said suddenly, his voice cutting through the fog of thoughts only an overthinker would have; aka Myne. The words were simple, casual even, but Myne jumped slightly.
"Guess I'll be there."
He said it just to say something.
When they started leaving one by one, Myne was left behind, still at the table. He looked around like maybe someone would say, "Hey, aren't you coming?" But they didn't. No one looked back.
'That's fine. They're probably just tired. That's all. Or maybe they're just waiting until later to drop the bomb. Maybe they'll corner me at the mall. Maybe this is the day they finally beat the hell out of me in the parking lot like in those shows. Like how Nike threatened Reece when he tried messing with Christina. A story that was barely brought up since it always seemed to piss Chrissy off.
He laughed nervously to himself and stood up, dumping his tray.
"…Maybe I need therapy."
Maths class, notorious for being the hardest class to pass and the easiest to fail. The class Myne unfortunately had at the moment.
Myne was doing a pretty solid job at the failing part. Especially since he was on the borderline of hitting the hay and hitting his head. His head rested heavy on the desk, eyes barely open, body aching for a little sleep from the boring class.
But then, his mind drifted away completely.
He was back with the crew, the whole chaotic bunch: Jonathan, Michael, Nike, Christopher, Christina, Gracie, Emily. They were all sitting in a circle, laughter bouncing off the walls. They were playing spin the bottle in a basement, living room or whatever room could have such a low roof.
Only this time, instead of the usual spin-the-bottle, they had a dart. A real dart. It twirled slowly, impossibly, on the creaky old wooden floor.
Everyone held their breath as the dart rotated in a circle. And then it stopped pointing directly at Gracie.
The room hushed.
Suddenly, a sharp tap on his shoulder jerked Myne out of the dream. He blinked, his heart pounding like a trapped bird in his chest.
"Mr. Winchester? You awake?"
It was Ms. Gomez. Her voice was sharp, cutting through the haze like a knife. "Uh. Yeah, sorry, I was just… thinking."
She raised an eyebrow looking down at his drool soaked notebook but said nothing more, walking back to the board. She was probably tired of waking students in her class at this point.
Myne forced a smile, embarrassed about drooling in the middle of class. Good thing Emily wasn't here, because she would be laughing and making jokes about his wet slip up.
"Embarrassing..." You could practically see his face turn red at how embarrassed he was. Myne sighed sitting up and wiping his face deciding to pay attention in the wretched maths class.
Thankfully his nap seemed to had cut through majority of the class since the Bell rang out like some Bellowing echo.
Myne gathered his things like a starved man, and by gathering, it was more like taking up the one book he took out to take notes; no pen or pencils. Just a bare book.
When he turned around to exist the room, he saw Christina waiting at his classroom door a frown on her face as she tapped her nails on her hip.
"Hurry up loser, we've got a mall to raid!"