The Georgia Rule

Chapter Seven

"Hold up. Who names their child Finnegan?"

"After everything that I just said, that's all you had to say?" I threw a fry at Lauren in complete disbelief of her priorities. I had just explained to her exactly how I had met Finn, despite his broody warnings, including the part of how he had almost killed me.

"Lighten up G. At least you have something to focus on now."

"Yeah, guess so," I muttered absentmindedly.

"-Until I get hold of that douche nugget and show him what real fear feels like," she stated seriously.

"Douche nugget?" the laughter spilled from my lips as I tried, and failed, to hold it in. I felt light and free, and most of all happy. Lauren watched me with a small smile playing on her lips, and I could see that she was relieved that I was doing okay.

"Sure, that's all you hear" she added with an amused eye roll. She pushed a strand of her dark brown-almost-black hair behind her ear, and narrowed her sometimes pale blue eyes, leaning slightly on the cafeteria table. I could sense that she was shifting from playful to serious as I twisted in my seat to follow her line of sight.

"Do you think that Breanna's been, a bit more-" I watched as the person in question skipped three underclassmen in the lunch line.

"-mean?" I added.

"Exactly."

Turning my attention back to Lauren, I dunked a fry into some ketchup with my fork and shovelled it into my mouth. "I'm not sure really, she hasn't been around much since you left."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not even sure if she's been at school."

"She told me she was. Are you saying that she-"

"Hello my beloved!" Breanna interrupted Lauren's previous question and sat down with a loud plunk of her plastic tray against the wooden surface of the table. She mindlessly flipped her auburn ponytail over her shoulder, her signature golden charm bracelet jingling with every move she made, almost as if constantly reminding us of her presence.

"What's up with you?" Lauren questioned.

"What do you mean?" Breanna scrunched her eyebrows together and continued eating her food, un-phased by Lauren's interrogation.

"I can't believe you'd leave her alone at a time like this!" Lauren whispered harshly to Breanna, mindful of the wandering ears and prying eyes that surrounded us.

"Geez Lauren you've been back for what, half a day?" Unlike Lauren, Breanna thrived off of the attention from crowds. I sat moodily as I watched my two best friends had a go at the other, knowing fully well that I stood at the centre of their disagreement.

Breanna's Latina heritage shone through at times like these, her voice becoming slightly laced with a tinge of a Cuban accent that she had inherited from spending summers with her grandmother.

Taking a quick glance around the cafeteria, I noticed that we had attracted an audience, who had tried, and failed to mask their interest into our conversation. It was a bit pathetic and I briefly wondered if their lives were so abhorrently uneventful that they felt the need to constantly pry into ours.

"Hey guys, you know. This is ridiculous-" Immediately I regretted my attempt to take reign over the situation at hand, seeing as I only contributed further coal to fuel Breanna's fire.

"No. Do you want to know what's ridiculous?" Breanna began, but both Lauren and I shushed her. Thankfully, Lauren was not as blind to our most recent fan base as Breanna was and gestured that we move the conversation to somewhere a bit more private. Instantly both Breanna and I understood.