Cracking Zeenath

September 2nd, 2015

I didn't finish my journal entry yesterday because I fell asleep. That's what happens when you stay up 'til 2:30 in the morning, not knowing what to do with yourself.

I had met them for lunch yesterday. 

I walked with Clara into Anna's Coffee, the bell tinkling softly as the door closed behind us. She scanned the room for her friends, finding them in a matter of seconds.

     "There they are. Come on, I'll introduce you." She smiled at me and lead the way to a table tucked away in the corner of the coffee shop. As we walked up, they greeted her with big smiles before glancing at me questioningly. I pressed my books harder against my chest as I gave them a tight smile.

"Hey." The red-head girl looked at me, then at Clara. "Who's your new friend?"

The blond boy sitting beside her snickered. "The monkey made a friend. That's new."

Clara made a noise and swatted at him. "Don't be a butt. This is Zeenath. I met her in Biology today. Say hi." She looked at the blond boy. "Be nice."

He laughed. "I'm not being mean to her, I'm being mean to you."

Clara rolled her eyes, smiling before pulling out a chair and motioning for me to sit. "I'm going to go get another one. Sit down."

I awkwardly sat down and looked around at the faces looking at me while Clara walked off.

The redhead smiled. "Hi. My name's Madison. This one," she pointed to the blond boy, "is Lucas. Never listen to anything he says."

Lucas gave me a grin. "Hey." 

 Then she turned to motion with a jerk of her head towards the other boy sitting beside Lucas. "And he's Damian. Listen to what he says. He doesn't say much, but he's the only sane one in this group."

      I turned to look at him. His dark, turbulent eyes bored into mine, unsmiling, and unrelenting. I stiffened before I turned back to Madison. She must've noticed because she laughed. "Don't mind him. He's like that to everyone. He's just being a twat. Thinks it makes him look 'bad'," she made little quotations in the air and glanced at him, grinning. "But he's a twat. He'll open up eventually, and you'll see. He's a twat."

Damian's eyes widened before he narrowed them and glared at Madison. "I'm not trying to be 'bad;' I'm not a dork like you three."

The blond one, Lucas, laughed. "Way to destroy his image Madison. I guess we won't be getting a ride home today. It looks like it's gonna rain, too."

Clara walked up and raised her eyebrows at Lucas. "What'd you say?" Then she looked at my face and turned to Damian, lightly smacking his arm. "Stop that. You're scaring her. Don't be a twat."

Lucas burst out laughing. "How'd you know it was him?"

Clara rolled her eyes. "It's always him."

Lucas snickered. "You got called a twat four times. Ouch!"

Damian looked at Lucas, a hint of a smile on his face. "I'm not a twat."

Lucas grinned.

"Twat."

"Idiot."

"Poser."

Damian huffed. "Oh shut up. I'm not trying to be badboy. Leave me alone."

"Yeah? You wanna be, with your black hair and black leather jacket."

Damian stood up and took the jacket off, throwing it over the back of his chair before sitting back down. "Good lord, you people don't know how to shut up."

"And black T-shirt." 

The other three snickered as Damian clenched his jaw and glared at Lucas. I bit my lip to keep from smiling.

      The rest of lunch went roughly the same way. Good-natured insults and banter. I sat in my seat, content to just watch the show in front of me. It felt a little like home again, and my lips settled into a small smile watching the four of them.

Then I sat up with a start. "Oh shoot." I pulled out my phone to look at the time, then glanced up at Clara as I bit my lip. "I'm sorry, I have to leave. Class will be starting soon."

Clara smiled at me. "Huh? Oh. Sure, go ahead. We don't want to make you late. I'll see you tomorrow!"

I nodded. "Bye," I smiled and turned around.

Madison called out to me before I walked more than a few steps. "Hey, it was nice meeting you, Zeenath! I hope you come back tomorrow. We always meet here for lunch. We'll be here tomorrow, waiting for you!" The others voiced their agreement.

I turned around and waved. "Sure," I said with a smile. A quiet, bittersweet nagging feeling tugged at my heart as I pushed open the door and walked out.

The way she had said that...I could hear the echoes of my own voice telling Ericka the same thing all those years ago. Funny how things happened.

     The rest of that day passed in a blur, and I sat at my desk that night writing that page instead of sleeping because I couldn't sleep. Spending time with them reminded me of home, and sent my mind back down memory lane. Sleep was just not coming to me until it hit me right in the middle of writing that entry. I woke up this morning with the markings of the edge of the book and papers pressed into my cheek.

     Today, I spent the day inside my room, going through old pictures and videos. Now that we aren't together, they don't seem to make me happy anymore. I stared at a picture of all of us, Evelyn, me Ericka, Nick, and Noel. It was the picture we took when we were on our way home from that annual activity-fair thing. That was when we were all happy. Those pictures are beautiful, and they make me want to smile and cry all at the same time. I want to go back to that time. I've changed so much. I remembered that quote from Alice in Wonderland that Evelyn used to love so much. 

I guess it's true.

"I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then."

~Zeenath.

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As always, please take a minute to comment/vote if you liked the chapter! I really want to know what you all think of the way the story is going! :) 

~October