Ten Things

Ch.3-I Bet You Can't

Cole

After surviving the first half of the day and making it to lunch, I figured there was a possibility I could make it the whole year. It was reassuring.

Jayden and I claimed a table, our buddies soon following and crowding the remaining spaces on the benches. Margaret and Lauren—I found out the girl constantly hanging around Jayden was named Lauren—sat across from us. I also found out Margaret and Lauren were pretty close so there was no way I was getting rid of the banshee any time soon.

“So remember that new girl? That weird blonde chick? Well, she’s in my first class,” Lauren spoke up, reaching across the table and stealing one of Jayden’s fries.

“Oh, yeah?” Margaret questioned. “What’s she like?”

Lauren shrugged. “She was talking to the weird girl with the pink hair.”

Jayden pointed to the cafeteria girls. “You mean her?”

We all looked over and sure enough the blonde and pink-haired duo came strolling through. Tiffany was the school weirdo, to put it nicely. It started with her hair and ended with her disturbing love of creepy and dark poetry. I thought it strange seeing her beside the quiet and unassuming new girl, who was still walking as if on broken glass. As if each step might be her last.

“Well, they say who you hang out with is a direct reflection on who you are,” Lauren muttered, and for some reason for days, weeks after she said it, those words stuck with me. And I would later learn why they bothered me so much.

“I heard she moved here from Tennessee.”

“Why?”

“Who knows. Maybe she got caught selling dope or something.”

I rolled my eyes at Jayden. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.”

“Well, look at her! It’s always the shy, quiet ones.”

I stole another look at the girl, because somehow, I just wasn’t convinced she had it in her to go dishing out illegal drugs. But when I looked over I froze, finding she was already staring at us, and our gazes locked. It was only for a moment, not even five seconds, but all the emotion I could visibly see in her eyes left me feeling mentally exhausted.

And then Tiffany tugged on her arm and led her away to a different table.

“Well, she was a lost cause from the start, anyway,” Lauren mentioned, taking a forkful of her salad.

I shook my head, telling myself to just forget about that little unsettling moment. I took a bite out of my sandwich.

“I bet she’s the kind of girl who’s gonna stay a virgin forever,” one of the girls at the table commented. I didn’t bother looking up to see who. A lot of times I didn’t bother getting mixed up with the shit they talked about.

And then, of course, Jayden had to get involved. And whenever he got involved, he usually had a habit of taking a jab at me.

“I bet I know the one person who could get into this new girl’s pants,” he announced, and then my worst fears were confirmed when he turned on me, smiling smugly. “Cole.”

Idiot.

Lauren laughed. “If Cole tried to seduce her, the girl wouldn’t know what to do.”

There just seemed to be something so wrong with the turn of the conversation. “You guys are stupid,” I mumbled, crumpling up my paper bag.

“Come on, dude,” Jayden prodded my side with his elbow. “You know you want to give it a try. Come on.”

“Why don’t you?” I snapped back.