Seth's Point Of View
By the time I make way through the cafeteria line Miles, Logan, and EJ are already in our booth towards the far edge of the cafeteria.
We always look kind of weird sitting together in a group, because it almost looks like I tried to find people who look opposite of each other and picked them as friends. EJ with his fiery red hair and nearly black eyes. Miles with his stark black spiky hair and dozens of freckles. Logan with his left ear pierced and waves of short blonde hair.
It was like the beginning of an awful joke. "So, the red head, the blonde, and the brunette walked into a bar..."
"This is so fucked up. We're having a quiz in Mrs. Sawyer's class. I'm going to end up failing the class if I can't pass this test," Logan is telling them. I slide into the empty space beside him. We've been sitting just like this in this same booth since Sophomore year.
"Mrs. Sawyer's tests are never that hard," Miles points out.
I smirk at Logan and he's grinning at me, too. We start laughing.
"What?" Miles looks offended.
"That's because you're a fucking genius boy," I tell Miles.
Miles tosses a limp french fry over at me, "Fuck off, Torres."
EJ looks up from pushing his pizza around the paper plate, "Come on, Miles. We all know that it's true."
"Et tu brute?"
Then we all start laughing, until even Miles laughs. Who says shit like that?
"I think I'm gonna have some people over this weekend. My parents are out," Logan says.
"They're always out," EJ says without thinking, still pushing around the greasy slab of pizza.
Miles and I give him a sharp look and he realizes what he just said.
"Shit, sorry man I didn't mean to say that," EJ says quickly, trying to take it back.
Logan looks around the cafeteria, avoiding our stares. He laughs it off, "Nah, it's no big deal. We all know they're never around."
His parents are always one place or another, like my parents. That's what made me and Logan slightly better friends with each other than EJ and Miles. They didn't really understand why it wasn't always a good thing to be able to go out whenever you wanted to.
Sometimes it would be kind of nice to have someone know if you went missing or even someone to slap you if fucked up in school.
"That girl keeps checking you out," Logan states, diverting the subject from himself.
I figure he's just trying to get the attention off of himself, but then I notice he's being serious.
My eyes glance around the cafeteria, "Who?"
"I don't know her name. She's the hot brunette girl with the nice ass."
Miles rolls his eyes at the crude description.
"Is that supposed to narrow it down?"
Logan and I have extremely different opinions about who we find attractive anyway, so the girl being hot doesn't help.
Logan's taste in girls varies from blonde model-type girls to slouching girls with lip piercings.
Miles follows Logan's gaze, "It's Peyton Waters. She was student of the year last year. We got our photograph taken together for the school paper."
"Of course you did," I mumble. Then I look towards where Peyton, Bri, and their red-headed friend with the pixie cut sit. Sure enough she's steadily staring over here.
When she notices that I've caught her staring she scowls at me like I've down something wrong and looks away. She takes a bite of her sandwich, which I assume is cucumber and mayonnaise. Peyton always loved those for some awful reason, and she would give me disgusted looks when I ate turkey and cheese. She's been a vegetarian practically sense she popped out of the womb.
Logan sounds intrigued, "Do you know her or something?"
"I used to," I say vaguely. I never talked to the guys about Peyton. Logan would call me a pussy for having avoided her for the past three years, Miles would scold me for abandoning her freshman year, and EJ would ask for her number.
Frankly, it disturbed me to hear her being called hot. She was cute with her bouncy brown-blonde curls and dimples, and her features might be described as beautiful. Hot just didn't fit the girl who wore Duck Dynasty pajamas or snorted when she laughed.
The same old Peyton who liked her waffles kind of burnt and highlighted parts of books she liked and slept on the floor when she was sick because she liked it better. "Hot" and "nice ass" were not phrases I'd use to describe her.
"You think she's hot?"
He gives me a weird look, "You don't think so?"
I take a longer look at Peyton. Her dark eyes seemed to become lighter when she laughed at something Brianna said, and they wrinkled up. Her hair was put on top of her head in a messy pony tail with curls flying everywhere.
She was just Peyton.
"I don't know. She's my partner is Ms. Henderson's class," I tell him.
"Her projects are so screwed up."
"I know our project is about love or some shit. Then we were talking and we ended up making a bet. I bet that I could get someone to love me before she could even date half the number of people I have."
"You're a dumb ass, Torres. That girl could have guys lined up around a fucking block."
Miles agrees, "She's really nice."
"Yeah, but I only have to get one girl to fall for me. She has to get, like, a billion dates."
"I'm betting on her," Logan grins.
EJ seconds, "I am too."
Miles just shakes his head, and I'm certain that he thinks the whole thing is immature.
"You're betting on the losing side," I counter.
When the bell rings I'm still wondering if something was wrong with me for not finding her hot, but I guess it was just differing opinions.
