The Thing About Flip Flops

Chapter Seven: Sexy Cheese Pulls and Eloquent Dogs

Oh no.

"Audrey? Care to introduce us?" Jenna smirks.

I glare at her. "You already know who he is. He used to go here." I shift my glare in Jack's direction which is difficult since he is standing up and I'm sitting down so I doubt I look threatening in any way. "Why are you here?"

Jack smiles innocently but it doesn't fool me. "To eat lunch with you guys, can't I reconnect with my old friends?"

"We're seventeen, we're not that old," Henry informs him at the same time as Natalia says in a friendly tone, "Oh my god, how are you? It's been such a long-"

Jenna looks outraged at what Henry said before and loudly yells over Nat, "Hey! I'm eighteen!"

"You really want to sit here? With them?" I look at Jack incredulously, pointing between Jenna and Henry.

He smirks and says, "You know what, I'm going to take that as an offer to sit down."

Jack sits in the only empty seat at the six seated table, opposite me and next to Henry, making the seating arrangement something like this:

Natalia Jenna

Chris Henry

Audrey Jack

As Jack takes a seat, Chris nudges me gently with his arm and mutters, "Is he bothering you? Because if he is then he doesn't have to sit with us."

I reassure my boyfriend, "Nah, it's okay he's annoying but definitely harmless."

Chris frowns and says quietly, "I remember him being a douchebag back in middle school..."

I look up at Jack, who is munching cheerfully on a mozzarella stick, watching us whispering with a look of bored fascination on his attractive face.

"Oh, by all means keep whispering, I'm trying to read your lips but all I got out of that conversation was something about rabbits," Jack says to us with a confused shrug as he reaches across the table and dips his mozzarella stick in my marinara sauce.

Wait a second... my marinara sauce?!

He did not.

...He did.

Damn it!

I jump up in my seat, startling Chris, and glare at Jack. "You idiot!" I yell at him, making pretty much every head in the cafeteria turn in our direction but I ignore them all. "Those were my mozzarella sticks. How dare you?!"

He just smiles innocently at me, "What do you mean, I was just eating my lunch that I definitely bought myself with my own money that was not yours at all."

I shake my head, furious. "You little... You... I'm going to murder you, Jack Golden!"

Chris chuckles and drags me down into my seat. "Calm down, Aud, you can have my nutella cookies if you want. Forget about the mozzarella sticks."

Did he say nutella cookies? Ooh, I'll take those over mozzarella sticks any day.

"Did you say nutella cookies?" I ask him, sitting down and grabbing his lunch tray. I spot the paper bag of cookies, yell out, "Score!" and open it to find... peanut butter cookies.

Okay someone is getting hurt today.

I've been robbed. Robbed, I tell you.

My mouth falls open and I'm about to scream at Chris but then I notice his mouth is full of my last remaining mozzarella stick. A perfectly executed con.