When It Rains

Chapter 29: Lunch With The Team

We walked into the cafeteria hoping to find anyone we knew but to no prevail.  Bella said she was preparing for an exam she had in a couple hours, Luke said he was in the library studying and Alana had mentioned something about being part of a campus organization.  We sat down with our plates of food, mine being pasta of course.  The same meal I got when Dimitri spilled it on the floor.  Alfredo, chicken, and some vegetables wrapped all up in bow tie pasta. Dimitri got what I would have considered the exact opposite.  Penne pasta with marinara, very little green, and some meatballs. We went to sit down and found our usual booth being left as soon as we rounded the corner.  I put my bowl down and Dimitri mentioned something about 'holding down the fort.'  Which made me giggle as I made my way to the refreshment station.

As I filled my cup with my usual choice of sweet tea, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  This felt deja vu-esc, as I turned around to see a large group of guys staring at me.  Obviously they were runners.  Sporting the black running shorts and shoes.  Each with a different colored short sleeved shirts.

Normally, I would be panicking.  *Why are they staring at me?  What do they want?* Would be the usual monologue running through my head.  But this time, I felt almost empty.  Clueless, not a care in the world.  A couple of them snickered to each other as if they were trading remarks.  I pulled my cup away and I turned while sticking my nose in the air pretending to even notice.  I wrapped the corner and found my seat as Dimitri finished a text sent it.  He looked up to watch me sit as he put his phone down on the table.

"Whose that?" I asked contently.

"Just Luke.  He's wondering if we're going to have practice tonight or not."  Dimitri explained as we held eye contact as I found my seat.

"Oh, why would you?" I asked a little confused.  "Isn't it Sunday?"

"Well, yeah but we have a meet coming this week." He explained opening his phone and pulling up a picture of his schedule.  He turned it to me and displayed a calendar with different colored tabs, each representing an event going on.  *I didn't think he was so busy...* I thought as I watched it.  'Wednesday, May 5th: Cross Country Meet.' It read in the middle of his week.

"Oh that late in the year you would think people would be studying or going home...?" I asked.

*Oh my god... we only have a week left.* I realized.

He brought me out of my thought process, "Well... yeah.  I'm..." He stopped for a second and rethought his response, "I think some of the guys are going home.  So it's more pressure on us who are here." He reluctantly answered.

"Awe, I'm sorry it's caused you so much stress." I said not knowing what to really say.

"No, it's not your fault.  It's just the way this season turned out..." He drifted off again.  He had an awkward aura as if he was arguing with someone.

*When is he leaving?*

"When... are you leaving?" I asked almost shocking him out of his argument.

"Oh... I'm not sure yet.  I still have yet to look at plane tickets and to figure out how to pack everything..." He said almost thinking it over right there.

"Oh, ok that's good too... I mean I don't really know... I live up north so I think I might just commute back for the week or something." I answered.  The conversation had a sour feel to it, almost like eating a Warhead just in English form.

"Oh... well..." He seemed surprised. "Well, let me know when your going back. I'll want to at least try to help see you off." He reassured in a wavering tone. My heart began to ache slightly as I realized we were so close to never seeing one another again.