The Dating Game

Chapter Seven

"Here's your lunch," I said, finally fracturing from the trance I was held incarcerated in.

Coke Girl turned her eyes to me. Her cheeks were on fire; they were flaming scarlet. Everyone was still gawping at her on the floor whilst some were chuckling away hysterically with their friends. I was just waiting for the "royal" remark or the fact that she landed by the "Kings" of the school. It was a shame to think that the students in this school fed off the profanity-filled insults and labels.

"Hey, Royal, why aren't you ruling everyone?" a jock hollered from the other side of the lunch hall, standing up. He was easily six feet tall. His shoulders were broad and it looked like he had broken his nose a fair few times.

"Royal, you can't be so rude to your highness who's in front of you!" a girl bellowed, standing up right next to the jock and leaning against him.

Without much warning, Coke Girl leapt up in front of me and darted out of the lunch hall, her bag hitting her back with every movement. I was sat there, staggered and gawping at her retreating figure with her lunch bag in my hand, still leaning over slightly ready to pass the bag to an imaginary Coke Girl, still lying on the floor.

"You just got rejected," Chaz muttered, pulling himself up.

Snapping my gaze to Chaz, I merely stared at him whilst he was eyeing up my food. "Have it," I muttered. "I'll be back."

Chaz reached out for my tray, sliding it effortlessly to in front of him whilst I simultaneously jumped up and began jogging out of the lunch hall, ignoring the endeavours to block my path by countless senior girls. I kept my eyes up and on Coke Girl's figure just as she turned a corner. I looked down to see Rachel somehow stood in front of me, a small smirk toying at her intense magenta lips.

"Not now," I muttered. "Move, Rachel," I said bluntly, side-stepping her.

Rachel made a move to seize the bag off me but I moved my arm across my chest, holding the bag higher on my right side so it was out of the way of Rachel. She muttered indecipherable words from behind me as I progressed through the corridors, the russet bag rustling. I managed just to get a glimpse of her as she retreated into the girls' bathroom.

I stood outside of the door, fighting all natural instincts to just invade the girls' privacy in there in case there were others. Groaning, the door emulated my sound as a girl stood in the threshold, shocked to see me standing right outside the room. "Um," she spluttered, "excuse me please." By her height, she looked like a freshman, but Juliet was only a few inches taller than five foot.

"Are there any girls in there except the one with the Coke lid around her neck?" I asked, gesticulating aimlessly to inside the bathroom with the hand that was holding the bag. The girl stared transfixed at it.

The coral counters were just peeking out from around the first cubicle.

The girl turned around and stepped back, letting the door close slightly. She opened the door wider hastily, causing a draught to fly by her emerald shirt, provoking it to waver. She tucked it into her ebony jeans as she mumbled, "No."

"Thank you," I said.

The girl stepped out of my way and turned around again whilst I submerged myself in the girls' toilets, hoping she wouldn't tattle to anyone and no one else observed my enigmatic conduct. Then again, Coke Girl was an enigma herself so two enigmatic pieces jammed together? Enigma solved... hopefully.

"Juliet," I called out softly. "I have your lunch still."

The cubicle door right at the end by the full-length mirror clicked and opened slowly. Coke Girl peeked her head through the tiny gap and I held up her still-sealed lunch bag. A small smiled played at my lips when she opened the door further, revealing her whole body and she reached out for it.