PICS and IT DIDN'T HAPPEN

02. The Cafeteria

My spider senses are talking to me. It's dangerous. I know that: I can spill the juice anytime between here and reaching my seat. But I'm unable to resist.

I open the orange juice box and take a sip as soon as I pick it up from the food counter, then carefully wedge it between the bun and the cucumber bowl so it wouldn't tip over.

Looking behind, I see Becca and Tess are done filling their trays and make their way to me. Feeling confident I can now safely walk to my seat with my friends at my side, I turn forward.

But suddenly a massive force on my right shoulder torques me half way, causing the juice to spill all over my sandwich.

"Looks like today too you're having an orange sandwich," says an all too familiar voice. I look up at the boy towering over me.

Unfortunately, the sunlight flooding in through the cafeteria windows don't help cover his sublimely sculpted face and chiseled musculature that are completely wasted on his rotten personality.

His thin lips on a smirk and his brown eyes on a mischievous glint invoke a visceral feeling of wanting to strangle him in me. He picks up a cucumber slice from my bowl and pops it into his mouth and chews, looking content.

I shouldn't get upset. If I do, his mission will be complete. The future will write him as the victor and songs will be sung about him. So, no. Not today. Nah uh. Today is his game over day.

I smile.

In an instant the smirk and the glint on the dragon's face are gone.

I walk past him, slowly, still smiling, and without breaking the eye contact. Face full of concentration like a cowboy in a showdown. I ain't gonna turn ma back on this gunslinger.

His eyes follow me carefully, steadily, and eventually they back down and look away.

He and his friends leave, but not before being greeted by Becca's middle finger.

"Now I'm really worried about you," Tess says. "You just let him go."

"No fun in eating a mouse without playing with it first," I say. And for some reason Raylon really does look cute like a mouse today. I think I even saw a pair of pointy ears twitching at the sides of his head. The cat within me has awakened.

My friends' faces tell me that my new life philosophy confuses them. It hardly ever does though.

But this time they don't have the details yet. Time to fill them in. Good things are meant to be shared.

After we settle at our table, I pull out my phone and the photos on that phone. I show them to my girls.

Tess quickly snatches the phone from me. She zooms in on one of the pictures. "Is that Lara?" she asks.

I nod. It is irrefutably Lara. Anyone can tell that, but Tess had to ask. You should always confirm when something is as pivotal as this.

"Holy shit. So this is why you've been in a good mood since morning?" she says.

I nod again.

"I can't wait to see what you're going to do with this," Becca proudly says.

"I'm going to have one of the best times of my life," I answer, truthfully.

The three of us turn to the corner where Raylan and his friends usually sit. They are all present. The perfect little bad boy group. All personalities, fully covered.

What a heartwarming sight to behold. Raylan is laughing with his precious amigos. There's the tall slim guy with glasses, Derek Livingston. There's the non-identical talkative twins Benjamin and William Porter. There's the hotheaded blondie Tiger Sebarman.

And then there's Raylan's "the one" - Tony Robert.

Raylan and Tony have been inseparable since they could crawl to each other. Their loyalty is in titanic proportion.

But last year, that grazed an iceberg.

Raylan allegedly slept with Tony's older sister, Iris, when she was home during her college semester break, breaking the "bro code."

That left a crack in Raylan and Tony's unbreakable bond.

Students at Heabrow thought the school would disintegrate into the ether seeing the two friends, who were always joined at their hips, suddenly not even look at each other.

No one at the school knew the reason for the bitterness between them.

But the cold war lasted for only two months before Tony forgave a pleading Raylan.

I was there when the pardon happened. It happened at the street in front of my house, in front of our houses.

Sadly my house is sandwiched between Raylan and Tony's. And because of our mothers' fellowship over neighborhood gossiping, I'm cursed with the knowledge of whatever happens in the guys' homes, including the rift between Raylan and Tony that involved Iris.

Although our mothers are not exactly the most reliable gossipers - they get all the important parts perfectly wrong - seeing Raylan and Tony argue with my own eyes made be believe that this time there was indeed a fire blazing under all that smoke.

Back at the cafeteria, laughing in his seat, Tony puts his arm over the back of the chair beside him. Once he's finished savoring whatever made him laugh, Tony turns to the occupant of the chair, bends in and kisses her lips.

My evil smile returns. I look at Becca and Tess and feel content when I see their smiles match the level of eeriness in mine.

I look back at Tony and his girlfriend, and then at Raylan. Raylan doesn't look bothered by anything, not until he sees me.

I wonder how I must now look like in his eyes because the expression on his face, after seeing mine, is priceless. I've never seen that reaction on him in all my life. And all my life, I've known that boy.

Raylan goes back to his food, and I go back to mine. The orange sandwich tastes sweet when I eat it remembering what I just made him feel - worry.

End of chapter

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