All Planned Out

Eight (Charlotte)

Unlike yesterday, I do make it to lunch in record time and manage to pass Alex in the hall on my way. I do not bother to wait up, especially after he told me all about the little conversation he had with Stuart during homeroom.

Still, when I round the corner into the nearly completely empty cafeteria, I find both Stuart and Montana sitting exactly where they had been the day before, though this time Montana does not have her head down. She is in fact staring dead ahead, at me in the doorway, as I skid to a stop and then awkwardly look back over my shoulder in the hope that Alex is right behind me.

I really shouldn't be walking into all of this alone, no matter how much I wanted to thirty seconds ago.

"You okay?" He whispered as he caught up, covering his mouth and faking a yawn.

I shrug. "Thought I was."

"This is what you wanted."

I nod. It is exactly what I wanted, but throughout all that wanting I had never really stopped to concretely tell myself what it would be like to suddenly put myself into Montana's personal space. Everything about her makes her nervous, from the way her deep, dark eyes scan across me as we walk up to the table, to the way her hair hangs unkempt across her face, and even how she drums her fork across her tray as we sit down.

"...Monty." I give her a friendly nod and try to tell my brain that speaking out loud isn't supposed to feel so difficult.

"Hello nurse." She said, flatly. "If you're going to ask about my ankle, all I'm going to say is that it's fine."

"I told you she was going to be okay." Stuart said, patting her on the shoulder. "I've seen her walk away from worse falls than that."

"It's...it's just how my brain deals with that stuff." Yes, good. Focus on how my brain deals with traumatic pain instead of the sheer beauty I saw in that photo I took and can see every time I close my eyes. "Maybe I should, uh, come around the park more often. To, uh, keep you safe." No, not good. I should not be saying things like that.

"Oh, right, sure." She rolled her eyes and made sure I noticed. "Just what I need is my own personal EMT standing by. Might as well wear a giant helmet and cover myself in padding, too, so at least I'll be protected when everyone else beats us up for being giant nerds."

"There is nothing wrong with being a giant nerd." Stuart said, then offered me a fist. "I don't want to see her get hurt, either."

"Don't you dare fist bump him. He doesn't deserve that."

I did it anyway. It was very awkward. Even Alex laughed.

"How about you actually give me what I do deserve, hmm?" He said, leaning into her until his lips were almost touching her hair. "Some thanks for my footage that you put in your newest video. Just cause you were wearing the same shirt as yesterday didn't mean I didn't notice."

"That wasn't on purpose." She said. Her cheeks were puffed. "And, well, thirty seconds of film out of an hour's work isn't exactly a great average."

"I did exactly as you told me to. I'm just as good as Alex."

"What the hell are you two going on about?" Alex said, pushing himself into the conversation. I had almost forgot he was even sitting next to me. "Did you do something with the video I took?"

"Of course she did." Stuart beamed.

Alex withered back down into his seat, but I'm not sure if it was because of what Stuart had just said or because of his smile. He had been somewhat lax on everything that had happened in homeroom except to tell me that Stuart was apparently writing a movie script of some kind and that we were going to eat lunch together again.