Bringing him back

Firery Attitude

Autumn walks down the boring white hallways of the school. She couldn't say she was grateful for returning, yet she was excited to see James fourth period. She trudges up the stairs to go put her coat in her locker. Her numb fingers turn the dial 21, 05, 10. Once Autumn lands on ten, she pulls up her locker handle and the door creaks open. She throws her light cold inside, although she wasn't too keen to depart with it. They didn't keep the school as warm as she would like. Autumn takes out her World History book and closes the locker door. Swinging her backpack back over her shoulder she walks back downstairs to the Social Studies department.

Autumn sees Olivia and Lauren already in the room, along with a handful of students. Olivia catches her eye and Autumn waves. Olivia looks away and turns back to Lauren. Weird... She's about to go over to talk to Olivia but the bell rang so Autumn sits in her seat. Several times during the class period Autumn would try to catch Olivia's eye but Olivia never turned her head once in Autumn's direction. Maybe Olivia was too tired today? Maybe she was just trying to pay close attention to the teacher? Autumn continues to make a string of excuses on why her best friend wouldn't look at her all period.

Once the bell rings Autumn stands up and waits for Olivia and Lauren to walk by her desk. She joins their side and smiles at both of them. When they don't respond, she speaks.

"Hi, you guys." she says. Olivia's lip twitches in what Autumn assumes to be a smile.

"So how was your guys' weekend?" Autumn asks, breaking the silence once again.

"Fine." Olivia says. Lauren shrugs her shoulders. Autumn pursues the silence once again to make up for her friends lack of speech.

"So, uh, guess what happened to me this weekend?"

"What?"

"James took me out on a date!" Autumn says with feigned excitement. "And then the next day he came over to my house and we jumped in a pile of leaves, we watched Finding Nemo with Emily and he ended up staying for dinner." Autumn says and looks at her two friends for a reaction. Olivia rolled her eyes and Autumn felt suddenly hurt. She would expect Lauren to roll her eyes at something she said, but Olivia? Her best friend?

"What?" Autumn asks, defensively. Olivia snorts.

"You guys watched Finding Nemo and jumped in a leaf pile? Yeah, I'll bet James loved that." she says sarcastically.

"What is wrong with you?" Autumn asks.

"What? Do I have to be all happy that you and James are all buddy-buddy now? I honestly don't care. But if you want me to pretend to be all happy for you, whatever then." Olivia says with a sneer on her face as she flicks her fiery red hair back behind her shoulder. Lauren smirks and Autumn gets the sudden urge to strangle her. They had stopped walking now and were standing in front of Olivia's locker, though she was making no attempt to open it.

"Well you were the one who insisted that I didn't give up on him in the first place! Do you remember that? When you had that bonfire at your house and you embarrassed me in front of all of our friends?" Autumn fires at her, her pain now turning into rage.

"Well I didn't think you would suddenly ignore me once James started paying you the slightest bit of attention! So what? He took you on one date. Big whoop. He'll dump you just as fast as he dumped Lindsey and Megan. Just because he took you out on a date doesn't mean you can ignore your best friend all weekend. You hung up on me!" Olivia says rudely.

"That's what you're mad about?" Autumn asks. She almost felt giddy with relief. Just knowing why Olivia was so snippy seemed to make things better. However, Olivia's face hardens once she sees Autumn's relax.

"Yes that's what I'm mad about! I called you and you hung up on me! I called you like, eight times after that and you never called me back. You didn't even text me or anything. That's freaking rude Autumn, there's no excuse for it." she says and Lauren nods with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm sorry! I had things on my mind, okay? I forgot. Honestly!" Autumn cries exasperated.

"There is still no excuse. You could have at least said goodbye. I've been your friend way longer than James has been around. I can't believe you would choose some guy over your best friend."

"Some guy? We were best friends for eight years! We grew up together. And it's not like I was leaving him for you; I just forgot to call you back. You're still my best friend, Olivia."

"Yeah? Well as your best friend, I want to tell you that James is going to ruin you. I bet he got dared to date you. Why else would he have given you the cold shoulder for the past couple of months and then suddenly decide he wants you now? He's just playing with you Autumn." Olivia says, without any emotion.

"He's way out of your league. There's no way he wants you." Lauren adds. Autumn stares at her two friends, dumbfounded. Is that really what they thought? She feels sick to her stomach and her heart feels heavy. Autumn opens her mouth to say something, but words fail her. She presses her eyes together hard before walking away from the two of them just as the warning bell rings.