I spotted Keira’s hair all the way across the food court her white blonde hair streaked with pink and black. She must have felt my eyes, because she turned and locked her gaze with mine and waved; and arm full of bangles and charm bracelets clanged together over her porcelain white skin as Theresa and I walked over to the table that they were sitting at.
“Hi! Carolyne, right? I’m in your creative writing class!” Keira tittered enthusiastically and pulled me in to a stronger hug then I thought her tiny little body could dish out.
“Hey…” I said unenthusiastically, trying to put a little space in between me and here, feeling slightily uncomfortable with her display of public affection. Theresa sat down across from Keira’s mom and they launched into conversation, all but forgetting that we were there.
“Let’s go get some pretzels!” Keira practically shouted in my ear. She grabbed my hand lacing her fingers with mine and dragged me off towards the pretzel stand. I looked at her in confusion and her blinding smile faltered a bit. Her eyes shifted over my shoulder and my eyes followed. I saw our parents beaming at us. I turned around in time to see Keira rolling her eyes, and walking even faster across the food court. Once we got to the pretzel stand, she dropped my hand like it was on fire.
“So what did your mom say to get you to come along today?” I looked at her confused. She snorted with laughter. “You really think that I wanted to come along today and hang out with another one of the girls that thinks I’m a freak and would rather ignore me then bother talking to me?” I looked at her shocked.
“T-that’s not how it is at all” I stuttered in a small whisper.
“Really?” she retorted, her perfectly groomed eyebrows threatening to shoot past her hairline, “Then please. Tell me how it is.”
“Well” I paused, trying to put my words together. “To be honest you’re kind of intimidating. You’re so full of energy, and you seem so confident in yourself, that sometime it’s overwhelming.” Keira didn’t say anything a she paid for her pretzel. She took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.
“So why didn’t you wanna come?” She asked me. I took a deep breath to try to stall. I didn’t really wanna say it out loud because for some reason it made me feel stupid.
“I didn’t want to come because I figured you’d just treat me like everyone else.” I mumbled out all in one breath.
“What do you mean ‘like everyone else’? From what I see at school, everyone treats you just fine.”
“Well yeah- while I’m still in the building. Once I leave it’s like they don’t know that I exist. It’s so frustrating sometimes.”
“Have you ever tried to hang out with THEM? Maybe they think you don’t like them and they are waiting for you to ask them.” The thought had crossed my mind more times than I wanted to admit.
“I don’t want to seem like I’m desperate for their friendship. And it’s not like I’m just getting to know these people. I’ve been going to school with them for years. Sometimes I feel like I would have better luck with a perfect stranger.” The stranger who texted popped to mind and I almost brought them up, but quickly decided against it.
“Well you know,” Keira started with a small smile, breaking me out of my thoughts, “I’m basically a stranger. Seeing as today being the first time we have actually talked, why don’t you start with me.” She grinned widely like she had done before when we were walking over here, but this time it was genuine.
