Jamie, meet Dylan. Dylan, meet Jamie

Chapter Seven

        "Hello," Dylan said as he beamed at four blushing girls I hadn't really gotten to know well before.

        "Hey," I said with a nervous smile, and the four girls beamed back at us.

        Sarah introduced us to her friends, I couldn't remember their names as my mind wasn't with them at all. Dylan engaged in conversations with them automatically. I could hear peals of laughtern surround our table, and I knew it was mostly fake just to please Dylan and myself.

        "Eat up," Dylan told me, pointing at my half-eaten burger, which I had forced myself to eat.

        "I like your earring," a girl, probably Sasha, pointed at Dylan's helix earring. He smiled.

        "Thank you. It's my only piercing though," he said with a wink and she visibly flushed. I took a forceful bite out of my burger after I caught Dylan look at my burger again.

        "Do you have other piercings?" he asked her casually. I tried not to look at anyone in the eye, it was too embarrassing for me, anyway.

        "I don't know," she flirted back and he smiled. How they tolerated his behavior, I had no idea.

        "So, you're Naomi, right?" he asked a dark-skinned girl in front of us. She smiled and nodded vehemently, as if in honor.

        "Naomi, I hope I don't come off as rude," he said. I stopped chewing and turned to see what he was going to say; I knew it was bad. "But I'm geniunely interested. What is a girl of, you know, your color, doing with people of another color?" he asked as he placed his chin on his hand, as if genuinely intrigued. Was he serious? 

        Naomi looked like someone had given her a hard slap across the face and Sarah looked stricken, almost shocked by the question. The other three girls waited for Naomi to reply, as if forgiving Dylan for whatever it is he had to say.

        "Well," Naomi began, and she looked desperate for an impressive answer. "I don't know, it was just a coincidence my best friends aren't of, you know, my color," she said with a nervous laugh.

        Dylan looked quizzical, as if processing her answer. "Do you think it has to do with them being of the background you're more comfortable of being in? Like it's where you truly belong, so that's where you belong. Like you weren't meant to be black," he said. Woah. I wanted to tell him to shut the hell up as Naomi looked really hurt, but I couldn't. He would kill me instantly.

        Naomi bit her lip, as if wanting to stop herself from breaking down in front of him. I couldn't look at Sarah, because I knew she'd ask me why I was "friends" with him. If she only knew. "I don't know, really," Naomi said fainty. Her voice sounded like she was being strangled.

        Dylan nodded. "Fair enough," he said with a smile. I heard him mutter a racial slur towards Naomi and I tried not to express my resentment towards him. In my mind I would've flipped the table over Dylan and banged his head several times with a chair until I couldn't see his face anymore. Naomi looked like she was going to cry at any moment.

        "Are you done with your burger?" he asked me as he looked at it. I was done with most of it, and I wasn't sure why he wanted me to be done with my burger. I nodded. He stood up from the table, and I followed suit, not sure whether I should leave with him or if I should stay.

        "Thank you ladies for your time," Dylan said with a smile. All the girls but Naomi smiled and said their goodbyes. What surprised me was how unfazed Sarah was. I tried to convince myself she was doing it out of fear. I said my goodbyes and followed Dylan away from the table and outside the cafeteria.