Pickled

| five |

Diana had almost forgotten all about Alex. She was rushing to complete her Spanish assignment, something which she was particularly annoyed with herself for because she'd had all weekend to do it and had somehow still left it until the last minute. So she didn't notice Alex scanning the cafeteria for her as he stood beside the lacrosse team's table, because she was facing the back wall of the room furiously scribbling conjugations in between scoops of Greek yogurt.

Millie was the one to kick her under the table, hard, when Alex approached her from behind. Almost dropping her pencil in surprise, Diana looked up to glare at Millie and bent to rub her shin. Before she could say anything, Millie leaned across the lunch table and hissed, "You didn't tell me he was cute."

"What?" Diana asked blankly, but Millie had sat back and was smiling over Diana's shoulder. She turned, slowly, to see Alex standing behind her.

He was holding his brown paper lunch bag in both hands, like it was precious cargo, and he was grinning so broadly that Diana was sure it had to hurt his cheeks. He was wearing a red and gold athletic jacket, with the name "Fitzgerald" stitched into the material.

"Hi, best friend," Alex said.

Diana stared back at him, feeling Millie's gaze practically burning into her head from behind. She was at a loss for words, a rare occurrence, but the sight of Alex standing before her at school - instead of on the other side of her shop's counter - had quite thrown her off.

Alex glanced down at the empty space on the bench beside Diana, nodding to it and asking, "Will you kill me if I sit next to you?"

She opened her mouth to finally form words, but Millie cut her off. "Don't worry, I told her not to kill anyone today. Take a seat."

He laughed out loud as he swung one leg over the bench, placing himself just a few inches away from her. Diana leaned over, hissing, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Eating lunch," he replied slowly, placing his paper bag on the table and unrolling the top. Across the table, Millie ate a potato chip and stared.

Diana glanced behind him and saw a few guys from the lacrosse table looking over at them, some laughing and joking around with each other - though from this distance, Diana had no idea what they were saying.

"Looks like you have an audience," Diana commented. She dragged her spoon through the peach yogurt absentmindedly, pretending to look at her Spanish homework again. There was no getting rid of him now.

Alex didn't even turn around, instead pulling out a slightly squished peanut butter sandwich. "The lacrosse team is in love with me. Paparazzi can be exhausting."

Mille snorted, but when Diana shot her a glare she attempted to cover it up with a cough. She scrounged another chip from the bag and asked, "Aren't you the captain?"

Diana's eyes widened, and she finally looked over at Alex to see he had raised both eyebrows gleefully. "I am," he said proudly. "Who knew I had a reputation?"

At this Millie giggled, and Diana felt her anger flare. With a potato chip in one hand, Millie reached the other out to Alex and said, "I'm Millie, by the way."

"Nice to meet you." Alex shook her hand dramatically, in a way only Alex would do.

"I've heard a lot about you," Millie grinned. She placed the chip on her tongue and shot Diana a mischievous glance, to which Diana returned with a murderous look. "I hear you love pickles."

"Millie," Diana seethed. Her grip tightened on the spoonful of yogurt, and Millie actually flinched like Diana was going to hurl it at her. At this point, she was truly considering it.

Alex popped the straw into his juice box, pretending not to notice the death glare Diana was shooting across the lunch table. "I do like pickles, but only homemade ones."

"I think what he's trying to say," Diana interrupted through gritted teeth, "is that he only likes pickles because it gives him a chance to stalk me."

"You saw right through me," Alex sighed, drinking his juice and looking at Diana with the straw still sticking out the corner of his lips. He winked, and Diana almost launched the spoon at him instead. "I guess you'll be calling the police, then?"

Diana raised the spoon to her lips, flipping a page in her Spanish notes. "They're already on their way."

Alex laughed, and Diana's lips twitched into a grin despite her efforts to keep a stony expression. She kept her eyes fixed on the notebook before her, however, because the lunch period was drawing to a close, and she was not going to allow herself to fail this assignment. Especially not because Alex was intent on distracting her from everything she was doing, ever.

She scribbled the next answer, feeling Alex looking over her shoulder but refusing to acknowledge him. This continued for another two minutes, but then Alex slurped the last of his juice loudly and Diana couldn't contain herself any longer.

"Do you mind?" she exclaimed heatedly, twisting in her seat to fix him with a glare. "I decided not to kill you for sitting here, but could you at least let me focus? This is due next period, and my grade is bad enough as it is."

Alex set down his juice box. "Trabajamos."

The next retort dried on her tongue, and Diana simply stared back at him. "What?"

"Trabajamos." He pointed to the last term she had written, his words turning gentle. "The conjugation for nosotros. I think you mixed it up with the one for vosotros."

Diana stared down at the page blankly, seeing where he was pointing and realizing she had switched the two conjugations in her hurry to finish. She glanced back up at him, expecting his grin to be one of teasing because she'd made a simple mistake.

But Alex was smiling warmly at her. "I do that all the time, too."

The bell rang, and Diana didn't move. Finally, she forced out, "Thanks. I guess. I was rushing."

"I know you were," he replied easily.

Chairs were scraping along the tiled flooring and students were talking loudly, moving to their next class as the lunch period ended. Alex crumpled the paper bag and the rest of his trash into a ball, swinging a leg over the bench to stand from the table. "Are you working tonight?"

Diana's lips parted, the pencil still gripped her hand, but she couldn't think of her answer in time. Millie stepped in, leaning across the table as she packed away the rest of her lunch. "Yes, she works Monday's. Usually until close."

"Awesome," Alex grinned. "I'll stop by later. Nothing like a jar of pickles after a hard practice, right?"

He disappeared into the crowd of students before Diana could respond. Instead, she turned around and vigorously erased her mistake, switching the conjugations back to their correct place. She could feel Millie's eyes boring into her as she stood up, so Diana finally glanced away from the page and indignantly asked, "Why are you staring?"

Millie shook her head, smiling widely. "I've never seen anyone make you speechless. That's all."

"I wasn't -" Diana began to protest, but the warning bell sounded and she jumped to follow Millie, hastily gathering the papers into her arms.

"Also," Millie added, pulling up the strap of Diana's backpack so it didn't slip off her friend's shoulder. "I really like him."

Diana said nothing, and they followed the swarm of students out into the hallway.