For Your Eyes Only

15

Trent shrugs as if he knows this to be true. "Well, it only makes sense considering you may as well be a boy since you like girls too." Molly laughs and smacks Trent upside the head. "Stop hitting me!"

My mouth drops open as this information hits me. I look at Nate from the corner of my eyes and know that behind those glasses of his, he is mentally watching me, gauging me of my reaction. I can feel the blush rise up my neck and dot my cheeks at the silliness of me getting jealous over her with being around Nate.

"It's okay," I react, looking back down at the apple in the palm of my hand. "But yes, we did."

"Is it because of Nathaniel?" Trent continues to prod.

"Shut up, Trent." This comes from Nate, who has taken out his earbuds next to me. His low voice makes me jump out of my skin. I didn't know if he was listening or not. He was doing a good job at ignoring me and I don't blame him. I wasn't very nice to him this morning.

"It's okay." I look over at Nate and hold my breath as I swiftly graze my hand over his forearm to consult him. His gasp is barely audible but I hear it and it warms my whole body. "Nate is not the reason." Well, not fully. "No one gets to choose who I get to be friends with. Danny is a very controlling person. There's only so much a person is willing to take, you know?"

It feels weird talking to these people in this sort of manner. I don't know if I am revealing too much or too little and that makes these kind of situations uncomfortable.

"Do we have to worry about them coming after us now?" Trent wonders then gives off another "Ow!" when Molly hits him again.

He didn't have to specify who them was prefering to for me to get the jist. Gavin hasn't taken his eyes off me which in unnerving but I try my hardest to understand him while he's doing so, so I ignore the heavy gaze while Trent continues to throw questions, or maybe accusations, my way.

"What?" Trent curses at Molly after she gives him another hard look. Even Nate has his fist clenched. "Everyone is wondering it."

"Leave them to me," I assure Nate's friends. I try to smile at them the best that I can but when that becomes too much, I bite into my apple. It didn't matter who I was sitting with today, people were going to question my intentions. I want to assure Nate and his friends that they were going to be left alone from here on out but I didn't know if that is true. I didn't want to give false hope. But sometimes ignorance is bliss.

"You know what Kelly," Trent says as he props his elbows on top of his knees. "You don't seem as scary as to what everyone makes you out to be."

The whole group falls silent, measuring me up after what Trent just said. Molly's eyes are bigger than her fists and Gavin has finally taken his eyes off of me and has them locked onto the comic book on his lap. He bites at his nails while his eyes dart between me and the book nervously. Nate remains silent, his head shaking back and forth as he looks off into the scenery around the invasive school grounds.

I try not to take this to heart considering I make myself come off this way. It was my amo, the only shield that I could use to make people look up to me. Fear gave reason for the weak to listen.

"You should see me when I'm hungry," I retort with a wink, lightening their blow.

Slowly, laugher erupts between the group of misfits sitting in front of me. My nerves begin to relax with the sound of it and I finally manage to smile genuinely back. I peak over at Nate to see him smiling too, not laughing, but smiling softly. He seems to have relaxed too with the laughter coming from his friends. I lean over then, not pushing back against the need for his closeness for just a brief second.