The Love of My Life, The Monster

Chapter 27- March 6th

March 6th

I held a red tray and scanned the cafeteria for anything appealing to eat. I walked in circles for about 10 minutes until I settled on soggy mac and cheese and a salad. Yum.

I walked over to my usual lunch table and plopped down on the chair next to Jessica.

"Hey," I smiled at her as I dropped my overstuffed, blue backpack to the floor.

Jessica didn't look at me. She tucked her brunette locks behind her ears and continued eating her salad.

"Jessica?"

She unscrewed the cap of her water bottle and put it to her lips.

"Sorry," she said before taking a sip of water, "I don't want to say anything that could be misinterpreted as hitting on you. Apparently, that's something I do now. I am just so unaware of how I come across."

I felt my body flush with embarrassment and watched her gulp water before twisting the cap back on to her water bottle.

I blinked away tears that I felt forming in my eyes. I opened my mouth to speak but stopped as I saw the basketball team approaching. I sank in my chair and opened the plastic lid of my bowl of salad.

I quietly ate my salad as the guys took their seats around the table.

"Hey, beautiful," Miller whispered in my ear and kissed me in the cheek.

I forced out a smile as he sat in the chair to my left.

I kept looking the other way at Jessica, desperate for her to look at me.

This was the worst feeling on earth. I just didn't exist to her.

"So, guess what we are doing tomorrow," Jase asked as he sat down in the chair across from me.

I didn't care enough to ask. Thankfully Jessica did.

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

"We are going to Europe!"

Confused, I looked at Jase, back at Miller, and then at Jason again.

"You are going to Europe in the middle of the school year?"

"No, the whole team is going to Europe," a voice from behind me said.

I turned around and saw Harry, another guy on the basketball team, clap Miller on the shoulders and sat in the seat next to him.

"What? Why? Also, how," I began.

"Our coach is taking us," Miller began as he peeled open a banana, "we all have to pay for our own stuff, but it's only a few days before spring break would start anyway."

I nodded. I totally forgot about spring break. I forgot what month it even was most of the time.

"That sounds really fun, I'm sure you guys are going to have a great time," I said and smiled at Miller.

"Yeah, it's going to be awesome. Guess you're going to have to figure out how to live without me for a week," Miller joked and cracked open a can of soda.

I felt my stomach twist with embarrassment, and the table got quiet for a second. I made awkward eye-contact with Jase for a second and then picked up my fork to keep eating my salad.

"Rachel is going to be just fine."

I looked to my right, shocked to hear my name come out of Jessica's mouth.

"We are going to have the best spring break," she continued as she put her arm around me, "with all you boys out of our country, maybe we can get the brain cells back that we lose having to talk to you every day."