𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡 (𝙗𝙭𝙗)

Chapter Six

Cody P.O.V

I didn't like him. My body's reaction to him was one thing, but I knew better. There was something about him that was weird. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was, though. It didn't really matter either. I wasn't going to pursue a friendship with him or anything like that, so our interactions would be limited to the classes we have together.

After introducing himself, Zach went back to his seat, chatting lightly to the few people who sat at the desks near his. It was the popular kids, the ones who everyone knew for whatever reason. It seemed like he was being roped into their group. How boring. I rubbed my fingers against my temple as a minor headache started to form. That's enough new student excitement for me. I thought the rest of the school would be like me and lose interest. So far, aside from his looks, I haven't seen anything that interesting about the new student. My peers would have to lose interest.

How wrong I was.

I didn't notice it at first. I don't typically notice anything that happens in this school unless it impacts me directly, which most things don't. The perks of being a loner who tends to keep to themselves. I went through the first three classes without noticing anything out of the ordinary. I think that's why when I did notice something, that is was all the more surprising. That unordinary thing appeared right in front of me when I walked towards my table in the cafeteria.

Sitting next to my best friend was a person I've never seen before. Based on the physical traits that the guy had, it didn't take me very long to piece together that this was the new student that Hannah had been obsessed with yesterday. But why was he at my table becoming buddies with Hannah, who was laughing heavily at whatever he was saying. Maybe it was jealousy or simple annoyance that made me want to make the guy go away. I hesitated just a moment before I finished my approach towards the table, sitting down like the new guy wasn't there.

"Hannah," I greeted before going silent, eating the food without any of my typical protests. The guy being here at the table was kind of making my uncomfortable, but I'm sure it's because he's practically a stranger who I knew very little about. I've never been very comfortable around strangers; then again, I'm not very comfortable around people I know either.

I planned on letting them talk between themselves, as I had no particular interest in joining the conversation, but after a couple of seconds, I realized the table had gone quiet. I glanced up to see both of them looking at me, the guy with curiosity and Hannah with blatant embarrassment.

"H-hey Cody," Hannah looked at the new guy, which seemed to make the redness in her cheeks worsen. "This is. . . ," Hannah stopped, giving the guy the chance to introduce himself.

"I'm Dylan; nice to meet you," Dylan said, holding his hand out across the table, gesturing for a handshake that I didn't accept. He didn't seem to take it personally, even though Hannah looked embarrassed by my unfriendly attitude. I'm just not interested in being friends with either one of the two new students. It was better to let him know that now before he thinks we are going to be friends.

"Cody, like she said," I said rudely. He looked a bit hurt this time, but it would be better for him if he just stayed away from me. I'll admit that I felt a bit bad for hurting his feelings, but it didn't seem to bother him for very long as he quickly snapped out of it.

"Annnyway, Hannah, as I said, I think you two would get along," You two? I tried to make my eavesdropping unnoticeable as I listened to the conversation. I might not care about this guy, but I did care about Hannah. The last thing I wanted was for Hannah to get into something that could harm her. But who was this guy talking about?

"You think so?" Hannah asked back, looking a little anxious with her reply. Oh, I don't like this. There was something about this conversation that I didn't like, but I withheld. I could just be overreacting and jumping to conclusions. I wasn't even sure what they were talking about anyway. If I tried to step in and was wrong, I might only make myself look like an idiot.

"Well, you'll get to find out," I looked up this time, looking at the guy weirdly. Seriously, what were they talking about? It sounded like something bad to me. I just couldn't shake that feeling. I didn't even know this guy, and I already had bad feelings towards him. Once, maybe, my father would have told me to follow those gut feelings, that they rarely lead people astray. Once, maybe, this guy and I could have been friends without any negative thoughts towards each other.

I made myself push the bad feelings down. There wasn't much harm that this guy could do to Hannah while I was there watching, and I'd just ask her about it when we were alone. Until then, I could only hope that by the time I did ask that I would get a completely honest answer from her.

Out of nowhere, a tray slammed onto the table, startling me. Everyone at the table turned to look at the person who ended up being the other new student, Zach. Upon seeing his brother, Dylan smiled.

"It took me so long to find you. This cafeteria is huge for such a small class," Were Zach's first words after sitting down. I could feel the stress building up inside of me. Why were these two people, these new kids that should have been swept up by the popular kids, sitting with us? It didn't make any sense to me. Not only did I have to now deal with suspicious Dylan, but now I'm sitting right beside the other sibling.

I could practically feel eyes on us from the kids at the other tables. Each set of eyes felt like they were digging into me, judging me. That was one of the reasons I tended to stick to myself. If you do the same thing every day, act the same way, surround yourself with unproblematic people, then everyone else seems to ignore you. These two new kids were going to be the problematic kind. Based on what I've noticed so far, it wasn't even me that they cared about friending. The one they seemed interested in getting to know was Hannah. They might be a quick assumption considering I've been not the nicest to Dylan, who could have genuinely been trying to be nice to me.

That theory was thrown out the window when Zach turned to look at me. His green eyes ran me up and down, making a shiver of . . . of something run up my back. A playful smirk formed onto his face as he leaned on the lunch table, turning his body to be turned towards me. "You're in one of my classes, right? Language Arts?" I nodded because we did. That was the only class that the two of us seemed to have together, which I was thankful for. "My name's Zach. What's yours?" Zach asked.

"Cody," I answered coldly, hoping that Zach would leave me alone, but my coldness only seemed to intrigue him more.

"Well, Cody, I just wanted to let you know that you look sexy in those jeans," I didn't expect those words. I even paused to make sure I had heard him correctly because there was no way that this new guy just called me sexy. I would have thought he was joking, but he looked serious. I could feel my face flush, which seemed to please Zach.

"Zach, that's enough. Stop teasing our new friends," Dylan said with a stern look on his face. Zach held his hands up in surrender while Hannah burst into laughter. I would have left the table in embarrassment if I felt comfortable leaving Hannah with these two newbies.

"Whatever," Zach said as he looked down at the food on his tray.

"The look on your face Cody was priceless!!" Hannah said as she continued to laugh. I personally saw nothing funny. Whatever, indeed.

When the bell rang, I was filled with relief until Dylan spoke again.

"So, this afternoon after school?"

"Yeah, totally," Hannah said, grabbing her tray. "I'll see you then!"