Sinner and Saint

(2) Gossip

"Honestly, it could be anyone on the football team." Chelsea smirked, leaning closer to the table, indicating for us to do the same. "But you didn't hear that from me."

Audrey leaned back in her seat, her dark brows furrowing. "So is she graduating?" Chelsea just shrugged, her attention going to her food for the first time since she sat down. I was about to go back to enjoying the silence when Eli made a noise from his throat and held his fork up, a piece of macaroni falling off his of it.

"You know who won't be graduating with us though...."

Sadly, the one thing that really brought our group of friends together was a topic of anything gossip related. If even one period was missed, Chelsea would know, and then she would report it back to us. While I have to admit that the reason most of us bonded initially was from gossip, I didn't personally like it. When it came to me, I was mainly just there to give a smartass comment and nod along as they went at it. But sometimes I did feel bad.

Some of the stuff we hear is serious things that are happening to people's lives, it's not my place to discuss it if I don't even know the whole story. There was stuff I didn't even talk to my friends about. Whether it was because of my craving for privacy, or from the general fact that I didn't fully believe my best friend, Chelsea, could keep a secret.

Chelsea and I go way back. I mean, back to when swapping crayons initiated friendship and a pudding made you soul mates.

She's the one that's been there from the beginning, and I'll always be thankful for that.

The sheer fact that Chelsea hasn't given up on me, makes me believe that there are still best friends out there.

Someone snapping in front of my eyes pulled me back to present time.

"Hazel?"

Looked towards Chelsea, a few curls falling from my messy bun as I did so. "Yeah?"

She chuckled and rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly as she took a bite of her- well actually I didn't know what kind of meat that was. I think it moved at one point though...

"OMG! Hazel, can you focus for a second?"

My eyes refocused and I smiled sheepishly at my friends. "Sorry, I guess I just zoned out for a second. What did I miss?"

Eli leaned back in his seat, his hands clasping around Audrey as she rested her head on his chest. "Chelsea was about to tell us about a rumor involving Greyson Rivers." He informed me.

Greyson Rivers? My brows furrowed in confusion as I looked between my friends. "What rumor?"

Chelsea smiled as she turned in her seat to face me, twisting her red hair and pulling it over one shoulder. "Well apparently, he was caught stealing medicine from a pharmacy over the summer."

"Get out! How'd you hear about that?" Audrey asked, sitting up. Eli's arms fell back to his sides and he frowned at the back of her head, his long fingers grabbing at her waist to pull her closer to him.

"Come on, Chelsea. That could be just a rumor." I told her. I took a piece of pepperoni off my pizza, cheese coming with it as I pulled it up. I looked up in time to see Audrey shaking her head at me in dissapointment. But of course, because I am just so mature, I poked my tongue out at her and ate the pepperoni.

Chelsea rolled her eyes and pouted at me, wanting my full attention. "No, this happened! My parents had dinner with the Samuals and they told them about it."

At the Samuels' name I looked down, my hands moving under the table and onto my lap.

Just the sound of their name I-

It's been a year.

A whole freaking year, and I still can't hear it.

"You alright?" Audrey's voice sounded from across the table. I nodded at her, explaining that I was fine as Chelsea continued on with her story.

"Yeah so from what my mom told me, he ended up going to court and everything. I thought they would've thrown his sorry ass in jail, but apparently they only gave him community service."

"That's it?" Eli spoke up now. "That guy stole medicine so that he could probably go and get high, and all they gave him was community service?"

Audrey ran her hand through his hair raising a brow at him. "You think he did it to get high?" She asked, her hand moving down to take his glasses off and clean them before Eli tried to take them back from her.

"Well, yeah. What else would he have done it for?"

Looking past the two as they now went into a playful fight over Eli's glasses, I saw a table a little ways from our own. It was in the corner, the furthest place from the door with a couple of tables mostly deserted before more full ones. There were people talking and laughing and just hanging out before our next classes started, but one person stood out from the rest. He was dark and broody, his face devoid of emotion as he looked over his friends. He didn't look like a druggie, but then again, they never did.

I try my best to give people the benefit of the doubt in rumors I hear, but I just couldn't think of any way to do that in this situation. How could someone do that? It disgust me.

But knowing my luck, just as I thought those words, his eyes met mine from across the cafeteria.

And I swear I saw something in them before he looked away and said something to his table.

"Hazel, are you sure you're okay? You're just staring into no where." Chelsea asked in concern as she tilted her head to see my face better.

And even though I wasn't sure if I was, I said the words they wanted to hear, "Yeah, I'm fine."

~*~*~*~

We're going to try and make Tuesday our update days.