Justin
Chaz and Ryan were too idle to flee the hell that was school for lunch period so our only substitute was to stay in school, and fill our stomachs with the "barf" that was deemed as food.
Despite the "lavish" lunch hall with multi-coloured tables and chairs, the food was most certainly repulsive, and no matter how much colour and money the school splashed out on with the setting, it would not provide the absurdity of the food any extravagance.
I was sat on an intense yellow bench at a rectangular table seating only four (with one space left over next to Chaz) with a purple tray in front of me. On the tray was supposedly my lunch; candidly, it was a "warm crusty roll filled with chicken, cheese and bacon" according to the lunch board behind the dinner tables that were miserably piling and slopping the food onto people's dramatically-coloured trays. My "warm crusty roll" was concealed beneath the melted cheese that was toppling precariously over the edges of it.
"Dude, just eat it. It's going to get cold," Chaz ordered, stuffing the end of his crusty roll into his mouth. "Damn, that's so hot." Just then, Rachel strutted on by, her hips swaying theatrically to an absent beat. "But so is she," said Chaz, virtually drooling over Rachel's backside in her tight jeans.
Deciding to bite the bullet, I picked it up, ignoring the grease from the cheese rubbing off on my fingers; I took a huge chunk out of it. It took awhile for me to swallow it down and when I did, I rubbed the crumbs off my lips with the back of my hand.
Ryan had his head bowed, doubtlessly tapping away on his phone and probably texting some girl. He had discarded the remains of the cheese on his tray. Chaz, on the other hand, was tucking in greedily into his roll (all three of us had had the same considering the minimal options on a Wednesday). He was blissfully unaware of the sudden outburst from a sophomore girl in the corner with someone who was meant to be her boyfriend.
"You slept with her!" she bellowed.
Even most of the dinner ladies had diverted their attention from the food-plonking to the potential-termination of a "relationship". Consequentially, some food plummeted down into the vegetarian options and also the salad – not that those weren't much better meals, either, but still. The option for lunch was now officially gone.
"You're being too dramatic, calm down," said the guy, ginger hair falling into his rolling eyes. He was speaking normally because the whole lunch hall has hushed. He still had his tray in his hands.
The girl screeched and stormed off, abandoning her tray on the table and staying as far away from the guy as possible. She weaved through the tables, stomping her feet on the floor with every step and rounding up to our table. A girl was passing behind us – since Ryan was staring – and the girl made it her intention to barge straight into her, knocking her backwards. The brown paper bag that the other girl was clutching was on the floor by my feet. The girl continued out of the lunch hall, a friend scurrying behind her – avoiding the girl now on the floor. I picked up the russet bag that was by my feet, containing the innocent girl's lunch when I held it out to her, finally seeing who the girl was.
She had material bracelets up both her wrists, only visible through the holes in this knitted jumper. A Coke lid was attached to some measly piece of string, hanging down from her neck. Her skirt had risen up slightly so she forced it back down her legs on her thick tights. She sat up, her legs open slightly but the skirt hiding anything whilst I was absentmindedly gaping at her.
"Juliet," I breathed. I still hadn't snapped out of it yet.
Chaz leaned back all the way on the bench, gripping the end of the table so that it trembled slightly. He was staring at both Coke Girl and I from behind me but I was ignoring his alien stares. Instead, my arm was still stationary in the air, grasping the small, russet bag in my left hand.
"Here's your lunch," I said, finally fracturing from the trance I was held incarcerated in.
Coke Girl turned her eyes to me. Her cheeks were on fire; they were flaming scarlet. Everyone was still gawping at her on the floor whilst some were chuckling away hysterically with their friends. I was just waiting for the "royal" remark or the fact that she landed by the "Kings" of the school. It was a shame to think that the students in this school fed off the profanity-filled insults and labels.
"Hey, Royal, why aren't you ruling everyone?" a jock hollered from the other side of the lunch hall, standing up. He was easily six feet tall. His shoulders were broad and it looked like he had broken his nose a fair few times.
"Royal, you can't be so rude to your highness who's in front of you!" a girl bellowed, standing up right next to the jock and leaning against him.
Without much warning, Coke Girl leapt up in front of me and darted out of the lunch hall, her bag hitting her back with every movement. I was sat there, staggered and gawping at her retreating figure with her lunch bag in my hand, still leaning over slightly ready to pass the bag to an imaginary Coke Girl, still lying on the floor.
"You just got rejected," Chaz muttered, pulling himself up.
Snapping my gaze to Chaz, I merely stared at him whilst he was eyeing up my food. "Have it," I muttered. "I'll be back."
Chaz reached out for my tray, sliding it effortlessly to in front of him whilst I simultaneously jumped up and began jogging out of the lunch hall, ignoring the endeavours to block my path by countless senior girls. I kept my eyes up and on Coke Girl's figure just as she turned a corner. I looked down to see Rachel somehow stood in front of me, a small smirk toying at her intense magenta lips.
"Not now," I muttered. "Move, Rachel," I said bluntly, side-stepping her.
Rachel made a move to seize the bag off me but I moved my arm across my chest, holding the bag higher on my right side so it was out of the way of Rachel. She muttered indecipherable words from behind me as I progressed through the corridors, the russet bag rustling. I managed just to get a glimpse of her as she retreated into the girls' bathroom.
I stood outside of the door, fighting all natural instincts to just invade the girls' privacy in there in case there were others. Groaning, the door emulated my sound as a girl stood in the threshold, shocked to see me standing right outside the room. "Um," she spluttered, "excuse me please." By her height, she looked like a freshman, but Juliet was only a few inches taller than five foot.
"Are there any girls in there except the one with the Coke lid around her neck?" I asked, gesticulating aimlessly to inside the bathroom with the hand that was holding the bag. The girl stared transfixed at it.
The coral counters were just peeking out from around the first cubicle.
The girl turned around and stepped back, letting the door close slightly. She opened the door wider hastily, causing a draught to fly by her emerald shirt, provoking it to waver. She tucked it into her ebony jeans as she mumbled, "No."
"Thank you," I said.
The girl stepped out of my way and turned around again whilst I submerged myself in the girls' toilets, hoping she wouldn't tattle to anyone and no one else observed my enigmatic conduct. Then again, Coke Girl was an enigma herself so two enigmatic pieces jammed together? Enigma solved... hopefully.
"Juliet," I called out softly. "I have your lunch still."
The cubicle door right at the end by the full-length mirror clicked and opened slowly. Coke Girl peeked her head through the tiny gap and I held up her still-sealed lunch bag. A small smiled played at my lips when she opened the door further, revealing her whole body and she reached out for it.
"Thank you," she murmured. She took the bag and inspected the contents. Everything, whatever it was, was still inside and intact.
I leaned back on the coral counters, resting my hands to the sides of me when I proposed, "I wondered if you wanted to spend some time together or something. Not a date!" I added hastily. "Just become friends... You need someone."
"I have two best friends," she protested, whispering feebly, pulling out a white bread sandwich with cheese inside, wrapped tightly in cellophane. She placed the sandwiches on the counter to the side of me, keeping her head low and her attention on uncovering the sandwiches. Then, she took one and took a petite bit out of it – much the parallel of Chaz – and began chewing away.
"Then why aren't they with you now? In here," I offered. "I'm here. Justin. Justin Bieber. Stood right next to you, in fact."
I suppose that would be where I would confess my unconditional and undying love her for right here right now but there's a slim chance of that ever happening. I rubbed my chin, musing that I should definitely get all of this romantic crap out of my head sometime soon and start revising for all of my subjects to maintain my straight A's. Or I could practice some sports with Ryan and Chaz. Frankly, the latter sounded more preferable.
Coke Girl continued munching on her cheese sandwich before consuming the first triangle. She even ate the crusts, too before moving onto the next sandwich, letting a few stray crumbs fall onto the cellophane.
"You know, the crusts are supposed to give you curly hair and your hair's straight as a ruler," I remarked, easing into a light-hearted chuckle.
"Myth," she said, her eye line remaining low.
My chuckle died away and I continued staring at her, my lips together but not pursed. She kept munching quietly on her cheese sandwich and for the minutes that passed, I was indebted for the solitude with her. No one else had disturbed us as probably all of the other girls were too enthralled in the theatrical shows in the lunch hall which occurred habitually so I wouldn't be astonished if there was another one right now.
"So, about the friends proposition," I prompted.
I was just about to continue chattering away when the door burst open and in stepped Miss Nellie. She wore a frown when she saw Coke Girl finishing up her sandwiches. She swallowed it quickly and scrunched up the cellophane wrapper, chucking it in a nearby bin and keeping her head down. She shoved the russet bag into her school backpack and made her way out of the bathroom, slipping past Miss Nellie silently.
"I don't know if you missed the female picture on the front of the door, Justin, but this is the girls' toilets which means you can't be in here," she said sternly.
"Sorry, Miss," I breathed, brushing past her and out of the bathroom, too after emulating Coke Girl's actions.
Ambling through the corridor, I kept my cool as I made my way into the lunch hall again. People's eyes averted to me but I kept my gaze fixed firmly upon Ryan and Chaz. Chaz kicked Ryan under the table after detecting me and now they were both gawping at me. I sat down next to a giddy Chaz, already asking what happened.
"She ran off to the girls' toilets so I ran in after her. I gave her her lunch bag and said we should be friends.
"So are you taking the bet then?" asked Ryan eagerly.
I pointed my finger at him. "I already summed up my entire senior year for you in those three sentences. I don't want that to happen so no, I'm not taking the bet. I just think she needs someone to protect her. Obviously her "best friends" weren't doing much to defend her. Then again, I didn't know what they were like anyway.
"Ah, shame," said Ryan. "You and Coke Girl would make a lovely couple."
"No," I replied stubbornly. "She's Coke Girl and she needs some sort of check with herself. She's always wearing knitted jumpers and what's the deal with the material bracelets and that Coke lid around her neck?" I stopped asking rhetorical questions and ate the remains of what Chaz left of my lunch. I felt a little guilty about talking about Coke Girl like that when I've just helped her.
I should probably cease calling her Coke Girl, I mused.
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Author's Note:
Awh, friends! Their relationship has to start somewhere, doesn't it? ;) What do you guys think they'll do as friends? Does Justin have something else up his sleeve?
Hope you enjoyed! And if you did, please do vote and comment. I appreciate and welcome any constructive criticism as well! I've got plenty in store for this story so please enjoy the ride!
Thank you :) x