Chris picked at his lunch, his stomach churning and not feeling like eating anything after Chris made himself throw up the banana he ate that morning.
"Chrissy, you okay?" Justina asked, sitting over to his left, eating a sandwich from her lunchbox. She had her blonde hair tied up into a ponytail and blue eyeshadow on her eyelids which blinked innocently, looking at her boyfriend with chocolate brown eyes.
"Yeah, just fine," he said, getting up and dumping the untouched food in the trash, coming back to his seat. Justina and Chris were sitting at a table full of cheerleaders that was to the left of the jock table.
"Oh my god Patrick looks so hot today," one of the cheerleaders, Olivia imitated fanning herself as she looked over at the jock table, watching a dark-skinned boy with short hair and a letterman jacket on eat a chicken tender. Olivia had light tan skin and dyed red hair that fell over her shoulders, and the back was pulled up into a ponytail.
Another one of the girls, Adrianna rolled her eyes. She had dirty blonde hair that was curly and reached to her back, and she was a little paler than Olivia. "Patrick is okay with looks, but Andy," she pretends to swoon.
"He's your boyfriend, idiot," Olivia said.
"Exactly," Adrianna said, making Justina roll her eyes. Chris wasn't paying attention to the conversation, as his gaze panned over the cafeteria, not focusing and his mind being everywhere at once.
He couldn't stop thinking about the bizarre vision he had seen in the hallways earlier before his first period. It was the first time he heard the deep speaking voice for the first time in physical form. It was the second time that he had heard, seen the clock. The first time it chimed once. Now it chimed twice.
What was the clock secretly trying to tell him? What was going on and why was it happening to him?
"But- as long as you're into band," a loud familiar voice carried across the cafeteria, getting the attention of everyone occupied in it, snapping Chris out of his daze, causing him to look in her direction as the cheerleaders hushed, doing the same. "Or- science," the voice said, continuing to walk across the table. The person became more visible, and Chris recognized it as Evelyn.
"Ugh, what's that freak up to now?" Justina says in total disgust.
"Jeez does all she wear black? There are so many other colors than just grey and black," Olivia says as she drinks from her water bottle.
"Or a game where YOU TOSS BALLS INTO LAUNDRY BASKETS!" she says, looking in the jock's table direction and cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice.
"Oh my god she's crazy," Olivia said.
"Maybe those drugs are kicking in," another girl, Piper said, taking a long drink from her water bottle. She had red freckles dominating her face and scarlet hair that fell in ringlets to her back. The girls giggled at her comment.
Justina stepped to her feet as she glared at Evelyn. "You want something, freak?"
All Evelyn did was make a devilish gesture, sticking her hands to the sides of her face and widening her eyes, sticking her tongue out. She put her hands down as Justina rolled her eyes.
"Try me, Princess," she teased at her as Justina muttered under her breath, "Prick," as she sat back down. All Chris could do was stare at Evelyn in mesmerization, as no girl he's ever met has done anything like that in public before, it was like she hadn't cared about the world and just did her own thing.
"Your boyfriend's eyeing the freak," Olivia said as she ate a few tortilla chips.
"What? No, I'm not," Chris says as he snaps out of it to see Justina staring at him.
"Don't tell me you like that freak," she says with her eyes narrowing at him. In secret Justina always hit Chris if he even looked in the direction of another girl or even talked to one, or if he did something she didn't. He just let her because he was used to the abuse of someone hitting him and he had no bravery to stop it.
Chris shakes his head vehemently trying to convince his girlfriend that he was not eyeing Evelyn at all. He didn't want another bruise on his arm and his coach to have questions about. He had a mantra in his head, repeating it so he would believe it.
I was not staring at her.
I was not staring at her.
I was not staring at her.
I was not staring at her.
Although he knew that he was.
Justina raised an eyebrow and sighed. "Whatever. I have to go to the bathroom so watch my stuff," she says, shoving her purse toward Chris as she got up and made a beeline towards the bathroom. The girls at the table began chattering away again when she left and Chris felt like he wanted to leave, badly.
Although he knew that classes carried on after the pep rally because they were usually short and didn't need to postpone the rest of the day. He needed to be in his classes, or his dad would kill him if he missed a class for an unnecessary reason.
"Yeah, and I was full of shit," Chris heard Evelyn's distinctive voice say. He looked over and saw her standing a little ways away from her table. "This is going to be my year boys, I can feel it. '86, baby," she says as she grins, a smile that made Chris's heart almost stop altogether.
Did he have feelings for her all of a sudden?
The girls completely ignored him as Chris continued to watch Evelyn being silly with her friends, and then watched as she suddenly grabbed two curly haired boys by the shoulder, one pitch black haired with longer curly hair and the other one brown haired with shorter hair.
They walk in another direction, and Chris sees her table, thinking that this is his chance to tell her his plans without directly doing it. The thought of talking to her gave him anxious butterflies that would possibly make him throw up again.
Chris quickly got up and made his way over to the table, the girls finally noticing him walk away.
"Where are you going?"
"Is he walking over to the weirdo's table?"
"I'm so telling Justina this,"
Chris felt like pausing, but he would deal with Justina later. He strode his way towards the table where he saw three guys, a dark-skinned tall guy with short hair, a light-skinned shorter more rounder guy with curly dark brown hair and a tall light skinned guy with short light brown hair.
"Excuse me," Chris says, trying to keep the timidness out of his voice as much as he could. The three boys looked up and studied Chris, then they looked back at one another.
"Can we help you?" the dark-skinned guy said, looking at him incredibly confused.
"Uh, can you tell Evelyn to meet me after school? I don't want to miss class after the pep rally," he said, looking down whilst fidgeting with his fingers.
The others audibly whispered as Chris waited there, becoming more anxious by the second thinking Evelyn would be back.
"What the hell is Evelyn doing with Cunningham?!" the round guy whispered.
"I don't know but I highly doubt she's banging him, he's timid as shit and you guys know what her type is like," the light brown-haired guy said.
"Just answer the dude before Evelyn comes back from torturing Mike and Dustin," the dark-skinned guy said as he cleared his throat, causing Chris to look back up and he nods.
"Yeah, we'll carry on the message,"
"Thanks," Chris said, mustering a small smile before he made his way back to his miserable table. The cheerleaders began talking much quieter as Chris made his way back, and he began to walk into the view of a furious Justina.
"He was talking to them," Olivia sneers at the word.
"Justina's gonna yell his ass out," Piper whispered.
As Chris sat down, he was ready for the blow that his girlfriend was about to deliver. She stood up and leaned over to his ear.
"Follow. Me." she says as she grabs his arm anyway, him standing up as she drags him over to the empty hallway that students usually used to get to their classes. She made sure they were out of sight, and then she delivered a hard slap to his cheek.
Chris blinked back the tears that immediately clouded in his eyes and his cheek stung much sharper once again. His throat clogged up as his body tensed up from his anxiety.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! You want to be associated with that freak? Do you know how much fucking trouble she is for you?" she whisper yelled at him, and it took him all of his power not to whimper from the emotional pain. "Your father made you the most popular person in school and I only want what's best for you, you can't make mistakes like this, Chris," she says as she walks up to him and hugs him, although Chris had not wanted to hug her after she had slapped him.
Her arms tightened around him, signaling him she wanted him to hug her back. He dropped his tense arms and tentatively wrapped his arms around her, returning the hug.
"See? All better now," she says as she lifts her head up to his and places a kiss on his lips. "Now, let's go back to the table and we're going to pretend everything is fine. You're not going to go near that freak again unless you want me to tell your father,"
Chris's eyes widened already knowing how furiously his father would react. He nodded, not wanting to be hit any more times this week. He nodded and let himself be dragged to the table by his girlfriend just as the bell rang.