"You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars." ~Gary Allan
As I stepped out of my Physics exam I almost felt like shouting out with glee. Physics had been my last exam and was the one exam that I was most stressed about. Finishing the exam, I felt satisfied with what I had accomplished and I knew that I had achieved above 85%. Plus Physics had concluded my exams which meant that I time chill before the second semester would be commencing.
I went to the main foyer as my gaze searched for Sophia. She had her chemistry exam while Scarlett had finished with her exams yesterday. After a few minutes I noticed Sophia by the library talking to no other than... Dillon.
Slipping through the crowd of students I made my way towards them. It was Dillon who noticed me first.
"Alana," he nodded his head in acknowledgment.
"Dillon," I responded coolly.
"Come on you guys, get along with each other." Sophia pleaded with her eyes.
Dillon's gaze seemed to soften. I honestly don't know how I didn't pick up on all the singles. They were clearly in love! How blind could I be?
"Fine," he grumbled and stretched out his hand for me to shake.
I stared at him with wide eyes, "I'm not touching that. I have no clue where that had been."
Sophia sighed. "I never should have asked."
It wasn't that I hated Dillon. I just liked giving him a hard time; quite frankly, it was amusing.
"Fine, I'll behave myself."
Sophia shot me a thankful smile which I returned.
I turned to Sophia and asked, "So what do you want to do now the exams are over?"
"We could go to Dairy Queen!" Dillon inputted.
"I wasn't asking for your opinion."
Sophia gave me another look before turning to Dillon. "That sounds like a wonderful idea! We could invite Nick, Shaun, Scarlett, Maya and Katie as well since we haven't seen them in a while."
I turned to look at the two of them. "Am I the only one who realizes that it is winter and -24o outside?"
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Half an hour later and we were all seated in Dairy Queen. It seemed that everyone was bored and had readily agreed. I was the only one who was still complaining. It was winter, for God's sake! And we were going to eat ice-cream. The chattering group of us all ordered what we wanted and went back to the booth in the corner. It was relatively quiet and we were making a lot of noise. I could see a man staring at us distastefully behind his cone of ice cream. I squeezed myself in between Sophia and Scarlett before Dillon could get near her.
Scarlett shot me a smirk knowing full well of what I had done. Meanwhile, Dillon was glaring at me as well but it was worth it. Katie was sitting with us as well while Maya had taken up an extra seat preferring not to sit with the males. I was directly facing Shaun and watching him lick his ice cream disturbingly. It was not a pretty sight.
I scrunched my nose with dissatisfaction, "could you please not lick your ice cream like that. It's unappetizing and gross."
Shaun gave me an innocent smile and started licking his ice cream even more obnoxiously if that was possible. "What like this?"
"Yes, exactly like that."
"It's a free country I can do anything."
Scarlett slapped the ice cream away from him and it splattered onto the table. Shaun looked at Scarlett accusingly. "What did you do that for?"
"It's a free country," she replied smugly and gave me a fist bump.
"You owe me an ice cream now." Was all he said before he stole Scarlett's ice cream and began eating it without a care in the world.
Nick looked at him horrified. "Dude, that is gross."
He merely shrugged. "A man's got to do what he's got to do."
"So how were everyone's exams?" Maya chirped trying to change the subject as Scarlett was looking on horrified at Shaun finish her ice cream.
"Mine were good; English was a little rough writing the essay and all. But I'm glad that this semester is over." Katie added.
Nick looked at Katie with interest, "what are you taking next semester?"
She counted them of on her fingers, "Drama, Law, Biology, and Functions."
Nick's eyes seemed to light up. "You're taking drama as well? I honestly thought I was the only one. I hope were in the same class."
And then it seemed that the both of them were submerged into their own world talking about stupid plays and s*it. I honestly felt a little left out and hurt but I hoped to ignore it. Dillon and Sophia were being all lovey-dovey while Shaun and Scarlett were having a fierce argument over which ice cream flavour was better- chocolate or vanilla. I move over to where Maya was seating because who seemed almost as lost as I was.
"Hey," I started.
She looked up from her phone, "oh hey."
"How's life?"
"It's good, how about you? How's Justin?"
"Justin is doing well. He's actually going to be graduating this year."
"Oh really, that's cool."
Talking to Maya was becoming really awkward. I honestly never expected this to happen. We were pretty close and now it seemed that we were forced to talk to each other and we might as well do anything but that.
Thankfully Dillon interrupted the awkwardness with a bright idea. "Why don't we go bowling?"
We all nodded in agreement.
"Wait, I don't have a car Zeke dropped me off." Scarlett said. "He is not going to be happy if I call him again to drop me off and pick me later on."
"I don't have a ride either," Maya and Katie chimed in simultaneously.
We all looked and Shaun and Nick.
Shaun shrugged his shoulders. "Don't look at me. Nick picked me up."
Everyone was looking at Nick who was soaking up the attention. He took time before answering as if pondering for a great while. "Fine, I have three extra seats."
Scarlett pumped her fist in the air while Katie gave Nick a hug which he returned. My insides felts upturned, as if someone had punched my stomach. I tried to smile as I pointed out the fact that I didn't want to be in the same car as the lovey-dovey couple. Scarlett immediately answered that she would join me in Dillon's car. She also gave me a knowing look which I ignored. We left Dairy Queen had slipped into the separate cars.
Sophia sat shotgun while Scarlett and I made ourselves comfortable with the back.
"That is not okay." Scarlett muttered furiously.
Dillon looked up with curiously at Scarlett's tone of voice. "What is?"
"Just drop it," I muttered slowly. I truly did not want to talk about it.
I wasn't hurt over the fact that I wasn't in the same vehicle as Nick. No I really didn't mind. I rather spend time with my friends but what was really hurting me was Katie's attitude. She was acting as if she had a massive crush on Nick. She was hugging him, talking to him and was completely ignoring me.
Dillon penetrated my thoughts when he stepped on the gas pedal.
"What are you doing?" Sophia shrieked.
Dillon gave a devilish grin which had me immediately worried. "It's time to race Nick to the bowling alley."
"What's the point of racing him if he doesn't even participate in the race," I muttered.
Dillon shook his finger mockingly, "and that is where you are wrong. Before we left the ice cream place I made sure to tell Nick that we would be racing to the bowling alley. I very well plan on winning. We placed a very serious wager."
"Would you care to enlighten us on the wager?"
"No I would not."
Before we could say anything more Dillon had rolled down all our windows and placed a lock on them so we wouldn't be able to roll them back up. The cold January air hit us pretty hard.
"What the f*ck do you think you're doing?" Scarlett shouted.
"Letting you all live the moment," he replied calmly before turning his gaze back onto the road.
"Sophia, you are dating a psychopath."
She didn't respond I think I was because of the loud air rushing through the windows. We were speeding along with occasionally snowflakes making their way into the car. Dillon was cutting people that were going too slow. To top it off, he had put on some loud pop music. Everyone on the road was staring at us as if we were mentally deranged. To be quite honest, I didn't blame them.
I stuck my arm outside the window allowing the frigid air slip through my fingers. It felt crazy good. Maybe it was the fact that I was high on adrenaline from the speed that I we were going on but I started belting out with the radio.
"...And live while we're young."
In a matter of minutes everyone in the car had started singing with me as well. We were far from a harmonious band but we made it work. A smile made its way onto my face. I was with my closest friends and Dillon of all people had managed to turn my frown upside down. This day kept getting weirder and weirder.
As Dillon parked the car into an empty slot we waited for Nick to arrive. It seemed that we had beaten them pretty badly. After waiting about five minutes I quickly text Maya asking her where they were. Just as I was about to read the response Nick's car came rolling by. The parked beside us and made their way out of the vehicle.
"We beat you," was the first thing Dillon said.
"Thanks for stating the obvious Sherlock." Nick replied.
Shaun made his way towards us as well all walked into the alley. "For the record, it was all Nick's fault. Whenever he would go faster, one of the girls would tell him to slow down and he would actually listen!"
We all just laughed at him and called him a sour loser. When we entered the bowling alley it was pretty packed. The walls were painted with bright colors and graffiti. The smell of fries hit us as well. Thankfully we actually got two lanes which Dillon paid for. We all slipped into the bowling shoes and made our way towards the lanes.
"We should have teams." Maya suggested.
"How about we do girls' vs boys?"
"That is not fair. It's three-five."
"Why don't we use the same teams that we came in?" Katie said.
I was about to object but since everyone agreed I put the matter to a rest. We were going to make sure to crush Nick's team. We put in silly nicknames for each other on the board. Before Dillon could protest we had replaced his name with "Dilly boy." He was defiantly not happy when he had noticed.
First up were Sophia and Maya. Maya got a spare while Sophia put in decent numbers. Slowly we all took turns. I didn't do well as the ball landed on the sides on one of my tries while the other managed to put down a decent amount of pins. But the real show stoppers were Katie and Scarlett. I knew Scarlett was pretty good and bowling but it seemed that Katie had a natural talent as well. Both were going head to head leading each of their teams in points. It seemed that they were both going to try a win for their teams. Nick, Shaun, and Maya were cheering loudly as Katie went up for the last round. The score was tied so they were going to trying to get the most points as possible. She rolled the ball and landed a strike. It was up to Scarlett to also get strike to match their score. When Scarlett rolled she didn't get a strike but ended with a spare.
We had lost. Nick's teams started yelling and they all piled up in a big hug around Katie who was beaming. My throat became dry as she wrapped her slender fingers around Nick's waste who hugged her furiously. Sophia and Scarlett wrapped their arms around my shoulders as they guided me from the happy group. They knew how I was feeling but the saddest part was that I had no right to be jealous. Nick wasn't mine to begin with.
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What did you guys think? I was so scared that this chapter would not be completed on time but it was! This chapter's a bit short but I didn't want to start the new semester mid way. A new semester, do you guys think that its a new beginning? What did you guys think of Katie's attitude? Have you ever lost a friend? Comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts.