~Ophelia's POV~
"I'm kind of nervous." I admitted to Saniya as we walked down the hall towards the cafeteria, where I'd be meeting all of her friends in a few short minutes.
She glanced over at me and smiled reassuringly. "Don't be, I'm sure they're going to love you, Phe." She said, patting me on the back. I nodded, giving myself a little mental encouragement as I hoped I wouldn't say anything stupid. These were Saniya's friends, so I knew I'd be completely fine if they were anything at all like her because she was a total sweetheart.
The two of us walked into the empty cafeteria, being the very first ones to arrive due to our free period we had before lunch. After we got lunch for ourselves, I followed her through the cafeteria until we eventually reached a currently empty table towards the back of the large room, where I sat down with her as the bell rang. It was only a few seconds before the hallways became busy as students rushed out of their classes, some of them going to their net class while others came in the cafeteria for A lunch. I was feeling a little antsy, bouncing my leg as I ate the delicious enchiladas they were serving for lunch today.
Eventually, all of Saniya's friends came and joined us at the table, filling up the empty chairs rather quickly. There were four guys and two other girls aside from Saniya and I, all of which were freakishly attractive.
"You must be Ophelia?" One of the guys assumed, staring at me as he sat down. I nodded my head, sparing Saniya a glance as if she would speak on my behalf. It was stupid but I was still nervous. "Yeah, that's me." I said lamely.
"I'm Noah." He said, and I smiled at him before I glanced at the other people, wondering if they were going to introduce themselves or put me through the torture of making me ask them. Luckily, Noah decided to step in and introduce them, since they seemed too preoccupied eating.
"This is Judah." He pointed to the guy who was sitting beside him on his left, who was rather handsome. Judah was light skinned with brown eyes resembling my own and black curls atop his head that looked like they'd just spring right back again if you pulled one. His sharp jaw was lined with dark stubble and he had a thin septum piercing through his nose, with perhaps the nicest pair of lips I'd seen on a guy. With his tall physique and bulging biceps, he was really quite a specimen.
"This over here is Idris." He pointed to the guy on his right, who I would presume is Arabic if I'm going off his name alone. Idris had brown eyes and black hair as well, though his was shaved in a fade along the sides, leaving the top a little longer than the rest, and he had light stubble as well as a bit of a mustache. He was well built and tall, though not as much as Judah.
"And that's Blade." Noah added, pointing to a boy who was sitting between Saniya and Judah. The name seemed a little odd, but I found it oddly interesting. Blade was probably six feet tall and had brown hair that somehow looked both messy and yet styled, which I didn't understand. Like his hair, his eyes were brown and his jaw was only slightly stubbly, as if it were beginning to slowly grow back after being recently shaven. He had nice lips and I noticed there was a silver earring in his right ear with a dangling cross pendant. In a weird way, he was sexy.
Noah, as mean as it sounded, was probably the most plain looking one of them all. He had shaggy brown hair with brown eyes and a boyish looking face. It wasn't that he was ugly because he wasn't. Noah was simply cute, like the boy next door type.
"That is Zuri." Noah continued, pointing to the girl sat just a little bit down from me, who gave me a smile that I returned when my eyes met her brown ones. She had dark skin like Saniya, although Saniya's was only a few shades darker than Zuri's, and short hair that fell to her shoulders. Easily the most noticeable thing about her was that her wavy hair was a strikingly bright neon lime green color, but it actually suited her.
"And then that's Kimberly." Noah finished, pointing to the petite girl who was sat next to Idris. If I was right, she looked Spanish, but it was a little hard to tell. She was beautiful, with kind brown eyes and long brown hair.
"Nice to meet you guys." I said, trying to commit all of their names to memory. I ate some more of my enchiladas, knowing that we didn't have much time to eat before we were going to be dismissed back to class. As much as I wanted to make friends with all of them, I really wanted to not be hungry even more. "Hey, wait a minute..." Saniya said suddenly, making us all look over at her curiously. "Where's the bitch?" She asked, surprising me. I blinked at her and heard Zuri laugh, amusement on her face as she saw how surprised I was. "She's talking about Stella, our other friend." Zuri told me. "She got caught trying to bang some dude in the bathroom during class, so she got lunch detention for today and after school detention the rest of the week." Zuri added, making my eyes widen. That was definitely not what I was expecting to hear.
Saniya laughed and Blade rolled his eyes while Idris and Kimberly snorted in amusement, but none of them seemed surprised. Maybe this Stella girl was just wild and they were used to things like that happening. I, on the other hand, wasn't. Things like that had never happened in Naso. It truly had been a quiet and small town, free of gossip. I'd have to get used to these types of things, I guess.
Not really knowing how to react, I began shoveling the rest of my enchiladas into my mouth, occupying myself so I couldn't talk. "Shit, Ophelia." Blade remarked suddenly, making my head snap up to look at him on the other side of Saniya. "I don't think your food is going anywhere, no need to be in such a rush." He chuckled, amused. Embarrassed, I felt my cheeks flush as I swallowed my food and awkwardly shrugged a shoulder. "I was hungry." I excused with a grumble.
"Oh, leave her alone. It's not like we haven't seen you practically deep throating your silverware when you eat." Zuri said to Blade, coming to my defense. I couldn't help but to giggle softly, noticing the scowl on his face. "You're just jealous because I could probably deep throat better than you if I wanted." He retorted, making both Saniya and Noah burst out laughing.
Judah was the only one who I'd noticed hadn't participated at all yet in talking or laughing with his friends and I couldn't help but to wonder why. Was my presence throwing him off? I wanted to ask but I found myself too shy and instead I just sipped on my chocolate milk quietly while everyone else chatted.
"Ophelia," Noah said my name suddenly, turning his head towards me as he stopped his argument with Zuri. I blinked and cocked my head to the side. "What?" I asked, confused. "Strawberry or strawberry banana flavored yogurt?" He asked, making me furrow my brows. Is that really what they had been arguing over, a flavor of yogurt? These are some weird people, but... I like them.
"Strawberry banana." I answered easily, making Zuri grin widely and shoot him a smug look that said told you so. I giggled as Noah pouted, taking another sip of my milk.
I stood up once I was done with my food, throwing away my trash in the can before putting the tray down at the return station and then I went and sat back down again. "Where'd you get your top from?" Kimberly suddenly asked me. "It's super cute." She added, making me smile thankfully at her. "I actually got it at a thrift store." I said, looking down at the top in question. I had to agree that it was pretty cute.
The white shirt was off the shoulder and had frill along the breast line, as well as around the sleeves of it. There were two drawstrings through the breast line to make it tighter if I wanted it tighter around my bust, which I tied together in a little bow. My denim shorts were a dark green and I had a pair of white sandals on my feet with my long hair left down in its natural state.
Kimberly pouted, probably disappointed that I wasn't sure where the top was sold at originally, and I apologized sheepishly to which she smiled and waved it off. "So how did you and Saniya meet, anyways?" Idris asked, looping his arm around Kimberly's shoulder as he looked at me curiously. "I live across the street from her. She came over when I was gardening." I answered, briefly wondering to myself if Idris and Kimberly were boyfriend and girlfriend. They looked cute together.
Noah snorted. "What about your second neighbor?" He asked Saniya, grinning. At first, I frowned, not understanding what he meant until Saniya scowled. I immediately recognized that look on her face, as there was really only one person who had made her face contort into one of hatred.
Luke Hemmings, of course.
Knowing Noah was speaking about Luke, Saniya rolled her eyes and grunted, her mood seeming to have soured. "Don't remind me about that asshole. It's bad enough having to live next door to him, so at least I have Phe across the street." She sighed.
My lips twitched up slightly, glancing up at the clock on the wall as Noah snickered in amusement. He seemed to find it just as funny as everyone else that she hated him so much and got so frustrated with even the slightest mention of him. "Have you met him yet?" Noah asks me, his brown eyes flicking over to meet mine as he raised a brow.
"Oh, um," I shrugged my shoulders slightly. "Kind of? I accidentally hit him in the stomach and he got mad at me." I said, chewing on my cheek. Although I had had an encounter with him, sure, I wasn't necessarily sure I counted that as meeting him. It wasn't like we exchanged names. In fact, I hadn't even spoken to him, other than the one worded apology I'd given him. To me, it didn't count as meeting exactly.
Saniya grumbled at the memory and crossed her arms over her chest. "I hate him, can we change the subject?" She huffed, making me smile. "Sorry." I apologized sheepishly to her, grinning.
"Actually, you know what?" Saniya asked, scowling at the table. "Let me tell you what happened." She said to Noah, though everyone at the table was listening quietly already. I couldn't help but to smile to myself, amused with how she had changed her mind so quickly. She recounted the story to everyone, occasionally stopping to comment about how he was an ass. That was expected of her when it came to him, though.
Once she had finished telling the story, I was sort of taken aback that none of them seemed surprised about how Luke had reacted. Maybe they were used to hearing stories like this or something. Luke did seem to have a reputation, according to Saniya.
Blade frowned and shook his head when Saniya finished speaking. "I'll never understand why you wasted so much energy on that guy." He said, rolling his eyes. It seemed it wasn't news to them that she and Luke had dated. "Blame my stupidity." She sighed, resting her chin on her hand.
"At least you got laid good when you were together." Zuri shrugged, making me purse my lips. Saniya and Zuri both giggled at one another and I cocked my head to the side, blinking in confusion as I wondered how Zuri knew that. "I dated him last year." Zuri said, noticing my confused look. I slowly nodded my head in realization and Saniya snickered. "Don't be so surprised. I told you he's everyone's ex." She reminded.
"I kind of thought maybe it was an exaggeration." I admitted, shrugging my shoulders. She snorted and shook her head, raising a brow. "No, babe, not at all. I'm dead serious." She assured. "Oh." I whispered, biting my lip.
The conversation fizzled down and I grabbed my backpack as the bell rang about ten minutes later, slinging it over my shoulder as I stood up. I bid all of Saniya's friends goodbye, and her as well, and then I stalked out of the cafeteria to head to my next class period. As I walked down the hall, I got back to thinking about Luke and how he seemed to be even more of a player than I'd thought.
Maybe Saniya was right. I should avoid him.