"So, how's school, honey?" Mom asked.
The gift bag my parents had handed to me once we were seated at the restaurant was sitting on the chair beside me. I'd spent a sufficient amount of time gushing over the present they'd given me—a pair of high audio quality earphones—and now we'd moved on from that topic since our food had arrived.
My parents and I communicated almost daily through texts, and I made weekly video calls to them at night. They were kept updated on my academic progress, but I usually left out the smaller details in my school life unless something really big happened.
I beamed at Mom as I cut out a small slice of the grilled fish on my plate. "Great!"
At the moment, I was genuinely feeling wonderful about my school life. My best friends had just thrown me a surprise birthday celebration a few days ago, and my new close friend had spent the time and effort to get me a present even though I hadn't told him when my birthday was. Even Mr. Jameson had been in a good mood these days, courtesy of Nolan making a half-hearted attempt at staying awake in his classes. It was at my request that he reduced the amount of blatant sleeping he did in Mr. Jameson's lessons, too.
"Well, except maybe chemistry," I admitted, averting my gaze. "I need to work on that, but other than that I'm doing pretty well in my school subjects."
"That's great to hear," Dad said with a smile. "We noticed you've been improving in math, too."
"Ah, yeah," I said, nodding excitedly. "I have! I made a couple of new friends in school this year, and they're really good in math. I've gotten a lot better with their help."
Mom, who had been smiling at me this whole time, leaned forward interestedly. "How nice! What are their names?"
"Cody and Nolan." I sipped from my glass of warm water. "Nolan's a bit better than Cody at math, though Cody is the one who usually joins Ashley and me when we study together."
She hummed. "And they're both boys?"
"Yes," I said warily, not liking the sudden sly look that had entered her eyes. "Why?"
"Do they like you?"
"Mom!" I gaped at her and then at Dad, who was looking amused. "It's not like that!"
"So you don't like either of them?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
"I'm friends with Derek, and I don't see you randomly asking me if he likes me!" I said. "There's something called platonic friendship, Mom."
Laughing lightly, she straightened up in her seat. "I was just asking since you rarely make new friends or talk about them!"
"Well, we're just friends!"
"Okay, okay," she said, still grinning at me. "Did they join your small birthday celebration on Monday?"
"No, we're kind of in different groups," I said. "I mean, I'm not that close to Cody, so they didn't invite him to chip in."
On the other hand, while Nolan was someone I considered a close friend, nobody knew exactly how close we were. My friends might have gotten a hint of it when I bought him an apple pie the other day, but otherwise we didn't really talk much outside of regular class hours.
"What about the other boy? Nolan, right?" Dad said.
"Yeah, Nolan. I don't know, he's kind of not really the sociable type," I said, aware that I was understating just how closed-off he was. "I can't even get him to join us for lunch, and we've been friends for over two months now."
Raising his eyebrows, Dad said, "If he's so unsociable, how did you make friends with him?"
I shrugged. "Well, there was this one day he was sitting at the dorm staircase because he had such a headache he couldn't walk properly. I helped him get to his room. After that, we just started talking on and off."
"That was so sweet of you, Chelsea," Mom said, smiling affectionately at me. "I'm so happy that you knew to show kindness to him when he needed it."
Dad looked pleased, too. "Does he have a hard time making friends?"
"He never gave me the impression he wanted to make any," I admitted. "I might be his only friend in school."
"I think it's good of you to be his friend," Mom said. "He must have been lonely without anyone to talk to."
I stared at her. Had she not heard me when I said that he probably didn't want friends?
Then I remembered the blank look on Nolan's face when he told me that no one celebrated his birthday. Maybe she wasn't entirely far off the mark. I couldn't imagine anyone, not even Nolan, being completely content with never having some kind of real human interaction most of the time.
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Lunch period had just started, and Nolan and I were leaving Mr. McMillan's classroom together. We usually parted ways outside the classroom, where he would head for the library while I went to the cafeteria.
Just as he lifted a hand to wave at me, I blurted out, "Hey, do you want to join us for lunch today?"
As the words left my lips, Nolan stared at me and lowered his hand.
"Not really," he said slowly. "Why are you suddenly asking me this again?"
After Mom had reminded me, albeit inadvertently, last weekend that Nolan could get lonely too, I couldn't help but consider if I should try inviting him to sit with us again. Maybe Mom was right. Maybe he did want friends.
At the same time, I was also aware that he'd been behaving in a manner that would've chased away any potential new friends. In fact, he still was. I was the only schoolmate he acknowledged at all, as far as I knew.
The idea that he could actually want company just felt so contradictory to me.
"I thought that it wouldn't hurt to try," I said with a shrug. "I mean, who knows if you might be feeling less sleepy today?"
The faint smile on his face as he shook his head helped to soften his rejection. "Thanks for the offer, but no."
I smiled back at him. "I kind of knew you were going to say that. Have a good nap, then."
Despite being turned down once more, I was glad that I'd at least tried a second time. I didn't want to regret it later on if it turned out somehow that he secretly wanted to join us all along.
"Chels!" Ashley's voice traveled down the packed hallway, sounding like it was a short distance away.
I whirled around to look for her, but there were just too many students milling about.
To my surprise, Nolan was still standing beside me.
"Aren't you going to the library now?" I asked him.
Staring into the crowd, he made a noncommittal noise. I raised an eyebrow at him, but he didn't respond further or look at me.
"Okay, then," I said.
I didn't mind him standing next to me, since more people kept a distance away from us when they noticed him. It was like having a small personal space bubble. Since it had become a common occurrence for me to be seen walking with Nolan, those few who eyed us didn't stare for too long.
Soon, I saw Ashley emerging from the crowd, slipping past a few others who were walking at a particularly slow pace. Her face brightened as she bounded over to me.
"Hey!" she said.
"Hey," I said. "I was just heading to the cafeteria."
"Let's go together," she said. "Cody's joining us today, by the way."
"He is?" I said in surprise.
He never really joined us for lunch since he had his own group of friends to sit with. On occasion, he did sit with us for dinner, but that was about it.
As if on cue, Cody made his appearance by squeezing past some of our schoolmates who were walking in a row. Ashley smiled apologetically up at him when he reached us.
"Sorry, was I walking too fast?" she said. "I wanted to catch up to Chelsea."
He quickly shook his head. "No, it was fine! There were just too many people back there. Hey, Chelsea!"
"Hi, Cody," I said, returning his grin. "You're having lunch with us today?"
"Yeah!" he said. "Ashley just finished reading the book I recommended her"—upon hearing this, I wiggled my eyebrows at Ashley, who narrowed her eyes at me—"and we're going to discuss it."
I didn't see how they couldn't discuss it during our regular study sessions, but I was going to assume that they wanted to seize any excuse they could to spend more time together. It was a very logical assumption that made me smirk at Ashley.
"Oh, you've been recommending her titles our book club has been reading the past few weeks, haven't you?" I nodded. "I've noticed her reading a lot lately."
Bravely, I ignored the signals she was beaming at me with her eyes to stop talking right now, Chelsea!
"Yeah! Since you're also reading the same titles, we can all discuss it together. I actually really enjoyed this week's book," he said.
"Of course," I said. "We're happy that you're joining us, too. The more the merrier, and it might even distract Melissa and Derek from bickering too much."
"Yeah. Let's go," Ashley said, casting a quick curious glance at Nolan, who still hadn't left. "The line's going to be torturously long if we stay here any longer."
"We should," I agreed.
I turned around to say a quick "see you" to Nolan when he abruptly placed a hand on my shoulder.
Startled, I blinked at him. He hadn't said a single word while this whole exchange was going on, and he had on his usual indifferent expression. Was there something wrong?
"What's up?" I said.
"Actually," Nolan said, "I think I'll join you for lunch after all."
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AN: it's a little shorter today, but i thought that was a nice part to cut off at HAHA. any guesses why nolan wants to join them for lunch after all? :p i bet all you smart readers know already XD thank you so much for reading, i really appreciate your support!! all your reads, votes and comments; i cherish them all! ❤⃛῍̻̩✧('͈ ૢᐜ '͈ૢ)
dedicating this part to NehaTirmizi, thank you for your votes and all your support, it really makes my day and keeps me motivated :'D