When Worlds Collide

Chapter 3

"Hey Ivan, long time no see," Vera chuckled as she sat down across from me towards the end of the lunch table.

"Hi Vera. How do you like your classes so far?" I asked, unwrapping my sandwich.

"Oh, you know. Just the same old stuff every year, nothing too exciting," she mumbled, digging through her packed lunch.

I shrugged, "better than having an especially shitty class."

"You've got a point there."

As we talked for a little more, I tried not to make too much of a scene scoping out Ethan. I haven't seen him at all since this morning, and he hasn't been in any of my classes so far. I've gotta say, I'm a bit bitter about that.

"Who the hell are you looking for?" Vera splutters suddenly, looking behind her then back at me. I must've been caught in the act a fair amount of times for her to be fed up with my searching gazes.

"No one, sorry. I didn't mean to be rude while you were talking," I said sheepishly.

"Ivan that's a crock of shit and you know it," she scoffed, shaking her head as she bit into an apple.

I stayed silent, picking at my sandwich shamefully and fighting myself on my next move. Do I tell Vera and never hear the end of it? Or do I not tell Vera, she beats me up, and then I never hear the end of it?

Luckily, I never needed to give her an answer, because the answer sat down right next to me with a dumb smile on his face.

"Hey, Ivan. It was hard finding you shoved away in this corner," Ethan shrugged dismissively, and cracked open his soda. Once looking up again, his eyebrows rose as if he finally realized another person was sitting across from me, her mouth slightly open in shock and her eyes wide. "Oh hello! I'm Ethan. I like your shirt, The Doors huh? You've got good taste."

Vera blinked a few times in an attempt to overcome her shock, as she nodded in Ethan's direction. "Oh, uh- thank you. I'm Vera. Ivan's friend."

I could feel the heat radiating from my cheeks as Vera bored holes into me with her piercing stare, and Ethan drawled on smoothly about his classes. It felt like I was at some family dinner gone wrong.

"So, how have your classes been Ivan?" He chirped.

Some students had begun to take notice of the fact that Ethan, the hot, charismatic new kid had chosen his seat during lunch next to me, the irrelevant, mildly neurotic guy. This was sudden, newfound attention that I didn't have the skills to cope with.

"Oh, um, just fine," I mumbled quickly.

"Well that's good. It's a shame we haven't had a class together yet. Wait, hand me your schedule."

Students stared at us as I stared back, Vera stared at Ethan as Ethan stared at me. It was quite the catastrophic lull in the midst of the conversation that made the awkwardness increase tenfold.

"Ivan," Vera suddenly spoke to me sternly, putting her face in my line of vision as much as she could to get my attention. My eyes left the prying gazes of the other students and focused on her, just as she continued to speak slowly and clearly.

"Give Ethan your schedule," she said slowly and meticulously, raising her eyebrows in emphasis.

I blinked at her and glanced at Ethan, who was still staring at me with a strange expression on his face, patiently waiting for my response. Without another word, I dug through my backpack to pull out my crumpled schedule and gave it to Ethan. He took it from me gently, like if he pulled too hard my fingers would snap off or something equally as gruesome would happen.