Choices

Chapter 15

I met up with Julie in the cafeteria after getting my books.

"Where have you been? You've been gone for like.... an hour!"

"Stop exaggerating, I probably only left for about 15 minutes."

"Nah, an hour." she grinned.

I rolled my eyes "don't you want to know what he said?"

"Was it any good?"

"Look, I think you should give him a chance to explain himself."

"Don't start," she says looking annoyed.

"Start what?" I ask bewildered.

"Start giving me that face."

"Come on Julie, won't you at least listen?" I implore with pleading eyes.

"Fine. But because you asked and not because of him." she crosses her arms.

"That's good. This is what happened. He actually............." I explain everything and I can see that the frown on Julie's face has softened a bit.

"So will you give him another chance?"

"I don't know about giving him another chance," she mumbles "but I'll talk to him."

"At least send him a short text now, he was really restless."

"Fine." she grumbles. She reaches out her hand for her phone and I give it to her. She types something on her phone and pings to show it's been sent.

"What did you say?" I ask curiously. She turns the screen towards me and I quickly scan the text.

Hi, it's Julie. I'm busy right now. I'll call you when I'm back from school.
                                                      - Julie.

"Well.. kind of short but it'll do for now."

She rises from her seat "come on, lunch break is almost over, let's get to class."

I accompany her and we start walking side by side.

"You know you never told me what took you so long."

"I ran into someone." I mumble.

"Who?"

"Someone."

She grabs my shoulder and spins me around so I'm facing her "now I'm curious and you have to tell me."

I hesitate. I haven't told Nate or Julie about my run-in with Mason the last two times since gym class. Knowing Julie, she'll probably jump into conclusions, and start mission 'get Hannah a boyfriend'.

"Um... Mason." I volunteer hesitantly. She'll probably find out anyway.

"Wait... the Mason?"

"What?" I answer defensively "you make it sound like he's some kind of superstar or something."

"I didn't know you guys were chumming it up." She replies with a smirk.

"Chumming it up?" I ask with a frown "we've only met twice."

"So you've met.. twice." Shit.

"Yeah so? It was a coincidence."

"Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays? Coincidence?"

"Shut up" I laugh and whack the back of her head, but I don't manage to get even a strand of frizz. Damn her and her perfect locks.

We get to her locker and I wait for her to gather her things. She shoves things about carelessly until she finds what she's looking for.