you can hear it in the silence

Part Two- November

...and the plot thickens.

Coffee is nice. Well, probably more than nice, considering if I don't have caffeine I'll become the world's worst bitch. Thomas might argue that I already am. But that doesn't matter. Most importantly, coffee brings people together. My friends and I can always count on meeting at a coffee shop, a sanctuary of stained wood and plush chairs. The plush chairs that another group of girls seem to have stolen.

"Dammit." Rachel curses, stopping in her tracks. "They stole our chairs!" She pointed to the group of girls giggling. I recognized them. One of them, a blonde named Amanda, sat behind me in English. She was always going on about her boyfriend, but something in her eyes when she talks to her friend Brandon in that class tells me she's trying to compensate for something.

"Well, we would've gotten here sooner if someone didn't need to get cash from her house." Anna said, shooting a look at Rachel. Anna is the last piece of our trio, metaphorically and physically. We did a trio dance together last year, and have been inseparable since. She was also quite blunt.

"Listen," Rachel starts. "It's not my fault my card keeps declining!"

"I honestly don't see how it wouldn't be your fault." I butt in, causing Rachel to smack my arm. She's a hell of a lot taller than I am, so maybe I shouldn't push it physically.

Anna decides we should sit at a table in the back corner, trying to put as much space between us and our schoolmates as possible. It's not that we don't like them, or think we're above them in some way. It just feels suffocating sometimes to be surrounded by people you feel the need to impress. So back corner it is.

"So," Anna says, taking a sip of her vanilla iced coffee. Cold yet sweet, just like her. "Anybody have news?" Nobody ever has news. Especially me, so I just tell her it's the same old same old.

"You sure about that?" Rachel asks, swirling her cold brew around in her cup. "What about library boy?" Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Or maybe I didn't, and our few interactions have been playing in my head on repeat. It's really not important.

"Library boy?" Anna questions, a sly smile growing on her face. Anna never really comes to the library with Rachel and I, so we try our best not to make her feel excluded. Sometimes it doesn't work. I can see it in her eyes that it didn't work this time. "Who's this mystery man?"

"Just some random dick." I roll my eyes. "He's just..."

"Just a sexy dick?" Rachel blurts out. My face goes bright red, as well as the tips of my ears. They tend to do that.

"There's nothing sexy about him."

"Wait, Amelia, what's his name?" Rachel asks, unlocking her phone. "I might be able to find him."

"Dear god, please do not stalk my new nemesis."

""Too late!" Rachel smiles. "His name is Thomas Greene, Anna."

"What the fuck, Rachel?" I whisper shout at her, but all I get in response is a smug smile. "We literally met him two days ago, for a total of thirty seconds."

"A hot guy is a hot guy, Amelia."

"He's not even hot-"

"Uh, guys?" Anna interrupts. "We know him."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I ask. "I've literally never seen him before in my life." There's no way I know him. I probably wouldn't forget someone so... Thomas.

"He's Thomas Greene from middle school. Had the long hair, down to his shoulders. Always sat in the back of the classroom?"

It absolutely could not be that Thomas. That Thomas was kind, and talked to me in the halls. That Thomas never had a bad word to say about anyone. He defended me to my teacher who tried to claim I talked too much. "She just has ideas! Let her talk about them!" He told Mrs. Pagel.