Be My Addiction

50 • Boy Trouble

Ethan

I sat at my lunch table picking at my food. The table used to be occupied by one person, but now two seats were taken. Well technically, three seats were taken because Odyssey was using another chair as a footrest.

I glanced her way. She’s been hanging out with me for a week now. I appreciated the company, but a question arose in my mind.

Why would she want to hang around me?

“Hey, Odyssey?” I said lightly, not sure how to go about getting this answer. I looked from my lunch tray back to her and our eyes met.

She raised an eyebrow, “Yeah?” She questioned before taking a bite of an apple.

I leaned back in my chair, my eyes still on her, "You've been sitting with me for about a week now. You could be sitting anywhere else." I know I didn’t really ask the question but it would feel weird if I said, ‘why do you want to be near me?’

I know I’m insecure but I didn’t want to sound THAT insecure.

Odyssey tilted her head lightly, her eyes straying to the table, as if in thought. After a moment she looked back in my direction and responded, "I could- But, you’re my friend. Besides, I have enough room to prop up my feet here." To emphasize her point she adjusted her feet on the chair.

I couldn’t help but chuckle for a moment. She had a point. This was one of the few tables that had enough chairs for a footrest. That being said, I was still confused. "I guess that's true but sitting with me and being my friend automatically makes it impossible to make other friends. Yanno… because of the rumors?''

She was pretty much willingly isolating herself from others just to hang out with me. It wasn’t worth it in my opinion.

She sat up a bit, getting more serious as she asked her next question. "The rumors about you trying to push yourself onto a guy? I thought they were just that. Rumors. Am I wrong?"

I cringed at the reminder of what everyone was saying or thinking about me. That was such a horrible thing to say about someone. I couldn’t help but sigh and shake my head. “No… you’re not wrong. I didn’t do that. Nothing like that ever happened.” I said softly and felt my eyes drift to the jock's table. Even though it was technically close by, the distance between me and Eugene felt like miles. With a sigh, I looked to Odyssey, “Our relationship and everything was mutual.”

I watched as Odyssey observed the table I was just looking at. She looked my way, nodding towards the football players, “Which number is he?”

I looked back to the table and looked amongst the guys and a few girls who sat with them. Eugene, despite sitting at the table, seemed a little distanced from the group. He was just scrolling through his phone, ignoring the conversation going on around him. All the players wore their team jackets. They had a meeting or something after school so they were all dressed for it. I couldn’t see his number from my angle, but I knew it off the top of my head.

“His number is 12. He’s got dirty blonde hair with hints of red, almost rose gold…” Even now, I couldn’t help but admire him. I pulled my eyes away from him to look at Odyssey, “He’s playing on his phone.”

After I said the phone comment, she nodded, seeming to find him. She met my eyes and I could tell she was about to ask a question that might sting a little. “Was he the one who spread the rumor?”

I wanted to shake my head immediately, feeling defensive over Eugene. But I sat and thought for a moment. Of course, I still ended up shaking my head, it just wasn't him.

“No, I don’t think so. We ended badly but Eugene isn’t the kind of person to do that. I don’t know what happened... But he wouldn’t do something like that.” I shrugged a bit. I wasn’t sure of a lot of things right now, but I was pretty certain of that. Eugene is a good guy.