Drowning

Hospital Hysterics

The next day, Finley was dreading lunch. Well more specifically, sitting at the same table as Sam. For once she had a feeling she wasn't overthinking it by believing that Sam would still be thinking about the incident yesterday. But as far as she was concerned, she hadn't done anything wrong. Granted when she snapped at her she had added fuel to the fire, but that was after Sam was already ripping into her.

With one last deep breath, she carried her tray over to the table and sat down next to Demetri as she always did. She could feel the glares on her, but she focused on her lunch, not wanting to deal with a fight today. As she took a bite of her ham and cheese sandwhich she heard Yasmine clear her throat from across the table. She barely contained a sigh from her escaping her lips. How she missed the days where she could eat her lunch in peace. Her brown eyes lifted to look at the girl across the table and she raised her eyebrows, but offered nothing up for conversation.

"Don't you think you should apologize if you're going to sit here?"

Finley's eyes darted to the blonde's right where Sam was glaring at her. Demetri glanced between everyone, beyond confused as to what was happening. Finley took a breath, she didn't want to apologize, but there was a small part of her that did regret snapping at her, and a large part of her that hated confrontation and would much rather just apologize to make this go away.

"Sam," The 'I'm entitled to this apology' face that Sam sent her almost made her stop her apology right there, but she pressed on. "I'm sorry for snapping at you yesterday."

Sam thought about it for second before her glare evaporated. "I accept your apology."

"Great." Finley muttered under her breath before going back to her food.

The rest of lunch went by fairly uneventful, with Finley just zoning out of every conversation. Well at least she tried. But right before the end of lunch, Moon pulled her back into the conversation.

"Finley are you coming to help on Saturday?"

"What's on Saturday?" Finley's brow furrowed.

"Miyagi-Do is hosting a car wash to help raise money for Miguel's surgery." Sam spoke up, emphasizing their dojo.

"Yeah, if it's for Miguel I'm there."

Demetri smiled at her. "I can finally teach you how to wax on and wax off."

"Oh great." Finley rolled her eyes, but a smile was tugging on her face. "More chores."

When the bell rang, Demetri walked beside her to throw their trash out like normal, and then they headed out into the hallway. Finley glanced over at him when he didn't turn down the hallway to head to his locker. She shrugged it off and kept heading to her locker to grab her books for next period. As she was spinning her combination into her lock, Demetri finally spoke up.

"He likes you ya know."

"What?"

Finley didn't even look at him as she opened the door and focused on getting her books out. He leaned his back against the lockers, his long arms bouncing beside him.

"Eli."

He watched as the girl's body stiffened and her movements ceased, but she remained hidden behind the locker door. Finley's stomach had flipped and dropped all in the same moment, and suddenly her sandwich was trying to make a return to the outside world. Eli liked her? He couldn't possibly... but this was coming from Demetri. Who could possibly know better than Demetri? But what had changed? What had made him suddenly start liking her? She knew for a fact he hadn't before, he had basically told her as much, but now? Now— everything in her deflated, allowing her sandwich to settle back down to the bottom of her stomach where it belonged. Basketball. He liked her because she was on his team.