The Beautiful Ones

10- Embarassment

Zoey

Embarrassment.

I don’t feel that particular emotion very often but as I walked down the hallway beside my “best friend”, my face was tinged with a hint of pink at the memory of what had just happened.

Alice literally just stood in front of the whole freaking cafeteria and announced my loneliness and desperate need for a date. In front of the whole cafeteria. And I wasn’t desperate, all I said is that I wasn’t going to be a third wheel. I don’t know how Alice rewired that in her brain to mean that I desperately needed a date and that she should announce this to the whole cafeteria which is like, a fifth of the school.

For the rest of our classes, I subconsciously kept my head down and did my work, seldom talking to Alice between taking notes and doing the work. However, when seventh period rolled around, I noticed that my table wasn’t empty like it was yesterday.

You see, my creative writing class has tables set up so that four people sat at a table, similar to an art room, and I’ve been successfully sitting by myself at one of the tables, but as I approached the wooden table this time, there was a brown haired boy sitting in the seat beside mine, much to my confusion.

He was cute though, he had big brown eyes and short shaggy dark hair with an awkward smile on his face. However, when he saw me sit beside him, his smile faltered slightly.

“Hi.” He croaked boldly.

I raised my eyebrow at him- I don’t think anybody’s ever actually said hi to me at school before unless I said it first. “Hello.”

“You always sit by yourself.” He observed, but it was obvious that he was nervous. I don’t know why I make people nervous, I really don’t. I mean, I’m not a mean person but reputations are crap, I guess. “So I decided that I could offer you some company.”

Oh, and then it hit me. “You were in the lunch room, weren’t you?”

He smiled nervously before nodding, confirming my assumptions. “Yeah.”

“Well, let me just say that I did not condone that stupid announcement and I am not desperate for a date or anything.” I told the stranger.

He frowned for a minute, looking like he was at a loss for words. “I’m Danny.” He finally announced.

I smiled softly- he was actually really adorable. “Zoey.”

“Yeah, I know.” He said softly just as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the period.

“Well, maybe I like to introduce myself because it’s polite.” I defended just before our creative writing teacher, Mr. Henry, stood at the front of the room.

“Good afternoon.” He greeted with a warm smile. “We’re going to do one of those get-to-know you kinda things. So pick a partner, somebody that you don’t know preferably, and tell them five things that they don’t know about you. Go ahead and do that and that’s all we’re doing, so when you finish, just get to know your classmates some more, start a conversation with a stranger, meet somebody new.” He insisted. “And go.”

“Partner?” I asked Danny.

He smiled a soft smile at me before nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, you can go first.” I insisted.

“Oh, okay. Well I’m an only child, my mom works at a marketing company, my birthday is on January 6th, how many is that?” He asked.

“Three.” I replied, counting in my head.