A Little Bit Ninja

15: Ponderings Over a Pickled Coke

A/N: This one is for ATouchOfClass, who spent crazy numbers of hours trying to make a cover that I liked. Yes, I'm a bit of a book cover nazi, as she likes to say. But thanks so much for your hard work, and all your fun comments. I love them to pieces!

Chapter 15:  Ponderings Over a Pickled Coke

“Seriously Abe, scoot over. You are crushing me.”

“It’s not like I can help it Jade.”

“The guy on your other side has, like, twice as much space as me.”

“Well the guy on my other side happens to take up twice as much space as you.”  

We were wedged so close together that my breaths were exercise, like I was trying to lift weights using my lungs. I tried pushing him further into the booth, but he was right. Jackson was just as close on the other side.

All my little shove accomplished was make him laugh at me, before pushing me into Erica on my other side. And his shove was much more productive sending a ripple through all of us. The blond guy on the end—Brady?—fell out onto his butt.

The booths at SuperSalad! are only built to fit six people at the most. We were exceeding the maximum occupancy by double. Our peaceful lunch time haunt had officially been infested by the soccer team.

I lay the blame at Landon’s door. He decided to invite himself to lunch with us via Millie. I would have thought that she would tell him no, considering I have spent the entirety of our friendship loathing Landon. But apparently yesterday, when I suffered him to stay during our extra practice, she interpreted that as me hanging up my boxing gloves.

He kept trying to catch my eye, and maneuver into the space between me and whoever was next to me. Luckily I was aware of this, and I out maneuvered him every time. I knew what he wanted.

“Aw man! You poured ranch in my coke,” Jackson yelled from Abe’s left. 

“Dude, that is nasty!” Abe half laughed, half snorted in reply. “I dare you to drink it.”

No, Landon doesn’t want to talk about feelings any more. I’m pretty sure he got a big enough dose of humility yesterday. He wanted to know what was going on—you know, with the Stooge on Steroids, and Anton.

 Anyway, after yesterday Abe seems to be more suspicious of Landon’s new hobby of showing up wherever I am. So, when Abe found out that Landon was coming to lunch with us today, he decided to follow suit, along with the rest of their lunch time crowd.

“I will pay you to drink it,” Brady yelled from his end of the table. 

“I’ll do it for a dollar,” Jackson said, eyeing the adulterated Coke.

“But you have to drink the whole thing.”

Abe is being just as ubiquitous as Landon—and he has his own list of questions—especially after he saw the demolition zone in the sports closet

So in the end, I was glad that the whole circus decided to come with us to lunch. The chances of Landon, or Abe, or Erica getting a private audience with me among this company are slim indeed.

Yes, Erica too. She’d been trying to corner me all day long, in the parking lot, at my locker, outside of SuperSalad! and every other time I’ve ventured three feet away from the nearest possible witness.

And since she was asking questions like, “Since when do you not tell us about new guy friends? When and where did you meet Anton?” I knew Erica wouldn’t forget this easily. Not dishing on goods, like meeting Anton, was extremely taboo, trust-breaking, even.