The Genetic Code

Chapter 10

He begins walking, and I notice, with dread, in my direction. I glare at him with every step he takes, trying to send a desperate message through my wide hazel eyes: Abort mission. Turn back.

Unfortunately, Sterling doesn't seem to get it, as he continues striding towards my table.

Every other student in the area looks on with stunned curiosity, while I chew my lip uneasily. I hear the gasps and murmuring, and sense the stares and pointing. Just when things were appearing to go back to normal...

He lays the tray down on the table, and takes a seat on the chair opposite me.

"Why are you here?" I speak sharply under my breath.

"You said you couldn't eat in the cafe, so I came here," he explains, free from any semblance of shame or awareness of the havoc he had just wreaked. He pulls my tray of food away and pushes the white wooden tray towards me.

"I've always wondered what food from this cafeteria tasted like." He picks up the fork I had dropped earlier and begins to dig into the cold pasta from the food station. I look down to the dish in front of me, artfully plated on a dark grey slate. It was probably prepared by a world-class chef in the glamorous kitchen on the other side of the cafeteria. Meanwhile, the pasta he is eating expressionlessly, without showing any sign of distaste (which is quite a feat, even for me), likely came from a frozen packet.

"What do you think you're doing?" I question rigidly.

He looks up. "Eating," he responds plainly, "you should too."

"Everyone's staring."

"Let them stare all they want. I'm still gonna be this handsome no matter how long they stare."

"That's... not what I meant." I sigh. "Things were finally normal again. I could eat lunch without a hundred sets of eyes on me. But now... They're all back."

I take a deep breath, and say quietly, "You being here is just making things more difficult for me."

He puts down the fork, breathes heavily and looks me in the eye with a straight face.

"All I wanted was to eat lunch in peace with my ally," he speaks impassively. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

I furrow my brows together and look at him pleadingly, but he simply resumes eating as if nothing's the matter.

All of a sudden the sound of a chair being pushed back violently fills the air. I swivel my head backwards, and my eyes widen with panic once I see who it is.

Amidst a table of students in white windbreakers that read "Swim Team" in black lettering, one boy stands up, facing this way. His light brown hair falls over his forehead, and those boyish features of his appear cold and hard, like his blue eyes.

Alex marches over to my table, all eyes now on him, as everyone in the cafeteria, including myself, await the drama that is about to unfold.

He doesn't even spare a glance at me, instead concentrating his dagger glare directly at Sterling, who is still eating as if oblivious to everything happening around him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Alex spits out roughly. His harsh tone shocks me, because I've never heard him speak that way before. When we were younger, and even now, when he's mad at me, he's never once snapped at me or spoken to me harshly. He's always been so lighthearted and easygoing towards everyone around him.

I guess Colette was right: He isn't the same Alex I'd grown up with and come to know. The look in his eye is different too. He has changed. I'm curious to know how much.