Fairy Tale

Chapter 21

Poppy

By the time the bell to end 4th hour sounded I had sent Ian five apology texts, none of which were answered.

I let out an annoyed sigh and walked through the cafeteria, getting my food, and out to the table.

At the table I found Tyler and Avery talking.

"Listen Tyler, I'm sorry for picking on you over the past four days." Avery said, apologetically.

"It's no big deal. We all do weird things to impress the person that we love." Tyler said, "I ran into a wall and got a bloody nose."

I laughed as I sat down next to Avery, "Yeah but what Avery did was at least a dozen steps passed weird and right in the territory of stupidity."

"Hey I said that I was sorry didn't I? And from now on I'm ditching the "bad boy" act until Halloween."

"That's good to hear." I said, smiling. Tyler agreed and we all laughed.

I gave Avery a small side hug as Tory and Finn walked to the table. They looked at Avery and I then shard a confused look with each other.

"Don't tell me that the bad boy act actually worked on you, Poppy." Tory said, sitting down on the other side of Avery.

"Yeah, I'd never peg you for a leather jacket lover." Finn said, sitting next to Tyler.

"Nope. Not the bad boy act." I said.

"Just the truthful loser." Avery said, grinning ear to ear.

"Gets me every time." I confessed. Avery and I looked at each other and laughed, causing everyone else to join in.

"Hey where's Dante?" I asked, looking around.

"Yeah? He should be here by now." Tyler said.

"I don't know." Tory chimed in, with a worried expression.

"Maybe his teacher wanted him to stay after class or something." Finn said. We all shrugged at the thought but Tory still looked worried.

"So what did you tell Ian?" Tory asked, changing the subject.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well you two are obviously a thing now." She said, gesturing to Avery and I, "How did you end it with my brother?"

"Oh...that. Well technically-" I started.

"Ian caught us making out in the hallway and stormed off." Avery said casually.

"Avery!" I said, elbowing him, "We weren't making out!" I tried to explain but no one was listening to me.

"He what!" Tory said. All three of their mouths fell open.

"You guys? In the hall?" Finn said.

"I guess it's not as special of a place as I thought." Tyler muttered, shaking his head.

"We only kissed!" I said, blushing.

"We kissed twice but he only saw the one time." Avery said, popping some fried into his mouth.

"Seriously!" I said, elbowing his in the side again.

"You dog!" Finn said, laughing. I blushed more.

"Well it's official then, that relationship is D.E.A.D. Dead." Tory said.

"Totally." Everyone agreed.

I just buried my head in my hands and prayed that the bell would ring. Avery, sensing my tension, rubbed my back to sooth me.

"Hey, at least Dante doesn't know." Finn said.

That was true. If he knew who know what he'd say.

I pulled my head out of my hands, feeling a bit better. Then I gave Avery a look that said If you tell him what you told them then you will be a dead man!

Avery stuck up his hands defensively and said, "I wouldn't dream of it." I smiled and went back to eating.

We talked until the bell rang, dismissing us from lunch. We all got up from the table with our bags and gave one last, halfhearted, look for Dante.

"Maybe he decided to sit with his other friends." Finn said, shrugging.

"What other friends?" Tory said.

"I don't know." Finn said, bummed that her idea was shot down so fast, "I was just spitting out any idea to try and calm your worried mind."

"I'm sorry." Tory said, apologetically, "It's just that he's Dante, no one else likes him enough to let him sit with them at lunch."

"Maybe he's with that mystery person he's been sneaking out late at night to see." Tyler said, "It's probably a girl."

We all laughed at the thought.

"No he's not!" Tory said, suddenly defensive.

We all looked at her suspiciously as her face began to turn red.

"I-I mean it's Dante! If he were seeing someone he would have shown her off to the whole school like she's some prize. He's not one for keeping secrets." She said.

"That is true." Avery said.

Tory let out a sigh of relief as her face went back to its normal pale color.

"Well I'm sure that whatever happened to him he's fine." I said, walking to class. Everyone else followed after me, agreeing.

"Yeah, we shouldn't be worried. I mean it's Dante, he's been the local bad boy way before we all met." Tyler said, "And way before Avery thought about becoming one."

I'm pretty sure Tyler added in that last part just to get under Avery's skin. And by the way Avery was glaring at Tyler I could tell that it had worked. We all laughed and Avery just rolled his eyes.

I slipped my hand in his and smiled at him when he looked over at me. He squeezed my hand and slipped me a quick smile that was his way of saying I could never stay mad at you. I just smiled and kept on walking, never wanting to let go of his hand.