What If | #Wattys2020

16.

There was only one thing to talk about during the following week. Scott.
It seemed like the whole town had discovered about my friendship with him. Suddenly everyone waved at me in the school corridors, even my teachers smiled at me more often. Even though no one really knew how close we really were I guess they supposed we were very close, I mean, he was my ride to school. Who does that but best friends, boyfriends and parents?

Anytime I'd go somewhere peaceful at school, like the restrooms, the library or the cafeteria it would suddenly get crowded in a matter of minutes. It seemed like everyone wanted to be close to me.

Also, people with who I hadn't talked in ages started talking to me again. In a nice way. That kind of way in which you guess their intention from miles away. They just wanted to get closer to me so they could get closer to Scott.

Scott had been a mystery for almost a year, I learnt. After he finished high school he passed the whole summer out in London with his father's family. Some guy who assured he used to be his best friend in kindergarten told me Scott had caused lots of problems to his parents in his senior year and that they wanted him to change his manners at all costs.

There are lots of different rumors about what he did in the summer, though. Some people say he was put in a reformatory, which I sincerely think is not true. Others say he traveled to Asia to deal with the Yakuza. I still didn't know how Scott could have anything to do with that sort of mafia.

"...maybe we could. Right, Mel?" I overheard.

As usual, the table I used to sit in with Gina and Hunter was now crowded with a bunch of sophomores and juniors.

"I'm sorry?" I muttered.

"Mel," Hunter started, "James is inviting us to his birthday party this Friday."

I looked around for a second, realizing I had wandered off reality for a minute. I distinguished James sitting right in front of me with a worried look in his face.

"Uh..." I smiled and recovered my composture. "Yeah, sure! Thanks!"

He smiled back. "Great. I'll send you the location, then."

"James, can we go too?" Some sophomore asked hopefully in between the multitude surrounding us.

"Do I even know you?" He answered sharply.

"I'm friends with your brother." He complained sadly.

"It's elite. Got it?" James insisted and rosed. He threw a hand up in the air. "Please let me get out of here now. And leave the poor girl alone, she needs some air. Damn."

I smiled tenderly at his comment as I observed how the crowd around me started to disperse. Even though I hadn't liked how he had treated that kid, I knew that at the bottom of his heart he was a softie.

Gina sent me a curious look.

"What?" I mouthed cracking a little smile.

"He's so into you!" She whispered. I elbowed her ribs as I felt my cheeks burning. "Ow!!!"

I laughed under my breath and kept on eating my yoghurt. It had been a week since I last saw Scott face to face, when he walked me to school. Yet everyone kept going on about it like it was still fresh news, which it wasn't.