All It Seems

Part 8: Argument #394

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I still couldn't decide if I was happy with her sudden and constant presence in our lives, I mean, I had no problem with her, just the fact that she's always there. At least she was no harm.

"Uh, hey," I said, not making eye contact with either of them as I sat down on the picnic bench in the heated outside area of the cafe.

"Hey, Alex!" Jeered Kim as she leaned over the table to hug me tightly.

"Hey," smiled Isaac and as he put his hand on my back to rub small circles, I tried to shrug him off without being rude. I just wasn't really in the mood for him to have his hands on me and I know it's not out of comfort, he's trying to signal to any other boy or girl that I'm his. I belong to no one. A waiter - well, I say waiter, I mean one of the res students who work there part-time - walked over with food.

He placed a burger in front of me, a burger in front of Isaac and a pumpkin salad in front of Kim.

"I figured you'd want your usual," said Isaac as he picked at a hot chip giving me a quick smile.

Too bad if I was wanting a pumpkin salad. Internal eye roll.

"Ta,"

The two of them made mindless chatter filled with inside jokes and made sure not to include me while I sat there and stared off into the distance, people watching and observing.

By the time Kim left to go to her class, it was just Isaac and myself awkwardly sitting in silence.

He sighed in frustration and threw a toothpick onto his plate, obviously aiming his sigh at me at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked nonchalantly, putting my phone down that I'd been staring at for twenty minutes.

"I really wish you would make more of an effort," he slipped his arm into his puffer jacket as we got ready to leave.

"Me? You're joking right?" I was baffled. How could he say that I wasn't making enough effort but he was the one that spent our lunch talking only to her?

"You sat and sulked the whole time, you didn't even try to converse with her. Or me, for that matter," He spat.

"I can't do this," I laughed, striding in front of him to try and shake him off. I just wish I had texted him and said I couldn't make lunch. If I could go back in time that's exactly what I would do.

"Don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you," he raised his voice and a few people looked at us and I smiled apologetically as we walked across the bridge back to the main buildings.

"Talking? We aren't talking, you're yelling at me for doing nothing wrong. You want to talk about making an effort, try making an effort with me every day,"

My nostrils were flared and I could feel an angry heat climbing my neck under the collar of my shirt.

"I do make an effort with you! I make an effort to stop all the guys that try to steal you from me! It's exhausting." 

"You're full of shit. If you think guys are actually trying to steal me you have serious issues. Why on earth would you think they're trying to steal me? What, because I make eye contact with someone and we smile in hello? Do you really have that little faith in me?"

"You need to understand-"

"Daniel!" I cried in exaggerated excitement as he strolled towards us with his headphones in his ears.