P O S T E D ✓

The Centre Table

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Mondays. I hate Mondays. I hate when that sun streams in through my window and drags me out of my slumber. It might as well rip the covers from my body it's self.

I let out a groan and roll onto my stomach to stuff my head under the pillow. I just wanted to stay in bed all day and watch Issac Rush's old videos. I didn't want to face anything other than his gorgeous green eyes on a Monday. This Monday to be precise because I was absolutely dreading going to school.

Truth is that it wasn't just a Monday. It was the day that I was meant to eat lunch with Harrison and his friends. I still couldn't believe that I had been invited to do so. I couldn't believe that Liana had actually asked me to join them. Don't get me wrong, I would normally love to be able to eat with Harrison. I've dreamt of doing so for years, but it was always him asking me to do so, it was always just the two of us...

This was different; I was invited to eat with him by his sort of girlfriend. I had sit and eat at the centre table in the lunchroom and make small talk with them all. I was so glad that Sarah had agreed to sit with me and therefore I didn't have to go through such a traumatic event alone, but that still didn't stop the nervous butterflies in my stomach from fluttering like crazy.

Life would be so much easier if you could just curl up into a ball and refuse to go through with it. If you could sleep under your bed covers all day and not have any consequences. That was the thing wasn't it? The real little prick of life... that you could do what you wanted. If you really thought about it, but the consequences are what people have to face. Everything you do has some kind of effect on something else and me staying in bed all day would give me a lot of work to catch up on. So with that in mind I kicked the blankets from my body and rolled off my mattress. It was a one of those mattresses that moulded to your body... very difficult to leave behind...

The walk to the shower seemed to take forever and with every step I took the more grime I could feel on my body. I just felt so groggy and tired. That party had really been on my mind all weekend. Sarah and I had barely lasted an hour and half before we ran out of there. Our quick escape being a blessing in itself. Certain lines keep playing over and over in my head though:

"You smell good."

"You look really pretty."

"Monty is a nice name... am I everyone Tana?"

I shook my head. Oh. My. Gosh. There was something wrong with me. Harrison had actually said all those things to me. He had told me I was pretty. He had been so close to me, close enough that I could have pressed my lips to his. He scent had been consuming me, sinking into my pours and clinging to my eyelashes. The more the shower water washed away my grime the more I could feel the party pressing down on my skin.

"You should eat with us on Monday."

It hadn't even been a question, I realized, it was more of an order. The more I thought about it this way the more I really didn't want to sit them. I could hear the little voice in my head telling me it was a bad idea to sit with your crush and his weird girlfriend. Then of course there was his best friend who hates you and the other one you don't really know...

Bad Idea.

"You know some people would see this as a funny situation." I say to myself as I wrap my hair in a towel and head to my sock drawer for my school socks. I try to find humor in it, but my stomach only ties its knots tighter. Down stairs I can hear my mom moving around in the kitchen and her voice mingling in conversation with Gabe.

Gabe had off this Monday for some reason. I think it was because he forced to take a sick day due to the fact that he had so many built up. Gabe never skipped work and always bragged about his 5 weeks worth of sick days. Or something like 5 weeks. I always tuned out when he started talking because I found him such a bore. His voice was so dull and when there was a change in tone it sounded so forced, similar to the ups and downs of Siri's voice on the iPhone. I grabbed my backpack and plodded down the stairs, towel still on my head.