Him & I

2

"How about we cast lots to find out?"

Tyler Jones has remained the topic on our table, or even the whole damn cafeteria since we got here.

Using the fork to push around the salad on my plate, I stare round the wide room that, just like the rest of school, is ghost white. Except there are no blue lockers here but polished cream round tables instead, three of those tables are larger than the rest and at the centre. And I'm on one of them. Not because I'm popular... well, not necessarily, it's more because I'm best friends with someone popular.

Pamela Williams, the it girl and  leader of the cheer team - also the girl who wouldn't stop barging into my room through the window because she thought we were friends. We weren't.

But i'm glad ten years after, we are. I mean, we truly are and no longer her just living in her head with the thought. She still does that alot, though. Live in her head.  Even right now, in there, she and Tyler are dating.

"How about we cast lots to find ou-"

"Breanna, if we ignored you the first time, what does that tell you?" Amy Gardener says pointedly, dropping her fork loudly on her plate. She's pretty. A blonde. They're all blonde, by the way, just in case I haven't mentioned that. At this table there's only an exception of Breanna and I. She's a redhead and I'm a... well, i'm not sure what's going on up there but I've got a bunch of wild brown hair on my head. Something Gardener never fails to point out unnecessarily.

She's pretty, alright, but she'd be prettier if she were pretty on the inside.

"I don't see anything wrong in casting lots."

Pamela shakes her head in pity.

"Bri, Bri, Bri," Sam sing-songs, also shaking her head in pity.

No one seems to agree with Breanna - No no one ever does, anyway, i'm usually the only one who does and I would today if i knew what lots were or what casting them is about.

"What century were you born in?" Sammy continues.

"21st." There's a pout on her lips as she responds.

Amy scoffs.

"Doubt it." Margo steps in. She's korean, and has got all the features of one. Glass skin, button nose, gorgeous face - atleast that's how I think most koreans look. "You should go back in your time travel jet before you get stuck here forever."

Everyone laughs. But me. And Breanna. Even Pamela does.

"I think we should cast the, um, lots." 

"Only Melissa would agree with something like that." Amy says to me under her breath. Under her breath 'cause Pamela's my best friend and won't have any snarky comments.

So, "Hey," she warns. "We should just cast the lots, let's see who he's gonna date." Pamela's porcelain smile is directed right at me, and it's warm and bubbly like the rest of her.

Breanna runs to get the lots or whatever- not without giving everyone a look since she got her way at the end of the day. Everyone besides me. I'm not one to brag but I can hear some applause in the air and it's not just in my head.

After she leaves, we remain silent. That doesn't mean the cafeteria is, as a matter of fact, it's a circus in here.

There's Danny Tier who's sitting atop a table, throwing chips at girls on another table while his friends cheer him. There's the other two tables beside ours at the centre. Both filled with boys from the Soccer team, basketball, rugby and other sports in school. They're all annoyingly noisy with comments so dirty and chauvinistic that I wonder how there can still be girls sitting with and fawning over them.

There's a whole lot of other tables and they're equally as loud. While I strongly choose to believe there are students here who actually care about learning, it's obvious a large percent of them are snobbish kids unbothered about slipping grades, more bothered about a high highschool status 'cause in the end, they're still gonna take over whatever company their parents own.

In other words, Eastwood High's a dumping ground for spoilt rich kids. Well, a majority of them are spoilt, since I beg to differ.

Breanna flopping back on her seat that's right opposite mine is my cue to tune out all the chatter around. Tearing my gaze from them, I focus on her, like every other person on our table does.

We just stare at her wondering if the whole round shiny pink circular thing in her hand is the lots. Squinting her eyebrows at our intense gaze, she unzips the... purse? unravelling what is to be cast.

They're cards.

When Margo so confidently proclaimed she and Tyler will be official by the end of this week, everyone felt attacked, including Amy who's dating Nathan. They aren't really dating, anyway, but she sure thinks they are. Nathan Martins, besides being the school's it boy, is also my friend and we're close. Close enough to know Amy's relationship status with him is nothing but a fallacy.

"What makes you so sure?" Amy had said to Margo as we all walked down the hallway as a group, even though at that moment especially, we were anything but. Petty jealousy arised amongst them and they all seemed to say things to help one-up against each other. As out of place as I've always felt with them, It'd never been that bad. I stayed mute through out the conversation, and the only time I spoke was to help Breanna out with the lots suggestion.

Something I'm kinda regretting now because what the hell is she doing?

"Uh, Bri?"

"Should we be worried?"

Nothing, anyway, stops her from... doing whatever it is she's doing. Her eyes shut tight while her hands rover over the cards in circular motion. Lips also in a tight line, humming an unknown tune.

About thirty seconds pass before she opens her eyes, dashing us a dirty look for all the interrupting questions we asked. "I've got to pray first." She says but it sounds like it ends with a question mark, you know. Sounds like a 'Don't you know?' Well, no, we didn't. In true honesty, you kinda scared the shit out of us.

Knowing her, I wonder why even we were scared. She's always like this. Randomly doing something.. . spectacular.

Breanna finally casts them. I think. The card she told us is the unique one stops right infront of me.

But no one notices, since something more important is happening far ahead at the front view. Someone.

Tyler strides into the cafeteria like he owns it or perhaps, i'm just seeing things. Like most boys in school at break, he's already taken off his blazer, revealing the shirt that's still tucked in his plaid pants. The shirt's sky blue and a bit translucent so if I  look close enough, I can see the contours of his lean muscles beneath.

I really shouldn't but I am looking close enough. And so are many other girls here.

All the noise stopped once he got here and even as he takes a seat at an empty table I never knew could exist in a school this packed, we're still only adjusting. Silence slowly seeping out by small conversations and loud whispers- I wanna tell Jenny with the short hair, 'I can hear you!', but i'm star-struck. Literally.

Plus, pfft, I never would've told her that anyway.

None of the girls on my table are out of their gaze yet, they keep staring while I stare away. Stare down. Fondling the glittering purple card with the number 1 on it. It stopped right beside my plate and I shouldn't hold on to such hope, but I do.

Still, I push it back to the centre of the table, like it never happened. Like the lots were never cast. Like today never happened.

Except it did. And evidence of the vacant seats around Tyler quickly getting occupied, is proof it did.

Plus, my friends here are still dazed.