Caught

Chapter 6 - Bad Boys Don't Kiss and Tell

"Hey beautiful, ready to go to Big Ricky's for lunch?"

I jump at the sound of Zak's voice, dropping my entire tray of cafeteria food onto the tiled floors. The spaghetti, which was thankfully being carried in an unbreakable paper plate, splatters across my shoes. Red meat sauce now seeps through my cheap thrift-store sneakers. Within seconds it begins coagulating, coating my toes in a bath of parmesan and high school lunch menu mystery. Oh the travesty. My Italian ancestors weep.

I can't help but feel like this is a sign. A sign that ignoring Zak's texts for the past two days was petty, and that skipping out on our weekly Wednesday pizza date for a five-dollar serving of beef penne was downright mean.

"Flipping hell Zak you scared the crap out of me." I say, cleaning myself with the thinnest napkin man has ever seen.

He looks down at the mess, then back up to me, as though only now processing that I had already ordered (and spilt) lunch. "You forgot didn't you? About Big Ricky's?"

"I didn't forget, I was skipping it. I'm mad at you, remember?"

"Since when are you mad at me?" He asks.

"I'm sorry, did I wake up in an alternate timeline where you didn't ditch me at Dylan's party? Is that what's happening? Because I feel like I made my anger that night pretty clear."

"Babe that was so long ago. I thought you were over that by now."

I take a break from wiping rogue droplets from my shirt to glare at him. "So in your mind me not answering any of your texts was just a fun game we were playing?"

"Ali you have an average response time of six hours on a good day. How was I supposed to know that was on purpose?"

My mouth opens and closes like a suffocating trout. As much as I want to give him a clever retort, he's got a point. All I can do is sigh.

"Okay, you're right. I should have told you I was mad instead of expecting you to guess. Sometimes I forget other people aren't as telepathic as I am. I just... wish you had told me you weren't going to the party sooner. Or explained why."

Zak's eyes suddenly turn sad. "I know. It wasn't a good time then. That's why I was looking forward to having lunch with you today. I swear I have a good reason for ditching and I'll explain everything at Big Ricky's. So will you please come with me? Please?"

I'm about to say yes when I see Felix's hand shoot up and wave at me from across the cafeteria. When our eyes meet, he frantically points to the camera laying on the table in front of him. I recognize it as the same camera we set up outside of Sam's locker the day before.

"I honestly would Zak, but I promised my buddy Felix that we'd work on a class project. I swear though, I'll call you later tonight so we can talk."

Without giving him any time to argue, I quickly jog over to sit next to Felix, dropping my backpack in between us. His laptop is already open in front of him, a USB cord plugged into its side. Compared to my own laptop, Felix's is much thinner and shinier. It can't be more than a few months old. I bought my Lenovo over three years ago from some old man off the internet who couldn't figure out how to turn it on.

"I've got everything set up and ready to go." He says, connecting the USB to my camera. "We have almost twenty-four hours of footage to get through so I figure best start sooner rather than later. You know? I mean we can probably fast forward through ninety percent of it but still. Don't want to miss anything."

"Yeah no, I get it. I'm glad we're meeting now. I do have a deadline after all."

My response sounds distracted and far away. From across the cafeteria I can see Zak sitting with a few guys from his hockey team. While the rest of his friends chat excitedly about something, Zak just sits there looking sad and dejected. It makes me feel weirdly guilty.