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Part I - 1 - Airport (edited)

this book isn't completed yet but the editing process has started. this chapter has been edited, and is more or less the final version. enjoy, and if you have any questions you can ask me in a comment or a PM c:

Rated PG-13 for language.

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Part I

1- Airport

Luke Waters

  “India.”

 “Yep.”

 “India.”

 “Uh huh.”

 “Dude.”

 The cafeteria was serving some crappy gloop they liked to pass off tapioca again, and it was virtually inedible, so I gave up trying to eat it. I don’t even know why I had tapioca on my tray. I looked up at Leo – he was pretty much gawping at me, unaware that he had a smear of pizza sauce on his clean shaven chin, leftover from when he’d hogged the cafeteria’s last pizza slice.

 “What?” I asked.

 His expression was surely something – his mouth was open, top lip pulled up slightly, eyes wide and forehead more creased than a two hundred pound girl’s stomach.

 “Why are you telling me this only now?” he demanded.

 I stabbed my ‘tapioca’ (more like ‘two week old horse shit’) with my flimsy plastic fork, which bent uselessly. Would it kill the school to invest in decent cutlery?

 “I had to sort out a lot of stuff, man. It’s not a huge deal.”

 He leaned back in his chair and tugged his t-shirt down over his chest; a gesture I realized over the years usually meant he was annoyed. That day he was wearing a t-shirt he’d had since sophomore year – a ratty old black one with Incredible Hulk on it. It still fit him because he stayed pretty much the same size over the past two years.

 “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier,” I said, pushing my tray aside and almost knocking over my Nikon case. I steadied it quickly. “It was a rush thing anyway, I applied late and Hawkins was being pissy about letting me go.”

 Leo made a face, eyes wandering to the people milling around us, chewing on his tongue.

“Hawkins is pissy all the time, he acts like someone shoved a potato up his ass.”

 “That’s one way of putting it.”

 We sat in silence for a while. I saw Megan with Gina on the other end of the cafeteria. Quickly, I looked away.

 “When are you leaving?” Leo asked, a few seconds later.

 “Friday.” It was Tuesday then.

 “Talk about a short notice.”

 “Don’t act all butthurt man.”

 “I’m not, Luke,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m happy for you. Meet some hot Indian chicks and score for the rest of us puny virgins.”

 I laughed for the first time in a few days. It felt alien.

 “Highly unlikely, but I’ll try my best.”

 Leo crossed his legs, resting his ankle on his knee, and I examined the steadily hardening tapioca, more out of morbid curiosity than anything else.