The Boyfriend Project

Chapter 2

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Blakely was waiting for me outside the cafeteria, looking down at her phone. Last year, she would meet me at my locker, and we'd walk to the cafeteria together. I stood there for a few minutes as she swiped her thumb across her phone a couple of times, completely oblivious that I was standing right in front of her. I couldn't take it any longer and cleared my throat. 

"Hey, Chelsi," she said, glancing up from her phone briefly.

I stood there staring back at her, hoping she'd get the hint that something was wrong. 

"I'm sorry. I had to run to the office after class. I promise tomorrow, we will walk together." She put her phone in her bag.

"No. I'm Sorry, Blakely. I'm being a bitch. I have to get over the fear of running into Aaron and his friends. I don't know why I'm worried about running into him. I broke up with him." I walked into the lunchroom. "What table should we make ours this year?" I managed to force half a smile.

"How about we sit in the middle, toward the back? This year is going to be epic." Blakely took the lead to our new table. The new table would be classified as "Blakely and Chelsi's table for the rest of the year."

I scanned the lunchroom and was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Aaron and his "tribe" came walking through the cafeteria doors. Aaron and his friends were the types of guys that other guys wanted to be like and girls wanted to date. I saw them for what they were, a bunch of assholes that weren't worth my time anymore.

I noticed the salad bar looked better this year on the way to our table. Blakely also mentioned something about a salad and motioned me to follow her over to the salad bar. I followed close behind her, hoping Aaron wouldn't see me, and just when I thought I was in the clear. 

"Hey, Chelsi. Can we talk later after school?" Aaron asked, walking up to the salad bar.

"Talk? You want to talk to me? Maybe you should've thought about that before you decided to make out with Emily Shaw next to your car. So, no. You can't talk to me. I'd like to get some salad if you don't mind." I pushed past him to get a white salad bowl from the end of the bar.

"You're making a big mistake! You're going to come crawling back to me, and it will be too late." Aaron chuckled.

"You don't have to worry about me crawling back to you. Because it's never going to happen, so you go ahead and keep living in your dream world." I rolled my eyes.

I wasn't going to entertain this conversation anymore and stayed focused on the salad bar. After a few minutes of listening to Blakely's muffled giggles, I peeked through the tops of my lashes to watch him stomp away from us. I glanced over at Blakely, who managed to stop giggling long enough to apologize for laughing. I didn't care that she laughed at what was said. For the first time in the past few days, I felt better. The sadness was still there but not so noticeable. We finished getting our salad and bowl of veggies and then headed back to our table.

"Did you happen to ask Avery about going to the new coffee place today after school?" I took a bite of celery.

"Yeah. She said she couldn't make it today but wanted to know if we could go again tomorrow so that she can go too." Blakely shrugged her shoulders, then went back to her salad. We both knew she had no intention of going tomorrow with us either. She had never gone to places like that with us. If it didn't involve designer clothes or purses, she wasn't interested.

"Chelsi, I just want to thank you for breaking up with Aaron." The most annoying voice on earth said, off to the side.

I put my half-eaten celery back in the bowl, then closed my eyes, taking a deep breath in, blowing the air out slowly. I opened my eyes, turning to my left, and there before me was the bane of my existence.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Emily?" I said, standing up from my chair.

"Nothing. I just wanted to thank you in person. Now, he can be with a girl who knows how to appreciate him. And, doesn't leave him guessing if she loves him or not." She flipped her curly blonde hair behind her shoulder, turning to walk away before I could say anything back to her. Then, she slowly turned around to face me. "What?" 

"Emily! I should be thanking you, honestly. Yeah, I'm not going to lie; it hurt like hell, but it also made me realize that I'm better off without him. And that he's found his true soul mate in you, Satan's mistress. So, thank you." 

Emily stood there with her lips pressed together, glaring at me. I knew she wanted to say something else to me because her mouth twitched as if she was about to open it. Instead, she glanced around at the hundreds of eyes staring at her. "This isn't over." She turned and walked away. 

The lunchroom became awkwardly quiet; the hundreds of eyes were now staring at me; their judgment was piercing my skin like knives. Because of the fact she was somewhat popular, no one dared say anything about Emily Shaw, let alone to her face. I lowered down into my seat, pushing my bowl of veggies to the middle of the table. Blakely sat there quietly, staring at me in shock over what just happened with Emily.

"HELL, YES!" Blakely yelled, slamming her hand down on the table. "It's about damn time someone stands up to that self-righteous bitch." She popped a cherry tomato in her mouth, glancing over her shoulder at Emily and her circle of demon friends. 

Although it felt good to stand up to Emily, I didn't quite share Blakely's enthusiasm about what happened a few minutes ago. I knew I opened up a lot of trouble for the rest of the school year. Trouble that I didn't need or want, but I was going to get, thanks to my big mouth. The way my day was going so far, I was scared to get out of my chair and head to my next class, fearing something else would happen. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't get struck by lightning in the middle of the hall while walking to class.