Last Train Home (12 page)

“I’ve just heard stuff.”

“Yeah?” I asked defensively. “You’ve heard stuff?  Or should I say you’ve heard rumors?”

“I don’t know why you’re getting so upset.”

“I’m not upset, but you guys are too hard on Alex and I don’t want to hear any rumors.  Because that’s just what they are.  Rumors.  I wouldn’t want anyone judging me based on rumors and I don’t think you should either.  And I have to say I’m surprised at you, Jesse. I didn’t think you’d be the type to buy into rumors.  You seem a little more level headed than that.”

“Hey…
don’t shoot the messenger,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender.

“Well, thank you for your concern,” I said sarcastically. “But, I make my own judgments about people.”

“Of course you do, Riley,” he said and then he bent down and gathered up his books.  “I think we’re done here.  I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah,” I said
, not trying to stop him.  In fact, I wanted him to leave and I just watched as Jesse walked out the door.

Chapter Twelve

I was late to school the next day, having hit the snooze button on my alarm clock three times before finally forcing myself out of bed.  I had to take a quick shower and I didn’t get to spend the time getting ready I would’ve liked to.  I dried my hair as fast as I could, leaving parts of it still damp in the back and then ran my flat iron over it carelessly.  I glanced at myself in the mirror deciding it would have to do and then I threw on some make-up and quickly got dressed.  I grabbed my bag and hopped into my Jetta and sped way too fast to school.

When I walked through the old maroon doors, I realized I was beginning to feel like less of a freak in the hallways.  I was still the “new girl”, but I was blending in well enough that people had stopped staring at me like I was some kind of invader.  Well…most people had stopped staring.  Adrienne was still staring, but she was a different story and I didn’t want to waste any more energy on her and luckily I didn’t have to.  My late arrival forced me to rush to my locker and grab my Constitution book without stopping to acknowledge anyone.  The bell rang just as I walked through the door and as I stood in the front of the classroom
, breathing a sigh of relief that I’d made it, I saw Jesse looking up at me.  He was grinning and I quickly walked to my seat as Mr. Barry stood up from his desk to begin class.

“Nice of you to join us,” Jesse whispered as I brushed by him.

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” I said before I sunk into my chair.

The rest of the morning seemed just as rushed and out of synch
as the start of my day.  I never could quite get with the routine and I was happy when the bell rang in my fourth period class signaling lunch time. 

I went to my locker to drop off my books and then headed to the lunch room.  I’d been so rushed in the morning I hadn’t had a chance to pack my lunch so I was scrounging through my wallet for any spare change to grab something from the cafeteria.  It was crowded and noisy when I walked in and I went straight over and bought a salad and got a Coke from the soda machine. 

Once I had my lunch, I discreetly scanned the room for any sign of Alex.  I glanced over to his table, but the only thing I found there was Adrienne looking as if she were in the middle of a pressing conversation with Dana and Kristen.  I looked away and headed towards my table, which was pretty much full, except for Brandon. 

“Hey,” I said
, sitting down next to Jesse and then looking around. “Where’s Brandon?”

“Sick,” Jesse answered,
taking a bite of his grinder.

Laura and Holly were across from me, both eating a salad and Mandy was picking through a pack of Skittles and sorting them into piles according to color.

“Can I ask what exactly it is you’re doing?” I said, gesturing towards Mandy’s Skittle piles.

“I like to eat them one color at a time,” she said nonchalantly as she continued to sort.

I continued to stare at her doubtfully.  I knew Mandy was different, but this was just bizarre.

“You think that’s bad?” Laura chimed in. “She not only s
orts, but she has to eat them in a specific order.  Orange first, because they’re her least favorite and then red, yellow, green, and then purple because that’s the order of the colors of the rainbow.”

“Oh…
kay,” I said as I opened my soda. 

“So?  What’s wrong with that?” she asked as she put her last Skittle into a pile and then, just as Laura had said, she began eating the orange ones.

“You’ve gotta admit it’s weird,” Holly said.

“I don’t think it’s weird,” Mandy said defensively as she continued to eat through her orange pile.

“She’s been doing it since forever, so we’ve just given up.  We’re numb to it.  I forget how strange it really is till someone new sees it and then they stare at her the way you are, Riley,” Laura said, reaching over and snagging a green Skittle.  Mandy just rolled her eyes and kept eating her candy.

“You looked a little frazzled this morning,” Jesse said
, finally getting into the conversation.

“I
kinda was.  I couldn’t get myself out of bed.”

“Late night with Alex?” he laughed and I glared at him.

“I was hanging out with you yesterday, remember?  I didn’t see Alex.”

“That’s right!  You went out with Alex this weekend,” Mandy said, her attention immediately leaving the Skittles and focusing on me. “I want details.”

“Give it a rest, Mandy,” Laura cut in. “You need to get your own life and stop living vicariously through Riley.”

“Whatever, Laura,” Mandy snipped and then looked over to me again. “How’d it go?”

“Fine.”

“So, are you two like, a thing or something?” she asked excitedly.

“No.  We’re just hanging out,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“You’re not gonna tell ‘
em?” Jesse asked, looking over to me.

“Tell us what?” Holly asked.

“It’s nothing.”

“C’mon
, Riley, don’t keep secrets from your friends,” Jesse teased and I knew he was just trying to get me to spill the beans.

“What secrets?”  Mandy was leaning closer to me now and I knew she was about ready to jump out of her skin.

I continued to stare at Jesse, who was smiling back stupidly, and then I looked over to the girls.

“He asked me to homecoming.”

“Who?  Jesse?” Mandy asked, looking between us.

“No!” I exclaimed.

“Don’t make it sound so terrible,” he laughed. 

“It
would
be terrible,” I said, staring at him and then looking over to Mandy again. “Alex asked me.”

“Oh
my gosh!  Really?” she squealed, but I could tell by the look on Holly and Laura’s faces that they were not nearly as impressed as Mandy. 

“
We were hanging out at his place on Saturday night and he asked me.”

“Is his house as amazing on the inside as it looks on the outside?” Mandy asked.

“It was pretty nice.”

“When are you going to get your dress?” Mandy asked.

I couldn’t help but notice this was turning into a one-sided conversation between Mandy and me.  The others were just watching and didn’t seem the least bit interested.

“I’m not sure.  My mom said I’d probably need to go to Wichita to find any decent dresses though, so I’ll make a trip up there soon,” I said and then looked at Laura and Holly. “Are you guys going to the dance?”

They looked at each other and then shrugged before Holly answered.

“We were thinking about g
oing as a group.”

“You should!  We could all go together,” I said
, hoping they would go. “We can go dress shopping together.”             

“We’ll see,” Laura said
, taking a bite of her salad.

“C’mon. You guys
have
to go,” I pleaded and then looked over at Jesse who seemed to be enjoying our conversation by the sly smile plastered on his face.  “What about you and Brandon?  Have you given it anymore thought?”

“I still don’t know,” he said
, popping a chip in his mouth.

“Well, think about it.  It would really suck if you guys didn’t come.”

“I think you’ll be fine.  Your Casanova can keep you company,” Jesse said and I nudged him.

All this talk was making me wonder where Alex was.  I hadn’t seen him all day.  I looked over to his table, hoping he’d be there, but he wasn’t and disappointment settled in my stomach. 

I finished my salad as I listened to Mandy ramble on and on about her weekend.  When I was done, I got up and threw my empty plate and Coke can into the garbage.  I was heading back to my table when I looked up and saw Alex walking towards me. 

“Riley, hey.”
Alex’s voice sounded as if he’d just got done running a mile.

“
I’ve been looking for you.  Where have you been?”

“
I got held up in my chemistry class.  My experiment kinda went haywire so I had to clean everything up.” He reached down and took my hand. “I looked for you this morning.”

“Yeah, I
kinda slept in.”

“Busy day yesterday?” he said as we walked back towards the lunch tables.

“Nah, not really.  Jesse and I were just working on a project for Constitution.”

“So, you spent the day with another man?” he laughed, but I saw his eyes drifting over towards our lunch table, where Jesse looked to be listening completely unenthusiastically as Mandy rambled.

“I didn’t know we were exclusive,” I said.

“Would you wan
t to be?” he asked with a cocky grin.

“I don’t know.  I’m keeping my options open.  I’m not sure I’m a one man woman.  I’m playing the field,” I said lightheartedly, trying to play it cool. “We’ll see how it goes.”

He laughed and looked over at me. “Well, let me know what you decide, but as I see it, your options aren’t going to get much better than this,” he said, pointing to himself.

“I’ll try to remember that.”

“You’d better, but right now I’ve gotta grab something to eat.  Lunch is almost over.

He bought a slice of pizza and then we started back towards the tables.

Alex hesitated for a second and then looked at me.  His eyebrow was raised like he had an idea.

“How ‘bout we eat with
my friends today?”

“Your friends?”
  I asked hesitantly and my eyes immediately focused on the “it” table.  The table I’d avoided since day one.  The table where Adrienne sat.

“Yeah.
  Why not?”

“I don’t know
,” I said nervously.  I was happy, well as happy as I could be, in the little world I’d created here and I didn’t really want to extend it any further, especially if Adrienne was involved.  As I had decided earlier, I wasn’t going to let her get to me, but I also wasn’t going to openly invite her insults by socializing with her.

“C’mon.
They’ve been asking about you.  You’ve gotta meet them eventually.”

“You can’t blame me for being nervous.”

“You mean Adrienne?” he asked, gesturing towards the table where she was flipping her hair.

“Well, yeah.”

“I said don’t worry about her.  She’s really not as important as she thinks she is.  And, to be honest, she’s not too bad once you get to know her.”

“I told you, I’m not worried about her.  And just so you know, I don’t want to know her.”

“I know you don’t and that’s fine.  But don’t stress.  Now, let’s go.”

I
relented and followed as he started walking towards the table.  We passed by my friends and I stared at them with wide eyes.  Mandy’s face was priceless when she realized where I was headed.  Her eyes were practically popping out of her head and her mouth was hanging to the floor.  I shrugged my shoulders at them in a
What the hell am I doing?
kind of way and kept walking until we were standing just a few feet from Alex’s lunch table.  His friends eyes all seemed to drift up to me and I felt ridiculous standing there looking down at them with what I was certain was a clownish grin on my face.  Adrienne was sitting at the far end, but I could see her glare as clearly as if she were right in front of me.  I ignored her and quickly looked around the table.  I’d seen everyone who was sitting there and I’d obviously heard about them from Mandy, but it still didn’t prepare me for standing in front of them.  Of course, they were all attractive, but it still surprised me there could actually be enough attractive people in this podunk town to actually create an “it” crowd.  They looked at me strangely, but then I felt Alex’s hand on my back and I felt a little better.

“Hey, scoot over,” he said
, nudging the shoulder of a dark-haired guy and then sat down.  He patted the seat next to him and I sat down.

“So
, you’re the chick from Boston?” the dark-haired boy asked and I couldn’t help but take notice of his arrogance.

“Yeah, I do have a name though,” I chided back.

“This is Riley,” Alex broke in.  I looked around and smiled at them and then he went around and began introducing all of them. “This is Kurt, Charlie, Lucas, and Brent, and you know the girls,” he said, motioning to Adrienne, Dana, and Kristen, who were pretending I wasn’t at the table, until suddenly Adrienne snapped her head in our direction.

“The loser table’s down there,” she snipped and pointed over to my friends.  Kristen and
Dana laughed and I was about to respond to her when I felt Alex grab my knee.

“Knock it off
, Adrienne,” Alex said sternly.

“I was just trying to help her find her way.  She looks a little lost up here
.”

“I said stop,” he
repeated.

“Yeah, lay off,” Charlie said to her.  Adrienne just huffed and stood up.  She gathered her things and walked away, quickly followed by her zombies.