Myth Breaker

06| Tension Filled Lunch

I feel excited as Lucian finally walks me to lunch, I don't want to admit it but I know its excitement at seeing the tortured beauty of Cedric once again. I walk beside Lucian talking about the history assignment and where to find the school myths.

"Annie will be happy to help you." Lucian promises but my mind is already preoccupied, the lunch doors swing open in front of us and I imagine the shaggy hair of Cedric leaning against one of the tables. I imagine his bright green eyes watching me like they did this morning and my heart pounds harshly in my chest.

Lucian pushes through the doors and walks ahead of me, for a second I can't move from my position instead my eyes rush around the room taking in all the faces trying to find Cedric. Then the disappointing weight hits me, he isn't here. Lucian turns to me with a smile on his face, it lights up his face and I smile a smaller smile back at him.

"You coming?" I nod my head and walk to him.

I try not to focus on the fact that Cedric isn't here and as I look around the room once again now taking in the little facts I had ignored the first time. The most prominent is how the room is easily split into two clear groups. One closest to the doors, they all seem to glare at both of us as we walk past them - I notice students from my history class the ones sitting at the front of the room amongst them - and then the other group pushed up against the wide windows on the other side that as soon as Lucian gets near them they are clapping his shoulder or smiling widely at him.

No one talks to me as we walk instead they just watch me heat behind their eyes, and as soon Lucian catches them looking at me they glance away quickly.

There's another group, the smallest there only seems to be about twenty of them all different year levels. They sit in between the two groups and honestly have the sense of mediators as they talk with both sides, no one really picking aside.

"I wish they would just give us separate cafeterias." One of the younger guys tells his friend, eyes glancing - no glaring - towards the other side of the room. One of the girls overhearing this shakes her head and whispers back at them, her voice full of annoyance.

"You know they never will, they want us to work together. You know all that shit about making connections and learning together. They will never allow us to separate like that."

The guys groan in annoyance, before I can ask Lucian about it he grabs my arm and pulls me towards the food. He smiles down at me as we reach the front of the line.

"Are there problems between the students?" I ask Lucian as I randomly grab food from the trays, waiting for his reply.

He doesn't answer right away, instead, he focuses on choosing his food instead. His eyes are downcast as he opens his mouth.

"Well." He seems unsure, his eyes switching from one group to another a clear line between the groups now. "It's hard to explain."

He stops talking but something pierces me, some unsaid ending to his sentence.

"Hard to explain to an outsider?" I expect my words to come out angry but there's a hint of hurt to it, Lucian's worried expression turns to me. I shake my head and turn back to the tables against the windows.

"To someone that didn't grow up with it." He reasons and I quickly nod my head for him to continue. He walks us to a slightly empty table and we sit down as one. "It's kind of like Romeo and Juliet's family. There are two distinct groups from different walks of life that share one thing similar," I don't miss how he doesn't tell me any specifics, "the two groups hate each other but this hate comes from generations further back, none of us are sure how it starts but..."