Lighting a Match in the Rain

Chapter Thirty-One

            I stirred the straw in my iced coffee. Macey and I had gone to get coffee before school this morning. I had the idea that it would help brighten her mood for a better start of the day, and I'd been right. The ice cubes were melted and there was hardly anything left, but I continued to sip on it instead of switching it for the milk that they offered in the cafeteria. Why do schools serve milk with lunch?

Glancing at Macey, I noticed she was staring down at her tray, smearing her mashed potatoes around the plate with her spoon. I elbowed her gently to get her attention. She'd asked if she could hang out with me so she didn't want to be around her ex-best friend. "You are stronger than the things that make you weak," I reminded her. "Don't let one girl ruin your life just because she decided to walk out of it."

"We have the same friends," she mumbled, glancing over to the table across the room where she normally ate lunch. "They probably don't want to hang out with me anymore."

"Don't be scared of that," I told her, following her gaze. Her friends were sitting in their usual seats, all engrossed in different conversations. Skyler was there giggling to a boy beside her. "They are still your friends. So you had a fallout with one of them...that doesn't mean you can let her take your friends from you. If she doesn't want to be friends with you, then fine, but that doesn't mean you can't go over there with the rest of them. You can ignore her presence if you have to. Don't let her control you."

Looking at them across the room, the longing look in her eyes took over. "You're right." She stood up. "I'll see you after school." I smiled at her and watched her go. Skyler barely spared her a glance away from the boy she was talking to, but her other friends greeted her with smiles and excited waves. It made me happy watching her be popular amongst her peers.

Moving my attention away from the freshman, I turned to Kinsley. Julian was talking to her about something, but I could tell she wasn't listening to a word he was saying. He noticed at that moment too because he stopped talking and rolled his eyes. Her gaze was rested on the table that Sebastian was sitting at. Following the line, I watched him laugh at something, slapping a hand on his friends' back. I hadn't talked to him since he was kicked out of our cabin, and I was totally okay with that. And he hadn't bothered me at all since, surprisingly

I kicked her Kinsley's shin under the lunch navy-blue and grey lunch table, leading to her brown eyes snapping to me with annoyance. "Who are you staring at?"

The frustration melted away in an instant and pink flushed her tanned cheeks. "Alex" she mumbled, seeming embarrassed by the fact.

I raised an eyebrow. She had been staring past Sebastian's table and to a table that seated the junior varsity soccer dudes. "Alex Lamb?"

She nodded. I glanced at Julian, who looked just as surprised as I was. "Alex lamb," I repeated. "Aka the guy who talks like Yoda, kisses Reed's feet, and labels anything he thinks is cool as 'revolutionary'?"

My best friend avoided my eyes, shrugging and stabbing a cooked carrot with her fork. "He's cute," she confessed.

I glanced at the boy with the flaming copper hair. He had a straw folded in half, tucked under his upper lip, mimicking a walrus. "Cute? Yes. Your type? Absolutely not."

My best friend grumbled something under her breath that I couldn't understand and then said louder, "What about for you?"

Taking a breath, I glanced at Julian, wondering if he'd gotten over his crush yet. "Not my type either," I assured her.

Kinsley's eyes rolled. "We need to find you a decent boyfriend...I swear if I catch you flirting with another bad boy I'll kill you myself."