Going Nowhere Fast

1. Water Ice Willie

"Nicey, icy, and never spicy," a ridiculous thing I said to myself as I finished off my frozen treat. 

Elijah laughed, "You know that shit is filled with artificial crap, right?"

"Yeah, but its not  really that bad," I retorted.

"You eat like 5 of those every day dude!"

"You have a point," I responded.

He had a point. I've always had a bit of a sweet tooth. Every dentist I ever had hated me or maybe loved me because of the literal dozens of cavities I've had filled in my short sixteen years of living.

"Do you want to hang out Friday? There's a party at Trish's. I can see if you can come," Elijah asked with a sweet smile on his face.

"Sorry, I have my cousin's birthday Friday," I lied. I knew he wouldn't get why I wouldn't want to go to that.

"Which cousin?" He looked at me suspiciously.

I always forgot the repercussions of getting too close to other people. Elijah knew all of my cousins, so it would be a hard lie to cover up, but Trisha was never nice to me. She always created an environment where I would feel uncomfortable talking by talking over me when I would try to speak, or interrupting me when I had already started speaking. It's happened too many times where I would start a story with everyone's full attention and by the time I finished I would be talking to myself. I didn't want to go to Trish's. I didn't like the way she made me feel.

"It's Michelle, she wanted to come home from school before finals so she could celebrate her birthday with the family," I lied sounding uncomfortably specific.

"Alright, have fun with that. I'm going to head over to the library, I have a test next period that I really need to study for," Elijah said as he picked his stuff off the lightly-cleaned cafeteria table.

I didn't like when he left the lunch table. I considered everyone I sat with at my table to be my friend but I was never good at talking on my own. A lot of my friends were much smarter than me and have debates and joke about things I didn't understand. I could always go with another funny remark about how everything was confusing or something along those lines but I didn't feel like putting my sense of security on the line. Having my water ice was nice because if it never made me feel too full so I could eat a lot of it and if I was eating a lot no one questioned why I wasn't talking. It was a win-win. Plus, it tasted fucking amazing.

I looked up from my sweet, icy goodness and noticed Trish staring at me from another table. I accidentally made eye contact before looking away nervously. I did notice that her eyes were a bit swollen like she had been crying or something. Even though I didn't much care for her, I hoped she was okay.

------

"Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!" That joke got old fast but I liked the excitement Riley was expressing when addressing me.

"Hey, Ri.. rooster," I was never as good with nicknames.

"Yo, so apparently the party at Trish's got cancelled. I don't know it was something about locking herself in her bedroom when she was supposed to be babysitting her little brother and apparently he fell and hurt his wrist doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing and her parents had to come home to take him to the hospital but she still wouldn't come out so now she's grounded and she can't have anyone over," Riley managed to ramble an entire story in one sentence.

"That's uh.."

"Yeah and Crystal told me that her parents are making her get counselling for it because apparently she's suicidal and her parents don't trust her being in her room for too long and that she was crying in the bathroom all morning. Good thing you weren't going anyways. I have no plans now!"