The New Normal

Chapter Twelve

Today was not a good day.

Ariel and Blake have gotten past the apologetic stage and have ricocheted into a full on angry stage because I didn't call them on the weekend. But after I got the job at that small cafe, all I could think about was how great I actually did something productive that weekend. Now, they sat together, glaring at me with the power of a thousand knives from across the cafeteria whereas I sat in the back, trying to busy myself with a book. Chad and Tyler walked in, but surprisingly, they separated their ways. Chad sat with Ariel and Blake - which was a no brainer - and Tyler went back to hanging out with his other up to no good friends he acquired when he entered high school. I guess him and Chad agreed it was best that Tyler didn't sit with them due to punching Blake in the face. Which, I suppose, was probably a good idea. I made eye contact with Tyler as he sat down with his hooligans and his stare turned to a hard glare. I guess he's back to hating me - wonderful.

"Hey, Juliet, is this seat taken?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up at the girl in front of me. Her name was Kimberly Jung. We had gym class together in the ninth grade and her and I were fast friends over our distaste for sports. But we were more or less friends for that class, didn't really talk much outside of it. I shook my head and gestured for her to sit. "No, by all means, sit."

Kimberly smiled brightly and sat down. "You okay? I noticed you're not sitting with Ariel today."

I tried to muster up a smile and nod my head enthusiastically. I liked Kimberly a lot, so therefor, I did not want to attack her with my problems. "I'm fine."

"You are so full of crap," she answered instantly, taking a large bite out of her Caesar salad wrap. "You can use a friend right now, that much is obvious. So talk."

I pushed my lunch tray away and sighed. "Ariel and Blake are together and they're mad because I won't give them my blessing because apparently it's my fault to begin with because I left."

Kimberly stopped chewing her sandwich and gulped loudly. "Yikes. In my opinion? They're both jerks. Blake always tried to act like Prince Charming but really he's Shrek and Ariel as always had a bit of a selfish side, you know. Remember when you made the lead in the school play in ninth grade so she tried out for the varsity cheer-leading squad, just so she could outshine you? That's what attention whores do, Juliet. I don't mean to hate on your friends you've had for so long but you've been friends for them so long that you failed to see they suck."

I stayed quiet for a moment, thinking about all the times Ariel one upped me or got upset when I had something she couldn't. At first, I didn't think there was that many but the more I thought about it, I lost track at how many times she put me down by doing just that. Then I moved onto all the nice gestures Blake did while we were together, he always had to make a show of it. He couldn't simply buy me flowers and move on, instead he'd make like, fifty posts about it on Instagram or something. He couldn't do nice things privately, they always needed to be public, just so people would notice him. I never noticed it until now, or, maybe I did but I just didn't want to admit it. Back then, I let Blake relish in the fact every girl swooned over him because they thought he was so perfect. I let Ariel walk all over me and make me feel bad whenever I got something she didn't. Every time she was upset, I'd back off from whatever made her angry just so she wouldn't hate me. I slammed my fork down on the table, causing my spaghetti to jump a little and Kimberly to flinch and stare at me with wide eyes. I threw my hands up in the air. "Kimberly, in just two minutes, you made me see my life from a whole new perspective! This whole time I kept trying to force things back to normal, but that can't happen because I'm not the normal Juliet, I'm like, Juliet 2.0!"

"Right," Kimberly answered slowly, looking at me still with wide eyes. "I was just trying to point out that you need better friends, but the Juliet 2.0 thing works too."

Intertwined my fingers and rested my chin on them. "So, how do I make new friends?"

Kimberly laughed and took another bite of her sandwich. She chewed for a couple of seconds and put her food back on the tray. "Well, you have me. Also, do you remember Stella Wilson? Her and I are pretty good friends, you guys would get along nicely."

I bit my lip and nodded intently. Stella Wilson was probably the nicest person to walk on this planet. She was basically the redhead version of Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. Whenever I struggled in art class, she always gave me tips and tricks to help me get through the assignment. I liked Stella, but like Kimberly, I never talked to her much outside of class. "I know Stella, she is in my art class. Draws a lot of semi-realistic people or characters."

Kimberly clapped her hands and pointed at me excitedly. "Yes! But fair warning, she is dating one of Tyler's friends, Ryan."

I scrunched my face in distaste and Kimberly gave me a look that said, I know.

As if on cue, Stella walked into the cafeteria and went straight for her boyfriend, Ryan. After a bit of conversation, they both came, along with another guy made their way to our table. Stella's bouncy ponytail swishes from side to side as skipped over and sat down. "Juliet! How's it going?"

"It's-"

"Juliet is on a quest to find new friends," Kimberly states, taking a final bite of her sandwich.

Stella's widened and she sucked in a breath, looking both shocked and confused. "Well, whatever floats your boat. I had drama class with Ariel last year and she was a nightmare, so I don't blame you if you need a change in company."

I laughed and Ryan and the other guy sat down. Ryan studied me with curious eyes. "So, you finally ditched that tool, Blake?"

I nodded my head and the guy beside Ryan, who I've only seen a handful of times before I had left for California, let out a holler. "'Bout time, that kid was a royal pain in my ass."

Not responding, I just remained silent and stared at the guy in front of me. He was muscular, but not as muscular as Tyler. He had dirty blond hair and hazel eyes that shone gold when he tilted his head into the sunlight. He held out a hand that was nearly double the size of mine. "I'm Seth."

"Juliet." I replied, putting my small hand in his large one.

Seth grinned and I could see his pointy canines. "Oh, I know who you are."

I tilted my head to the right and scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "Wha-"

"So, Prince Charming leaves you for Satan's mistress and all of a sudden you have a new group of friends," Tyler mused. He plopped down beside me and grabbed my fork, taking a stab at my meatballs. "I have to say, you move on fast Juli."

I snatched my fork out his hand before he could put a meatball in his mouth. "Don't touch my meatballs. And it's Juliet."

Tyler rolled his sharp green eyes and narrowed them on Seth. "What are you doing here?"

"Well..." Seth began. "Ryan came here with Stella so I thought, hey! Why not broaden my friendship horizon and properly introduce myself to the beautiful Juliet? And now I'm here."

I felt myself blush when Seth referred to me as beautiful and Kimberly subtly wiggled her eyebrows in my direction.

Tyler caught me blushing and he stood from the table, his expression unreadable. "Whatever. We got some business to take care of, remember?"

Both Ryan and Seth exchanged a look and Stella shrugged, clearly not remembering if her boyfriend did indeed have somewhere to be. When Tyler released an impatient sigh, the boys jumped from the table exited the cafeteria.

Stella shook her head in annoyance. "Tyler is such a toad."

I paused for a moment and then burst out in a fit of laughter to the point tears started to form. Both of the girl joined in as well and after a few minutes, I calmed down, wiped the tears from my eyes and muttered, "Tyler the Toad. I like that."