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The rest of the day dragged on until lunch finally decided to arrive. I went up to the library and sat in my usual spot that was just out of sight from everyone else, including the librarian who liked to find excuses to yell at students—me in particular. But today I especially needed time to be away from everyone. I had a text from Micha, one of my few friends, asking what the whole list thing was about. Thankfully, Micha was good to understand when I needed to be alone. As if on cue, Noah Addington (More widely known as Number four) strolled through the shelves of the french reference section and sat down right across from me.
“Thought I’d find you here” He chuckled awkwardly.
“Hey Noah, how’ve you been?” I asked trying to not to notice how weird this was.
“Fine thanks, whatcha working on?”
“Just chemistry stuff”
“Cool…hey, I was wondering if you’d seen the list yet? Everyone’s talking about it” he said, trying to strike a conversation.
I could feel my face go red.
“Oh…uh yeah I have. Really? everyone?”
“Yeah, a lot of girls are taking it very seriously and I even heard some asking where you hung out at lunch,” He said.
Fuck.
“Oh well uh yeah it’s crazy we are both on it” I laughed trying to sound convincing.
“Yeah, feel bad for the girl who made it though, probably didn’t mean to send it to the whole damn school”
“Yeah that sucks for them,” I said a little too quickly.
His expression went back to his regular sad one and I think he kind of got the vibe I wanted to be alone.
“Well umm…. I can’t stay, good seeing ya,” he said getting up and leaving.
There are a few things you need to know about me and Noah Addington. We have been best friends since the third grade and pretty much grew up together. But It was just about two years ago when Noah became more distant. He started coming to school less, hanging around with new people and making a habit of getting drunk every weekend. I didn’t know if he was depressed or just going through some sort of phase, but he was always down nowadays and it seemed I was the only one who cared enough to notice. Of course, I still considered him my best friend and I would do anything for him. At least he still made initiative to talk to me. Right?
So why was he on the list? Well, it was in ninth grade, way before I knew I liked guys and just before the summer. We had all these epics plans of how we were gonna make it the best summer ever. But as things would turn out, he was going to visit his dad in England for seven weeks as a surprise. As shitty as it was, the day he was leaving I still went to the airport to say goodbye. Just before he was to go through security he handed me a card and hugged me. The card read simply:
Thanks for being my best friend, see you in August.
I know I know. I’m basing our whole friendship off some stupid card he gave me two years ago that I may or may not still have behind my box set of “The Hunger Games”. But it meant a lot to me and he means a lot to me.
I had been cold to him just now. Maybe he was really trying to rekindle our friendship. But was this me making excuses again? He hasn’t really been a great friend lately and you can’t just waltz on over whenever my name pops up in your inbox. I wish his name was never put on that list. I don’t care if he’s cute.
“Fuck this” I muttered tossing my chemistry homework into my bag.
I had forgotten to pack some leftovers for lunch last night and the carrot sticks just weren’t cutting it. I got in my car and slipped over to Kaifei, the closest coffee shop. The place was packed with students and people on their lunch break but I still managed to get a seat to myself by the window. Were people really talking about me? About them? about us? Turning around casually, I definitely received more than a few stares. I could even overhear a few conversations.
“It’s him, Arthur Lingsly”
“Is that really number one?”
“Is he single?”
“Does he even go to our school?”
I put in my headphones and stared out at the lunch hour traffic until there was a tap on my shoulder. I whipped around to come face to face with none other than number three, Nikolas Tocci.
“Is someone sitting here?” He asked.
“Uh..no, go ahead, “I said moving my bag.
He sat down and started drinking his coffee. I hadn’t spoken to Nikolas since last year when his brother had brought his grades up and no longer needed the tutoring. I could go weeks without speaking to anyone on the list and today I’ve hit 3/4. Do I make conversation? Is he just sitting there cause there’s no more room? Have I already left the silence to long?
“What’s that?” Nik asked, gesturing towards my coffee.
A wave of relief hit me.
“A…uh cappuccino, what yours?” I asked.
“Just black coffee, I know it’s weird but it’s the only thing that keeps me awake during school” he joked.
“How’s Xander doing?” I asked, not really knowing what else to talk about other than his brother, the one thing we sort of had in common.
“Oh uh great actually. He’s doing really well this year” he murmured.
“Oh that’s awesome,” I said.
The loud chatter of the coffee shop continued as we sat and drank our coffee. This was nice, he was nice, and not just looks.
“So this list, what are your thoughts?” He asked casually.
Fuck this damn list. No one had yet asked my opinion, well until gorgeous frickin Nicholas Tocci.
“Oh uh yeah, it’s kind of weird but oh well, what can you do?” I said.
“Yeah, well at least it said some nice things about us,”
“Says the future model,” I joked maybe too quickly.
He smiled and we maintained eye contact maybe a split-second too long. But who wouldn’t? He has such warm, brown eyes I couldn’t stop staring and they were accompanied by a genuine smile, unlike Noah.
After a while of talking, lunch was sadly rolling around to an end. Why couldn’t everyone be this easy?
“Hey do you need a ride back?” I asked.
“Sure man, thanks,”
We drove to the school and chatted about Paris-St.Germain defeating Monaco, video-games and school. I parked my car and saw Nik hesitating to get out.
“Hey..uh do you want to come to a party this weekend? If your busy it’s cool” he asked.
My heart skipped a beat. Nikolas was asking me to go to a party? Okay, stop right there, yes, I have been to a party, two as a matter of fact. One Noah had invited me to where I only ended up staying till 9:42 and then when my neighbours had their one-time winter solstice party. Okay, maybe the second one doesn’t count but whatever.
I realized I was taking too long to answer for Nik’s face took on an uncomfortable expression.
“Yeah sure, sounds fun” I said trying not to seem too excited.
“Okay awesome, here’s my snap so I can text you the details,” He said reaching for his phone.
Eyes followed me and Nik as we walked into the school together.
“Its number three and number one”
“They’re so cute”
“Who knew Arthur was such a fuckboy”
I didn’t pay attention to the whispering. I couldn’t even hear them. I had hung out with the cutest, sweetest guy and was now going to a party where I hang out with this said guy. Like fuck I would have released that list long ago of I knew this would happen.
Things were good.
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