Chapter 57 Chapter Fifty Seven
The words were written in bold, aggressive letters that took up half the page.
I crumpled the note and shoved it into my bag, my heart hammering. No way.
Not here, the last time we were caught together it didn’t end well for me, and I didn’t want that happening again, even though he was right… We did need to talk and figure out what this was.
I especially wanted to know about his cousin Noah and why there was so much bad blood between them.
The rest of class dragged on forever. Mrs. Sinatra lectured about symbolism and Holden’s red hunting hat while Jace continued his campaign of distraction behind me.
More tapping. More hair tugging. At one point, he kicked my chair so hard I lurched forward, yelped, and nearly crashed to the ground.
Mrs Sinatra turned around, raised an eyebrow at me, then promptly went back to writing furiously on the board.
When the bell finally rang for lunch, I was out of my seat before Mrs Sinatra could even finish her sentence about tomorrow’s reading assignment.
“Lena, wait—”
I didn’t wait.
I pushed through the crowded hallway, weaving between students, my bag bouncing against my hip. I heard footsteps behind me—heavy, determined footsteps that could only belong to one person.
“Lena, seriously, just—”
I ducked into the cafeteria and immediately turned left, away from the main seating area, toward the back corner where nobody ever sat because the air conditioning didn’t work and it smelled faintly of old cleaning supplies.
Perfect.
I collapsed into a seat at the abandoned table, pulling out the huge apology sandwich my mom had packed that morning, it was full of all the good stuff, a nice juicy burger patty with all the fixings of lettuce and tomatoes and onions with a nice salad and her special dressing on the side.
I usually had no appetite to eat at lunch, but I tried to eat this one because she’d made it specially, and I would feel bad if she put all that work into making it and it went to waste at the bottom of a trash can.
My hands were shaking slightly as I unwrapped it.
The cafeteria buzzed with noise around me; full of laughter, shouting, and the clatter of trays. I kept my head down, trying to be invisible as usual.
“Lenny!”
I jumped so hard I nearly dropped my sandwich.
Noah slid into the seat beside me with his signature confident smile, setting down his tray. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. How was English?”
“It was… fine.” I pushed my glasses up nervously. “How were your classes?”
“Pretty good, actually. Mr Rodriguez seems cool. And I already made the football team, they let me try out during PE.” He picked up his burger. “So that’s exciting.”
“That’s great, Noah. Really.”
He studied my face. “You sure you’re okay? You look a little…”
His hand came up suddenly, and I froze as he gently adjusted my glasses, pushing them back up the bridge of my nose where they’d been slowly sliding down.
“There,” he said softly. “They were about to fall off.”
“Noah.” I glanced around nervously. “You really shouldn’t be sitting here. You should be with… I mean, I really don’t want you to get in trouble. I think, maybe it would be best if you sat with the popular ids, you could—”
“What? No.” He looked genuinely confused. “Why would I want to do that?”
Before I could answer, a tray slammed down across from us.
“Yo, Noah! Saved you a seat at the good table, but I see you found an even better one.”
I looked up to see a guy I barely recognised from Noah’s homeroom—tall, with a shock of bright red curly hair and freckles, grinning widely.
“This is Jake,” Noah said. “Jake, Lena. Lena, Jake.”
“Hey.” Jake nodded at me as though it was totally normal, like sitting with the school outcast wasn’t going to tank his reputation immediately.
I pinched myself, just to make sure I hadn’t fallen asleep in class and was now dreaming.
But then miraculously, another tray appeared. And another.
Within minutes, six people had crowded around our previously abandoned table. They were all chatting, laughing, asking Noah questions, and including me in conversations as I’d always been part of their group.
I sat there in stunned silence, my sandwich forgotten.
This couldn’t be real.
Sure, these were all people he'd made friends with over the course of just a few hours, and they all apparently liked him so much that they would ditch their old tables just to sit with him.
Meanwhile, I was just happy to be there and finally have some company for once.
Noah caught my eye and winked, then said something that made Jake burst out laughing, over the noise I could only hear a few words, something about the football tryouts and Jace.
I found myself smiling, then actually laughing when Noah started doing an impression of Mrs Sinatra, dramatically reading Romeo and Juliet and then bursting into tears in front of all her students.
Just as I was in the middle of laughing, a dark cloud somewhere in the corner of my eye made me look up.
Jace stood about ten feet away, frozen mid-step, staring at our table with an expression I couldn’t quite read. His jaw was tight, and his hands clenched at his sides.
Our eyes met across the cafeteria.
For one wild second, I thought he might actually come over.
Maybe this would be the time when he might finally care enough to really talk to me in public, to claim whatever this thing was between us instead of hiding it like a shameful secret.
“Hey, man!” Marcus’s voice boomed from across the room. “You missed your own party yesterday! What’s up with that?”
Immediately, the spell broke and the moment was gone.
Jace’s gaze snapped away from mine. He turned without a word and headed toward the popular table where Marcus was waving him over, where Alison sat with her crew, where he belonged.
Where I didn’t.
I watched him go, a bitter heavy feeling settling deep in my chest.
“Lenny?” Noah’s hand touched my arm gently. “You good?”
I forced a smile. “Yeah. I’m good.”
But I wasn’t looking at Noah.
I was watching Jace take his seat at the popular table, watching him laugh at something Marcus said, watching him pretend I didn’t exist.
Just like always.