“Hey, why weren’t you in calculus second period?” I ask Julian when I remember that he has calculus class with me and Aiden.
“Skipped,” he confessed. “Ho
w was it by the wa—”
“Don’t!” interrupts Chase, causing us all to look at him. “It’s a touchy subject.”
I scoff and pull out my Nutella sandwich, carefully unwrapping the plastic wrap. I’ve been looking forward to this chocolate hazelnut goodness all day—it was the only thing that kept me from breaking down during calculus. Who doesn’t like Nutella? Do they put drugs in that spread? Because I am seriously hooked on it. While I’m savoring this godlike sandwich, Aiden and Mason arrive at the table. Mason plops down in the seat on my left, and Aiden sits on his left, beside Annalisa.
“What’s a touchy subject?” Mason inquires.
Julian starts, “Amelia and calcu—”
“Don’t!” yells Chase.
“It’s fine, Chase. Everything is good as long as I have my Nutel—” I gasp and almost choke on air.
Mason has just reached out his hand, snatched up the other half of my Nutella sandwich, and shoved it in his mouth.
“You—I—but—Nutella?” I stutter, unable to even comprehend such a heinous act.
Mason carries on as if he didn’t just steal the one thing bringing me joy, finishing the sandwich half in two bites. “Oh, the calculus test? Yeah, I have that fifth period, totally didn’t study. Wow, Amelia, that was a good sandwich.”
“But—but—Nutella?”
“Use your big girl words, Amelia.” Aiden smirks.
Oh, so today he’s deciding to be sociable? Of course. He can’t resist commenting on my personal torment.
Mason holds up his hands. “Whoa, retract the claws, k-bear, I didn’t know your sandwich was sacred. I’ll take you out for ice cream today after school to make up for it. My treat. They have a Nutella flavor!”
Stupid boys.
“If they don’t have Nutella flavor, you’re dead.”
If it was possible for someone to look relieved and worried at the same time, that would be Mason’s facial expression. Grabbing my wallet, I get in line to buy something else to eat since I only got half a sandwich.
Mason comes with me to keep me company. “Are you sure you don’t want my sandwich?”
I give him an incredulous look. You couldn’t pay me enough to eat his sorry excuse of a lunch. I mean, really? Ketchup hastily slapped between two pieces of toast? I almost don’t blame him for stealing half of my mouthwatering Nutella sandwich.
“What? I was in a rush and no one went grocery shopping lately,” he defends his sandwich.
I order chicken fingers from the hot table and move over to the cash register. Mason offers to pay but I shoo him away.
We walk back to the table and when I try to sit down in my seat, someone roughly bumps into me from the side, sitting down instead and causing me to stumble. My innocent chicken fingers go sprawling to the floor. The. Hell? I tear my gaze from my lunch on the floor to my now occupied seat. Sitting where I previously was between Mason and Charlotte is a platinum blond-haired, blue-eyed girl from hell.
Kaitlyn looks at Charlotte sitting beside her and sneers. “Who invited the trash to sit with us?”
Everyone but Aiden wears a shocked expression. His face is blank, clear of emotion. I look from Kaitlyn, who pulls out her lemon water like it’s just any other day, to my tender chicken fingers on the ground, and back. Charlotte frowns at the trash comment and glances at me. She’s slowly standing when Chase grabs her wrist and forces her to stay put.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he growls at Kaitlyn.
“I’m enjoying my lunch period with my friends,” she says, as if it’s the most obvious answer in the world.
“What the hell? We’re not your—” Mason is cut off when Kaitlyn spots her second-in-command, Makayla, and shouts at her from across the cafeteria. “Over here, Kay!”
Stupidly, I’m still standing there trying to comprehend what’s going on. Did she actually just steal my seat as I was sitting down, make me drop my chicken fingers, and then not even acknowledge me?