He looked sad and withdrawn, his facial features looking gaunt. He looked haunted. I wanted that look to go away.
“Hey, I got you something for your birthday. Well, actually I made it.” He seemed to brighten marginally at my words. “Yeah, hang on a second and let me find it.” I dug through my bag looking for the drawing that I had framed. It didn’t take long to find the wrapped package.
The green paper shined in the fluorescent lighting, the silver “happy birthday,” words reflecting about the room.
“You didn’t need to do this.” He said grinning like a five year old.
“I know but I wanted to. That’s what friends are for.” He smiled when I said friends. Didn’t he know by now that I saw him as one of my best friends? I guessed not. After all, he had Tyson, Wayland, and Colton and I had the Pulmers. But Isaac was my only human friend I had made here. He was important to me.
Ms. Cappet was so engrossed in her lesson that she didn’t even notice that Isaac and I were completely ignoring her.
He tore the paper off as quietly as he could in the almost silent classroom. “Ky! I love it. This is an awesome gift,” he whispered under his breath the excitement ringing in his voice.
“You’re welcome,” I said smiling. I had wanted to do something special for Isaac that he could have forever. He was my friend. And if Selena had her way I might not be around much longer. Giving him this was something that he could keep forever and remember me by; it was a keepsake and not a material item.
I had drawn him a poster for his band, The V Hunters. He was in the front, the lead, and his friends, the other members of the band, were in the background. It was a charcoal drawing and the only burst of color was the blue in Isaac’s hair.
“This is really awesome, Ky. You couldn’t have done any better.” He said kissing me on both my cheeks.
“I’m really glad you like it,” I said pleased. I had been worried he wouldn’t like it and it had taken a long time ago. But I figured, in a sense, he was an artist too and therefore would appreciate it.
“I’m keeping this forever,” He said putting the framed picture into his book bag.
“I hope so! I worked really hard on that. I’ll have you know,” I said with mock indignation.
He chuckled, “In that case I think I’ll just throw it away when I get home.”
“Ha, ha, Isaac you’re a comic genius.” He grinned back at me and bumped his shoulder with mine in playful banter. “We better start paying attention or Ms. Cappet is going to fail us,” I laughed.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. We might have to endure more boring lectures and that’s something nobody wants to have to hear again,” He said, his eyes sparkling with mischief. I put my hand over my mouth to stifle my laugh.
We tried really hard to keep quite throughout the class but with Isaac and me that was impossible. We did receive a few death glares from Ms. Cappet but that only made us worse. At one point I would swear that I heard Ms. Cappet mumble, “Why did I have to seat those two together?” under her breath. This then proceeded to make both of us laugh harder.
When class was over I met Jonathon outside of class and Isaac stalked past a glum look on his face. This happened every day. I constantly wondered why Isaac acted like this. I didn’t think it was because he liked me in that way, which I know he does, but it seemed like there was some kind of underlying tension between him and Jonathon. Something that I didn’t understand, some law o
f the jungle, that being female, I was not aware of.
Jonathon and I went to our next class, that we shared with Isaac, and Isaac continued to ignore me as if we had never met. It bothered me that he acted like this but I tried not to let it show. I didn’t want him to know I was hurt and I didn’t want Jonathon to say anything.
At lunch, Jonathon, Danny, and Mason were discussing battle strategies and where we should go after graduation. Diana hummed to herself and read a book, occasionally putting the book down to pick at the food that she wouldn’t eat.
I put my water bottle down on the white plastic tray. “I’m going to go sit somewhere, else,” I said to no one in particular at my lunch table. Diana stopped mid page and looked at me, and the boys stopped their conversation.
“Why?” Diana asked, shocked like I was committing some kind of crime.
“Because I’m sick of having to hear you talk about how you are going to kill, Selena. I don’t want you going anywhere near her and getting yourselves killed,” I said looking at Danny, Mason, Diana, and Jonathon last. Diana looked hurt since she hadn’t actually been a part of the ‘killing Selena’ conversation but I didn’t have time to feel bad about my actions. I was too upset to care. I picked up my tray and stalked off.
“Ky! Are you okay?” a voice yelled across the lunchroom. I looked up from staring at my feet to look blindly around the lunchroom for the source of the voice. I saw Isaac standing up at a table; his friends were still sitting but looked like they were ready to spring for a fight at a moment’s notice, with a look of annoyance on his face that was directed back at the table I had come from.
I walked towards him trying to compose my face into a normal expression devoid of all emotion instead of the scared, upset, angry one I had been wearing.
“Hey, Isaac. Colton, Tyson, Wayland.” I said, nodding to all the boys. They nodded their hellos.
“Are you okay?” Isaac asked again.
I nodded yes.
“Can I sit with you guys?” I asked, nervous energy coursing through my body. I hated to impose myself on their guy time.