TURBULENCE
|| chapter -
four: part IV
He outstretched his
hand for me to shake and I took it, relieved that I wasn’t
juked like earlier. Daniel seemed fairly nice—a lot nicer
than Annie at least—and I could tell he wasn’t from
here by that accent.
“Yeah, Danny boy here is Australian. Oi Daniel, look at the
size o’ that croc!” She tried to do an Aussie
impersonation but sounded more Irish than anything.
“Oh yeah, just look at it!” He flipped his middle
finger at her, shoving it in her face to which she laughed in
response.
I even chuckled myself. I couldn’t help it, the corrupted
duo was getting to me. I stabbed my fork at the slop that sat on
my tray before looking up, feeling a pair of eyes boring into my
head. Sure enough, it was Daniel who was gazing at me with his
eyebrows knit in confusion. He rubbed at his jaw, raising a brow
now.
“So our dearest Annie here has a bit of a foreigner
fetish,” He began and pointed accusingly at her.
She only lifted her shoulders in a shrug, an amused expression on
her face as she chewed away on a bite of apple.
“Anyway, I was just wonderin’ where you were
from?”
I felt my throat constrict as I began to speak. “Canada.
Alberta, Canada.”
“She speaks!” Dan lifted his arms in some sort of
victory, high-fiving Annie who was giggling to herself. I felt a
smile tug at my lips.
“She barely talks. You know what they say though…
the quietest ones are always the deadliest.” Her tone was
suddenly serious and they both looked at me with faux suspicion,
grinning as they did so.
I sheepishly smiled at them both, returning my attention to the
mush on my plate. I stabbed at it some more, half-listening to
Annie and Dan argue about something, half-zoning out. Getting
bored of mutilating the so-called food, I absentmindedly scanned
the room before finding something that caught my eye. It was
outside, on the other side of the lunchroom windows. It was a
person that stood there, lighting a cigarette. Their hood was up
so I couldn’t identify who it was, but I saw its hands cup
around the lighter as they lit their cigarette.
“Well Erin, anything you wanna know about Metzger
High?” Dan’s voice brought me back to reality.
He leaned in, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“I’ll tell you what you really want to know.”
The blonde chimed in, and shifted in her seat, stabbing the air
as she pointed at people from different tables.
“Sl×t,
sl×t,
sl×t,
wh×re,
idi×t,
moron, meathead, alcoholic, druggie, hippie, wanna-be,
h×e,
b×tch,
weirdo—“
“What about him?” It was surprising, I was actually
participating in conversation—even if it wasn’t the
most appropriate. I gestured to the figure that stood outside the
cafeteria.
“Oh, him? That’s… is it Nathan?” She
turned to Dan, scrunching up her face in an unsure manner.
“Mhm, Nathan Bristel.” He nodded as he followed our
gazes to the boy at the window.
“Yeah, he doesn’t talk much. Doesn’t attend
school that much either. He seems cool though, he lit my
cigarette for me when I forgot my lighter.” She shrugged
and returned to munching on her apple.
“I thought you gave up smoking, Anns!” The table
bumped as Daniel gave a sharp kick, shouting at her.
“Ow, what the f×ck!
Okay, so I lied!”
I could hear them bicker but I wasn’t listening. No, my
attention was miles away as I stared across the cafeteria and out
the grimy window, tilting my head with curiosity. I could tell by
the way he slouched against the building that he was tall, his
knees bending slightly. He had the laziest expression on his face
as he stared through half-lidded eyes, smoking escaping his lips
as he exhaled. From under his hood, I caught the glimpse of dirty
blonde hair and I was tempted to go over there and yank off the
hood for just a second to get a better look
at—
AUTHOR'S
NOTE:
woot,
cliffhanger i guess? we're nearing the end of chapter
four! sorry it's been taken a little longer than i hoped.
there's just a lot of formatting involved, censoring, and
witty only allows you to post a certain amount of characters.
ah well. happy reading and hope you enjoy! daniel and annie
make me happy. :-)