Chapter Text
Kids hurried to their classes around me. I huddled closer to my locker as I switched out some books so they don’t weigh down on my shoulders. I moved my long, black hair to the left of my face, preventing it from getting caught in the locker door to my right. I try my best to ignore the crowd of kids behind me, turning up the volume on my headphones and doing my best to place my school books in my bag. Finally finishing I quickly close my locker and meet the face of Carmelo. He has a stupid grin and he leans on the other lockers. I roll my eyes at his smile and pull my headphones down around my neck. “What, Carmelo?”
“C’mon Em, don’t be like that. I thought we were friends.” I glare at him before turning to walk away, to which he whines my name in an attempt to get me to stay, “Em, wait, hold on a sec.” I groan as I turn back and give him a glare once again. “We’re all meeting up behind the school at the bench. Come with us.” We’ve done this several times before so questions like, with who? And, When? Are useless. “Fine, I’ll see you then.”
“Cool, see ya later, Em.”
A loud bell screams, telling us class is dismissed. Kids shuffle to grab their bags and hurry out of the classroom. The hallways immediately crowd with noisy teenagers that yell and run across the school to their next class. I pull my shoulder bag over my head and put on my headphones to block out the noise of the hallway. I walk to the other end of the school and find the back doors that lead outside. I find our usual abandoned lunch table that sits against the school’s brick wall.
Carmelo is leaning against the table. Tobias is sitting next to him, ranting about some teacher that’s been giving him a hard time. Rudolph sits behind them, focused on whatever he’s drawing in his sketchbook. I pull my headphones down around my neck and head over to the table, taking a spot next to Rudolph. Carmelo turns to look at me as I sit down, “Ah, there you are. Took ya long enough.” I ignore his sly comment and instead look down to what Rudolph is drawing. It’s two people holding hands in front of a sunset. He notices me watching and moves his page slightly away from me. “Don’t look, dummy. It’s not done yet.”
“Okay?” I say with confused laughter. Rudolph nods and turns back to drawing. Tobias turns his head back to look at me. He moves the light blue streak of his hair out of his face as he speaks, “Do you got the stuff?”
“Yea, duh.” Tobias scoffs as I dig through my bag for the ‘stuff’ he’s talking about. I pull out a plastic bag that holds a joint, as well as a lighter. I’m the one in the group that keeps it because I’m the one teachers would suspect the least. I mean, they probably wouldn’t suspect Rudolph, but his parents would freak if they found out and he’s terrible at hiding things. I hand Tobias the lighter and bag. He quickly pulls out the joint, placing it in between his lips and lighting it. A long puff of smoke billows out of his mouth as he removes the joint. He hands it to Carmelo and he takes a few hits of his own. The joint gets passed around between the four of us as we conversate about our classes and home lives.
“There! Emi, you can look now.” I turn back to look at him as he hands me his sketchbook with the now finished drawing from earlier. The two people now have more features, making them look more like humans rather than long sticks. They somehow look familiar the longer I look at them. I look up and compare the drawing to Carmelo and Tobias that still sit and chat in front of us. I turn to Rudolph with one eyebrow raised in confusion. “Is this a drawing of…” I point over to the now faded teenagers. Rudolph smiles and shushes me by putting his finger in front of my mouth. “Shh, don’t tell them!” He says with quiet excitement, “But don’t they look cute together?” He leans over to me and points to his drawing that he seems very proud of. He lays his head on my shoulder and I rest my head on his. “They do.” We smile and giggle together while whispering about the drawing.
Carmelo pauses his own conversation with Tobias and turns back to us, curious about what we’re giggling about. “What are you two looking at?” Tobias joins him in turning his head to look back. Rudolph and I look at each other and grin. “Nothin’.” We say in unison while giving the two of them a mischievous smile. “Yea whatever.” Carmelo rolls his eyes and takes another hit from the joint before handing it to Tobias again. We all talk and smoke until the joint runs out and the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. We all headed back to our classes after saying our goodbyes and making plans to meet up again. As I walk down the hall I smile to myself, ‘maybe hanging with them isn’t so bad’.