Prompt #4

The Prompt: His favorite table was, of course, occupied by some girl.

Andrew sighed as he waited in line for his lunch. That was his table. He always sat there, alone. Other people weren’t supposed to be at his table. He grabbed his food from the woman in the cafeteria with a scowl and surveyed the lunch room.

Very few tables remained empty. Most of his classmates had already spread out across their own tables. Technically there were no assigned seats, but everyone sat in the same places every day.

So Andrew turned back to his own table. The girl sat there with her lunch box, a book spread across the table in front of her. The table was pushed against the wall and half the size of the regular tables which was how he’d been able to claim it for himself. But now this girl was there. Didn’t she know the unwritten rule of the cafeteria? Find your seat in the first week and stay there.

No one moved from their seat past the first week, not unless it was prearranged. So what was this girl doing at his table?

Seeing no other choice, Andrew made his way slowly to the table. Maybe the girl wouldn’t talk to him, maybe she would just keep reading her book. There were three seats on each side of the table and Andrew slid into the one closest to the wall. The girl was sitting on the opposite side in the middle seat. It was small enough that his tray was practically touching her lunchbox.

She didn’t say a word, so Andrew continued his lunch ritual, occasionally sending a dirty look her way. Maybe she would get the message. He pulled out his iPod and jammed in his headphones. The girl didn’t leave, but at least she didn’t talk.

But just as Andrew was bringing the burger up to his mouth, she broke the silence. “I’m Laura,” she said, pushing her book off to the side and sliding down a seat so she was sitting across from Andrew. “Hi.”

Andrew’s eyebrows drew together in a fixed scowl. He spent lunch listening to his music. At his table. Alone. Spending the period with some girl didn’t appeal to him in any way whatsoever. Instead of responding, he took a bite out of his hamburger and continued as though his music was so loud he hadn’t heard her speak. Or seen her move.

After a moment her smile fell and the girl- Laura her name was- slid back over into her seat. She opened her book up again and Andrew let out a small sigh of relief. Even if she was there he could at least suffer through his lunch in silence. And he’d have the table to himself tomorrow.

The next day at lunch, the girl was sitting at his table. Again. Andrew groaned and snapped at the lunch lady when she passed him his tray. This time he looked around the cafeteria more closely for another table, but it was raining so even the students who usually sat outside were filling the tables.

There was hardly a free seat anywhere, let alone a whole table. Even more slowly than the previous day, he made his way to the table. The girl had a new book today, a textbook Andrew recognized as one of his own from the previous year. Brilliant, she was a seventh grader. Practically a kid.

This time she looked up before he even managed to put his tray down. “Hi!” She said excitedly. This time she was sitting across from where Andrew had been the day before.

Andrew set his tray down in the middle seat. He didn’t like sitting on the end. Too many people walked by, bumping into his chair and backpack. Andrew frowned at the girl. He knew her name, but that didn’t matter. Especially not when she was just some random seventh grader.

“Hey,” he muttered sullenly, not making eye contact. He didn’t want to encourage her presence at his table every day.

“I’m Laura,” she said, undeterred by his lack of enthusiasm. She slid down a seat to sit across from him just as Andrew was pulling out his iPod. “I’m new in town. My Dad got a job here and stuff so we just arrived last week. What’s your name?”

“None of your business,” he growled.  He put the headphones on hoping she would get the message and leave him alone.

“Well hi!” Laura flashed him a smile, but Andrew didn’t return it. Instead he went back to his music and started eating his lunch.

Laura waited for a few minutes, but after seeing that Andrew was decidedly not talking to her, she moved back to her own food and book with a sigh.

Lunch for the rest of the week went like that. Every day Laura tried to make some sort of conversation with Andrew and every day he rebuffed her. After a while he began to think that she didn’t get the hint. She continued to sit at his table despite his attempts to push her away.

It became routine for Andrew to check his table to see if he was going to finally get it alone, but after a while he gave up and accepted that she’d be there. Until she wasn’t.

It was more than a week after she’d first been at his table and she wasn’t there. For a moment Andrew stood with his tray, staring at the empty seats. She was probably just late. Students always stayed late to talk to teachers or see their friends. She’d show up in a few minutes for sure.

He settled into a chair and took out his music, but didn’t play it yet. There was no point in starting it if he was only going to have to pause it when Laura arrived and began to annoy him. By the time the bell rang, Laura still hadn’t showed up, but Andrew packed up his lunch and left anyway.

She didn’t come the next day or even the day after that, but on Friday she was sitting at the table as though she’d never been gone.

Andrew sighed, annoyed. He didn’t like having company at lunch. It was his time for solitude and peace where he didn’t have to deal with the rest of the idiots that attended the school.

But when he sat down at the table, Laura didn’t look up from her book. Her hair covered her face and she didn’t even acknowledge Andrew’s presence. For a moment he waited for her to say something before sitting down, but she kept quiet.

Finally he sat, shooting her an odd look that she didn’t notice. She looked odd with her shoulders hunched over and her turtle neck pulled up as high as it would go, despite the fact that it was relatively warm in the cafeteria.

“Er hey,” Andrew ventured, before realizing that he didn’t want to talk to her. This silence was just what he craved.

She grunted at him and Andrew frowned before going back to his food. It seemed strange that she would act so differently after a few days. It was what he wanted of course, but it was still strange.

After he finished his food, Laura still hadn’t said a word to him or opened her mouth at all. He didn’t even think that she’d flipped the page, she was just staring at the same spot without moving her eyes.

“Hey,” Andrew said again, sliding down a seat to sit across from her.

Laura glanced up, but her hair still mostly shielded her from view. “Hi,” she said, her voice quiet and trembling.

“Er-“ Andrew didn’t know what to say. He’d never talked to a girl before, not really. “You um haven’t been in school for a while,” he said awkwardly.

“I was sick,” Laura said and her voice stayed quiet. She glanced up at Andrew and he saw the dark circles under her eyes. She certainly didn’t look well. “Dad wanted me to stay home. He’s- overprotective.” There was a brief pause before she said overprotective, but Andrew took little notice of it.

He did notice when the neck of her sweater slipped briefly and a dark purplish mark showed. His eyes stuck to it and widened noticeably. Laura jerked the neck back up and her face flushed. Andrew wasn’t stupid, he knew what it was. He’d seen people get bruises before. And she had been at home for a long time.

But the pleading in her eyes looked desperate. And he didn’t know what to do anyway. Was he supposed to tell? He couldn’t tell when she stared at him like that. And tell what exactly? It was only a bruise.

“My name’s Andrew,” he said finally. “Hi.”