Eat My Heart Out

I spot a smiling Ray coming down the hall, and I greet him with a wide grin. He walks quickly, his fro whipping at his shoulder, and seemingly skips the last few feet to reach me.

He stops abruptly in front of me, and since neither of us knows what to say, we just break out into a fit of laughter. We both still have wide, goofy grins on our faces.

“What’s going on?” Bob mumbles, and when I turn to look at him he looks incredibly tired. My wide grin breaks down into a sympathetic smile, but it’s still wide.

“Our teacher got sick, so the principle gave us last period off,” Ray says happily. His grin hasn’t faltered at all.

Bob glares at us.

“Mofos,” he mutters and turns around to head towards the canteen. Ray and I look at each other, giggle quietly and then follow the grumpy Bob.

When we get to the canteen, Ray and I get in line while Bob goes and sits down with Frank and Mikey. Frank smiles widely at me and I give him a quick wave and a smile back.

“What’s with Frank today?” Ray asks. I smirk up at him.

“He’s just happy,” I say simply and shrug. Ray raises his eyebrows, looking at me in a nonchalant way.

He casts his attention to the line in front of him.

“Yeah right,” he says confidently, and I don’t fight him. I can’t, really.

I smirk to myself and glance back at Frank. He’s still smiling wide at me.

Ray and I get our food and get back to the table, which is oddly silent.

“What’s up?” I ask, genuinely interested in the answer for once.

“They’re tired,” Frank answers happily from beside me, waving a hand at the two zombies at the other side of the table. They look identical – their heads resting on their arms.

“Oh, come on. It’s Wednesday. Half the week has already passed,” Ray says happily, trying to cheer the two up. Bob lifts his head, baring his teeth briefly.

“Yeah, for you, maybe. We still have an entire school day to suffer through,” Bob mutters, before he places his head back onto his folded arms on the table.

“What do you mean?” Frank asks.

“Our teacher got sick, so Ray and I get to go home after 5th,” I answer, running a hand through Frank’s hair to get it out of his eyes while I’m talking to him. I like to see his eyes. Sometimes, I still spot a bit of insecurity and vulnerability in them, and it’s times like those that I love to hold him close and protect him.

“Oh,” Frank says surprised, raising his eyebrows.

“That reminds me…” I start, trailing off as I dig through my pockets to find my car keys.
“Mikey!” I yell when my fingers brush against them.

Mikey lifts his head and sees my hand just as I toss the keys to him. I snort a laugh at his sudden, violent reaction. He does catch the keys, though.

“I’m gonna catch a ride home with Ray,” I say, unpacking one of my sandwiches.

Mikey’s head drops down on his arms again – just like Bob – but his arm still moves as he struggles to get the car keys into his pockets.

I grin at him and take a bite of my sandwich. I glance down at Frank’s food.

“Aren’t you eating?” I ask, spitting a few crumbs into Bob’s hair. He doesn’t notices and I grin silently.

“Oh! Right,” Frank says, unwraps his arms from around me and quickly opens his Tupperware box. It’s not as filled as yesterday. Something is missing from yesterday. I notice a few more brown thingies, but there’s a lot less green than yesterday.

I swallow my food.

“Why no salad today?” I ask, trying to sound innocent and genuinely interested. I don’t wanna sound like a control freak.

Frank throws a piece of tomato in his mouth and looks up at me.

“It became soggy,” he says, shrugging. He’s better at keeping his food in his mouth than I am.