Broken Bones, Broken Smiles, Broken Hearts

At lunch I sit with a few people I kinda know. I've seen them around at parties or with some of my other "friends". They don't seem to mind me so I take advantage of their table of lunch. I rather have somebody to sit with than nobody.

"So Roscoe, my man, how ya been?" Jerry asks me. He's a senior like me, and I probably know him the most out of the kids here. I've hung out with him countless times with other friends but I really never got to know him. The only time we really only acted like friends was at a party where him and I had a drinking contest. After knocking back eleven beers, lets just say I won.

"Good, good. Nothing's really changed. Same old, same old," I reply. And it's true. I'm still a troublemaker. I'm still a loner. I'm still a partier. I'm still a heartbreaker. Same old, same old.

"How's Dellward been to ya?" I don't know why he's acting so buddy, buddy with me. I didn't think we were on that level but who knows.

"Okay although I haven't really had much time to get thrown out yet," I chuckle. I'm honestly giving it a few more weeks until it happens. It always happens, trust me.

"Well let me let you in on a few things here at this hell hole," Jerry smirks. "One, you're hanging out with the right people, trust me. See everyone else?" His eyes scan the lunchroom and so do mine. I see a typical high school, nobody really stands out to me anymore. Except that girl in Spanish. I shake my head at the thought.

"Don't wanna end up like those band weirdos over there now," he laughs. "Or even worse, like her," he says, pointing to the next table over. And as hard as I tried to block my thoughts about her, I couldn't. There she was, mysterious empty eyes girl.

"What's the deal with her?" I ask, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Last year, she use to be pretty popular. She was pretty hot, not gonna lie. Her name's Dottie. Remember that skirt she used to wear?" Jerry wiggles his eyebrows and jokingly elbows his friend Zane. "Damn that was a nice skirt if you get what I mean. Anyway, she used to be a pretty outgoing cool chick. She was a cheerleader and went to a few parties now and then. And then, she just disappeared. She missed school for like what, a week?" he asks, looking over to Zane. His friend shruggs his shoulders and Jerry continues. "She came back and she started dressing unlike herself. Like less outgoing and I dunno, less like Dottie I guess you can say," he says, stuffing a spoonful of his lunch into his mouth.

Dottie and the word outgoing. It just didn't fit. She didn't look like the girl he described at all. What was up with her?

"And then she stopped talking to like everyone. To be honest, I don't think I've heard her talk in months. And she never looks at anybody. She like refuses to make eye contact," he says. "She's become a weirdo. She's probably like mentally insane or something now."

And for the rest of the day, I couldn't stop thinking about what happened to Dottie.