Chance Encounters

Luke and I didn’t talk much when I brought him back home. Some of the reason was because of his hangover, but mostly I was pissed. I had been worried sick about him last night. I had to lie to Mary, again, an activity that I had been doing far too often recently. I told her that he was hanging out with some of his friends and I could only hope it was true. I was just praying that he wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere or hit by a drunk driver while walking around. I don’t even remember how many times I tried calling him last night… I even went out driving wondering if I would find him. I don’t know. Maybe I was bordering on crazy stalker girlfriend?

After I gave Luke some Rose Hip tea and an aspirin he went to bed. And I was left alone with my thoughts. Which, wasn’t something I really wanted to be alone with. My thoughts lately didn’t tend to be very pleasant. I’m not quite sure when I realized that outside of Luke I didn’t have anyone my age to talk to in this town. In short I was a girl whose entire life revolved around her boyfriend. And considering my boyfriend had just run off an entire night without telling me what was going on I’m not sure I wanted to be like that. He was keeping secrets from me. I knew somewhere inside me that that was true. And a twisted little piece of curiosity wanted to know exactly what that secret was.

***
The rest of the weekend went off without a huge event. Mary gave Luke a lecture, which an itsy bitsy tiiiiiny part of me enjoyed, about telling her if he was going to spend the night with his friends. I know, bad Ellie. We sat around watching TV together since Mary was home most of the time. And I was thinking of the people I had met at school, wondering if I could make friends with them at this point without seeming weird. I didn’t want Luke to be my only companion not that he wasn’t a good one. There was the girl in my photography class I had talked with the first day. Abbie I think. I would try and hopefully I’d be a step closer to being a normal teenager.

On Monday I was determined to make something good happen. And though I was still upset with Luke, I wasn’t being cold, though saying I was very affectionate wouldn’t be completely true. We talked and laughed and hung out during our first period and got lectured when we got too loud. But that didn’t really stop us from talking; more that we were speaking in hushed tones other than whispering.
First period ended and then history and all the other classes that were sort of a blur for me. Then Photography came and I still had no idea how I was going to approach Abbie without looking like a weirdo. I hoped an opportunity would present itself. But halfway through class things still weren’t looking good. I was writing down an analysis of a picture that Alec had posted on the projector. It was a softened picture of a woman holding a knife to a bloody hand in black and white, then the same picture with no effects and in color. Though the woman didn’t seem to look particularly violent. More pensive. We were supposed to look at the effects and filters that were added to the photo and explain how the mood of the picture was changed due to what the photographer did to it.

This wasn’t a particularly difficult assignment though, considering art is usually left for the interpretation of the viewer anyway. You could have just written down any emotion you wanted as long as you thought about it. And that is what art is, something that should make you think. The assignment took up no time, it really didn’t have much thought put into it on Alec’s part either. I could tell. Though considering his art show was in a few days I didn’t blame him. But that left the class with a whole 20 minutes of free time where we all were just going to sit and talk. Which is exactly what we did. I took my opportunity and went for it. I went over a few tables to where Abbie sat, and sat down pretending it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Hi Abbie.” I said smiling at her.

“Oh hey Ellie, how’s it going?” She asked turning slightly in her seat to face me.

Well it’s going well so far I thought semi relieved. “I’m good.” I answered back “So did you finish that assignment Alec-“ and it went on similarly like that.

We definitely weren’t best friends by the end of the conversation. No that would require I had charisma. But I was definitely closer to having a friend in this town. I mean a friend who had no interest in getting into my pants.

She didn’t invite me to eat lunch with her today either, which wasn’t a surprise, again. I ran off to go find Luke, not that I had to search far; he was waiting near the entrance of the cafeteria for me. He was leaning up against the wall and scanning the crowd. I came up near his side.

“Hey there Mister,” I said, smiling up at him, “You looking for someone?” I asked.

“Well, yeah. I was looking for this really cute girl that I know.” He replied back pretending to be still looking. I suppressed a grin and instead put on a fake pout.

“Oh,” I said, pretending to be disheartened.

“There she is!” He said, happily leaning down to kiss me. I smiled and kissed him back. How could I stay mad at him? I wrapped my arms around his neck and kept him down near my level.

“You sure I’m the one you’re looking for?” I said, keeping him close.

“Yes Ellie you’re the one,” he said tucking his head in the crook of my neck and kissing the area between my shoulder and the line of my neck. I shivered and smiled.

“I’m so glad,” I said and I pulled him back to my lips to kiss him again before dragging him into the lunchroom where we usually sat.

We sat and talked about his third period and how some moron thought it was funny to screw around and ended up breaking his nose. I cringed slightly, I wasn’t big on blood. Kids came back from the lunch line pushing and shoving to get through to their tables. I was just glad I had brought Luke and me some food from home today. One of the faces passing through the crowd caught my attention and I waved. Seeing me, Abbie looked at the table. Maybe she couldn’t see me that well, but after a moment she waved back. She had paused too long and the people behind her started shoving her forward. For a moment I had thought she was coming over to talk to me. Sighing slightly I turned back to Luke who was staring after her. His shoulders tensed and he looked pale…
“Hey Ellie, did you know that girl?”

“Abbie? Yeah I know her. She’s in my photography class.” I said looking at him puzzled. “Why?"

“Oh no nothing. It’s just that she seemed to be staring over here for a while. It was really weird….” He said looking at the sandwich I had packed for him. I felt a little twinge. A twinge that told me something wasn’t right.

But I had no idea what it could be.