Know Your Enemy

We had been cruising around town in Zayn’s beat up car for the whole rest of the day. We went just about everywhere there was to go, besides some place to get a decent burger. When I finally took a glance at the time, it was dusk, and I was starving. Somewhere along the way, Zayn had to pick up his extremely lightweight drinker of a friend who had gotten drunk from a grand total of two drinks.

“So... Cal’s?”

I did a double take and looked over at Zayn. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, well, you did agree to ditch with me today,” he pointed out. “And you have to deal with that.” He motioned behind his shoulder to his passed out blond friend. He hated going to that diner because everyone else went there. Not that I particularly loved the people that came through there, but I was willing to make an exception for pretty damn good food.

“Aren’t I just the best?” I joked, lightly punching his arm.

“Yeah, yeah,” he brushed off, reaching over to mess up my hair while still keeping the other hand lazily set at the bottom of the wheel.

He pulled into a space in Cal’s parking lot, and I hopped out. I glanced back through the window. “Do we get him something to eat?”

He eyeballed him. “Nah, he’ll be fine.”

The minute we walked through the door, I spotted what seemed like every single rich kid from school. “Ain’t that a bite?” Clara Osbourne was with the lot of them. I turned to my right and saw Zayn, and boy, did he look frosted. This was probably from Richard Brown, a kid he had fought with in school the week before, being a few feet away. “Cool it, Malik.”

Clara was talking to some girl I’d never seen around before. It then clicked that they had found their prey that they were going on about earlier. Next to her was Louis Tomlinson, who I had seen around town a few times. Zayn thought he was okay.

All of a sudden, we had about ten eyes on us. Clara was showing me her usual scowl. Meanwhile, the rest of the cheerleaders and football players mouthed some things to each other, trying to pretend like they weren’t watching our every move.

I didn’t even know who the hell Clara’s little worker bee was, I thought her name started with an H, but the chick was always glaring at me. I mean, seriously, I don’t even know who you are, you don’t have anything to worry about. I threw an uncomfortable look in her general direction before Zayn nudged me and pointed out a table in the back. We headed over there and slid into the booth.

I felt Clara’s eyes still on us, so I decided to give her fake little cutesy wave. Clara rolled her eyes dramatically. New girl looked over her shoulder out of what I’d guess was curiosity. I heard Zayn snicker a bit, and my eyes went straight to him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said, biting his lip to keep from cracking a smile. I eyed him before
kicking him under the table. “Do you ever get tired of being a smartass?”

“Do you ever get tired of trying to be like James Dean?” I smirked.

His mouth dropped before he stuck out his bottom lip dramatically . “Careful, you’ll walk home.”

“I’m kidding, pal.”

“Yeah, okay. So who’s that next to Tomlinson? Has he got a girl now or something?”

“Uh, I don’t think so. She just moved here, and I hear she’s friends with him.”

“How you always know these things, I’ll never know.”

“Zayn, you eavesdrop on those guys over there for a second, and you’ll know everything about everyone.”

After having dinner, I noticed that Clara waved at new girl before she and her crew left. Soon after, she got up from the table and headed to the bathroom. That girl was going to be a robot with a plastic smile and pom poms in no time.

“Be back in a second.”

“What? Where are you going?”

I hopped out of the booth and took off towards the bathroom. When I turned into the hallway leading there, I slowed down and strolled in. She was by the mirror, finger-combing her hair.

“Hey!” I greeted in a maybe too overly-peppy way. Damn, being friendly to strangers was hard.

“Hi,” she responded with a slightly puzzled look on her face. Tone it the hell down, Lana, tone it down.

I fluffed my hair a bit in the mirror. “I’m Lana. What’s your name?”

“Harlow, I’m new-”

“Oh, I know, you’re the talk of the school. Nice name, though.” She smiled at that one. “Saw you talking to Clara.”

“She seems pretty nice,” Harlow said in a genuine, non-sarcastic in any way, tone.

“She’s somethin’ alright...” I laughed uneasily as I rested a hand on the sink. “Do you like cheerleading?”

She cocked her head at me before shaking it. “Not particularly. No.”

I nodded, “Thank God,” I murmured under my breath. “I bet moving around can be hard. I wouldn’t know. I’ve been here my whole life, but it must suck.”

“Eh, I’ve gotten used to it.”

“Well, if you need someone to show you around the school or something...”

Harlow nodded with a smile. “I’ll let you know.”

“Great, well, I gotta go but I’ll see you in school.”

“See you around.”

With that, I walked back out to Zayn. He was leaning against the booth, my leather jacket in hand, ready to go. Stopping in front of him, he gave me an exhausted look and sighed, “What the hell are you doing?”

I had my jacket tossed at me, and I put it on with a huff. “I’m helping her out.”

“Mhm,” he said, unfazed. “Come on, I’ll take you home. I just gotta get rid of the ass in the backseat first.”