Alone

The warm breeze greeted my face through the car window as I made my way to Kristen's house.

My mom had offered our car service this morning to take Kristen to school since she enrolled in my school for the rest of the second semester. I thought it was pretty stupid to transfer since there was only a couple months left of junior year.

She hopped in the car all chipper and what not already waving hi.

"See Emma, why don't you dress like that?" My mother said right before she got in the car.

Kristen was wearing white shorts with a peachy flowy blouse and tan flats, her dark hair hung in loose curls.

On the other hand, I had on tattered jeans, converse, and a plain black t-shirt. My hair wasn't any better, I had done a simple ponytail.

We both got off the car with ten minutes to spare until first period began.

"Now I know what you mean by the way you dress." She looked at my sloppy ponytail.

"The best part is...I don't even have to try!" I laughed.

She looked at me laughing, "You know you should try a little, you probably have like a secretly nice body."

"So I see you're ready to see Patrick today?" I ignored her statement.

"He comes to this school?" She smiled.

"Yeah, dude, he only lives right next to me. We belong to the same school." I scoffed.

"Alright alright! Just a question." She began to search for him.

"Patrick and Austin don't get here until like another five or ten minutes. They're always late." I said.

"You have classes with them?"

"I have my first three classes with them and the three other are just me, myself, and I." I smiled.

"I got my schedule yesterday. We only have third and sixth together."

"Me and you? How do you already know my schedule?" I asked, a little weirded out.

"My mom called your mom." He said.

"What are they best friends now?" I said in a bothersome tone.

"Back to Patrick." She reminded me.

"So you only have one period with him." I looked at her schedule.

"That's good enough." She smiled.

The bell rang and we walked our separate ways. I practically dragged my feet through Ms. Paynes 'Payneful' math class.

I took my seat in the front, due to my stupid last name, that had to start with a 'B'.

Everyone began to make their way to the desks around me. Ms. Payne sat at her desk shyly smiling at her computer screen.
Sammi the slut walked in taking her seat behind me. Her strong cheap smelling perfume ambushed my nose, making me choke on my own damn spit. I could already hear her annoying tendency to tap her acrylic nails against the desk in a slow ripple. Her best friend Bethany, who I actually used to be friends with, took the seat next to her. It wasn't her assigned seat since her last name was Rios, but for some odd reason, Ms. Payne didn't seem to mind it.

Of course, just when you thought all the late stragglers were here, in walked Patrick and Austin laughing.

They each took there seats still laughing about whatever it was they were laughing about. And even though they sat almost across the room from each other, they still managed to communicate.

"Hey Emma, bad hair day?" Sammi laughed and Bethany oddly joined in.

"Hey Sammi," I looked at her with smile, "You're a bitch." My smile faded and I turned around.

She rolled her eyes at me and then whispered something to Bethany.

I thought it was funny that Sammi made it a point to point out something about me every morning.

---

After second period chemistry was brunch, or nutrition, as some people call it.

"So what is this, like a break time?" Kristen popped up out of nowhere, like always.

"Yeah it's a ten minute break." I pulled out a little pouch of fruit snacks.

"We have class next." She smiled.

"Yup." I slipped an apple shaped gummy in my mouth.

"With Patrick, oh I'm nervous. Will I be able to sit next to you?" She looked at me.

"You can sit wherever. It's art appreciation, so there really isn't a permanent place. Mr. Leon doesn't believe in seating charts."

"Cool." She said eating baby carrots.

She had her eyes glued to Patrick as he stood in a circle with Austin and a couple other buddies. Patrick had on a douchebag tank top that had a patterned pocket. It did compliment his arms but nothing I'd glance at.

Austin on the other hand, had a striped shirt on with jeans. Just simple, the way he always dressed.
His hair was perfectly swept which of course tied everything together.

We walked to Mr. Leon's and took a seat a couple rows back.

Austin and Patrick came in saying bye to some guys at the door way. Patrick had instantly glued his eyes on Kristen as she scrolled through her phone. They took the desk across from us. Austin and Patrick were whispering like crazy every now and then looking back at her.

You could hear Austin encouraging Patrick to say hi or something which I thought was funny.

"Told you, you got his attention." She looked up from her phone as soon as Patrick turned away.

Mr. Leon had given us a small lecture before he instructed us to practice shading in our sketchbooks.

I decided to go for something cliche and just do a rose.

Kristen had to use a sheet of paper for now and she put it to use. She began to draw an eye.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Patrick slowly making his way to our table, casually stopping by other tables and making small talk.
Of course Austin accompanied him but made his way, and stayed at Sammis table.

"Hey." Patrick smiled pulling a chair up next to hers.

"Hi." She smiled back.

"Patrick." He held out his hand.

"Kristen." She smiled, softly blushing.

"Brooks." Patrick's nodded at me. "Sorry I never caught your name on Sunday. You disappeared on me." He smiled back at Kristen.

I scoffed, shaking my head, continuing my shading.

Pat and Kristen were talking, annoyingly, and I continued shading, ferociously scribbling in some areas.

"Is my pal here bothering ya?" Austin gripped Patrick's shoulder and smiled.

"Of course not." Kristen smiled still looking at Patrick.

It was funny seeing her sending 'fillers' as they talked. She would giggle at everything Patrick would say. Austin stood there, being a good wingman, assisting Patrick in his jokes and setting them up.

"Nice rose." He glanced over at my drawing.

I looked up at him and then looked back down at my drawing. I could see his eyebrows scrunch as he turned back to Patrick and Kristen.

Patrick stood there talking to Kristen until the end of class and walked her to her next class as Sammi walked with Austin and I walked by myself.

Lunch was finally here and Patrick had already made his move and invited Kristen to lunch.

I made my usual trip to the library and sat in the third row. I stretched my legs out and brought out my earphones and a book I'd been reading. It was my routine and I liked it. To be honest, I'm not sure I would've wanted to spend lunch with Kristen anyways.

I valued the time I had to myself and reading too much.

---

School was finally over and marked a day closer to summer break. I began to walk home as I always did.

I was only able to walk half a block before I could hear Kristen blabbing my name. I turned around to see her speed walking towards me.

"Will you be a girl for once and listen to my good boy news?"

I rolled my eyes, "Go ahead."

"Yay! Okay so Patrick invited me his kickback next Friday and he was gonna ask for my number, I know it! Stupid Austin got in the way and brought up sports. He seemed a little surprised that you and I are friends."

"Who?" I scrunched my eyebrows.

"Austin." She smiled.

I shrugged as my response.

"So Patrick was telling me how we have late start tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we go into school at nine-fifty instead on seven-fifty in the morning. We have late start every other Tuesday." I said.

"Cool, can I go to your house tomorrow morning?"

"You know, I don't mind you using me to get to know things about Patrick, but you don't have to pretend to be my friend." I blurted.

"Emma, it's great that you know things about Patrick, but you're pretty cool to hang with and I can totally see us double dating." She wage her brows.

"Yeah I'll call you in a couple years when I have a boyfriend." I laughed.

"Guys don't like girls who don't feel confident about themselves. It's unattractive to a guy to hear you talking down to yourself." She pressed her lips.

"That's fine Kristen, I'm not looking for a boyfriend."

"I'll see you tomorrow in the morning." She smiled walking over Patrick as he waved his hand at her, totally ignoring what I had just said.

I looked at her strangely and walked my way.

Even though I wasn't looking for a boyfriend, it bothered me how easy Kristen could attract a guy. When I actually did care, which was years ago, I could barely even talk to a guy let alone attract one.
Yet in one day she could get invited to a kickback and get all the attention she could ever want, including Austin's attention.

I caught him a couple times looking at Kristens petite frame, almost comparing her to Sammi, flicking his eyes from body to body.

It was a guy thing, I understood that.

But I wish I understood it the way Kristen did.

Instead I was here, walking home alone with sweaty armpits and squeaky converse.

Go figure.