We Want You to Believe

Chapter 5

Warren

“…and that’s the story of how I hacked into Professor Roland’s’ computer to change my grade when it was obvious I deserved better than an A on that project.” Frankie said as he ate a spoonful of his chocolate pudding.

“Wow thanks for that wonderful tale of courage and trickery.” I said rubbing my temples. I was exhausted after staying up all night to type my paper for Psych class. Not to mention Scully inviting himself over… “You’re welcome.”

“Elizabeth! Oops! Sorry! Warren! Hey!!” It was Jill. She waved at me from where she was standing with her friends. I could see her friends give her a face as to say ‘what the fuck are you doing stop’ but she came on over anyway. “Hey! How do you think you did on Professor Mulder’s paper?”

“I think I did okay I guess. How about you?”

“I’m sure you did more than okay. He, like, loves you. Oh where are my manners? Hi! I’m Jillian.” She said to the guys. Frankie and John said hello and introduced themselves. As for Richard, he just sat there. Star struck. Oh good Lord. I punched his thigh under the table, as he was sitting to my right.

“OH sorry. I’m Richard; it’s nice to meet you.” He said, sounding all nervous.

“Cool”, she said smiling, “Do you guys mind if I join you?”

“No, no, not at all!” Richard said moving his backpack off of the chair next to him. She sat down with a smile. It wasn’t long until Richard engaged her in a conversation about music, which she also had a passion about; leaving me to listen to one of John’s stories about what he believes was a better hack than Frankie’s.

“Hey, Charlie!” Frankie shouted and stood up, frantically waving, interrupting John’s story. I could feel many, many eyes make their way to our table. If I didn’t have a headache before, I definitely have one now. I saw Scully’s friends laugh in our direction. “Frankie! Sit down!” I said. He sat. I covered my eyes and loudly sighed. The cafeteria suddenly went quiet. The only sound I heard was the chair to my left being pulled out and sat in.

“Is this seat taken?” I opened my eyes and stared at my table. Frankie was smiling, John was laughing, Richard was staring at Jillian, and Jillian was staring at me. I turned to my left, and found Charlie waiting for me to answer his question. I never noticed how his eyes had an even amount of green and brown to them… “NO! You can sit here!” Frankie said. The chatter started back up in the room and pretty soon everyone was back to normal.

“Did the stains ever come out of your shirt?” Scully quietly asked me, when John and Frankie started their own conversation.

“Eh, it wasn’t one of my favorites anyway so I just threw it out.”

“I’ll just get you a new one.”

“I don’t need you to buy me a new shirt, Scully. It’s just a shirt.”

“Yeah, a shirt that I ruined.”

“Scully…”

“Stop talking. I’ll give you a shirt tomorrow AND I’ll make sure it’s super special.”

“Sure, whatever you say.” I bit into my piece of cheese pizza. “You know, pizza isn’t that healthy for you right? Especially with all that grease on it.” I looked over to Mr. Hypocrite-who-spilled-a-huge-pile-of-carbs-on-me’s plate and saw a huge thing of salad topped with other disgusting healthy items.

“Look at me, do I look like I care about what I eat?” I said laughing, but I was being serious.

“I think you look great.” I looked away, not knowing how to feel. I felt my face get hot. “Warren, I feel like an introduction is needed…I’m Jillian.” She said, standing up and shaking his hand from across the table. “I’m Charlie, nice to meet you.” It was in a matter of moments that the table starting talking about their plans for Halloween.

Jillian and I walked to Psychology together in silence. “So…”

“So?”

“Richard…he’s nice.”

“Yeah, I know.” I said smiling at her. “Why?” She blushed, “I don’t know…he’s kinda cute and we have a lot in common.” It’s true, they actually did. Though she dressed more in a hippy-style and him more 70’s rock, they were both very passionate about music. “You should ask him to hang out sometime. I know he would say yes.” I told her as I pulled my black windbreaker closer to my body.

“Oh yeah? And what would we do?”

“Well, on Halloween the school is having a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. He likes that movie, ask him to see that!”

“Fine…only if you ask Charlie to come.” I laughed really hard, sarcastically of course. “As if.”

“What! Why not?” She asked me as we came up to the building. “Because I don’t like him like that…I barely like him as a friend. He’s cocky, thinks we’re friends and shows up at the most inconvenient times, like when you get out of the shower…” She stopped walking, mouth wide open. I kept walking, not realizing. “WHAT!” She yelled to me.

“What?!”

“What do you mean what? You didn’t tell me this!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize our friendship level got boosted from a 3 to a 27!” She just shook her head at me and walked up grabbed my arm and dragged me into the building.