Not Good Enough for Truth in Cliche

The rest of the day went by pretty easily, up until lunch. I decided to stay, I’m not sure exactly why, but I stayed, probably because Michael and Caleb convinced me to. I never ate school food, and since I was a senior, I was allowed to leave the campus, along with Caleb and Michael. Only seniors got that privilege, which I was thankful for.

We head out, to at least go get food, deciding on going to In-N-Out to get our food, then we head back to the school to go eat in the courtyard, because it was one of the best places at the school. There was this tree off to the side, that we always sat at. Always. So we begin heading over to our tree, getting about halfway there, only to see Alan, Maddie, Tyler, and Shayley, who now also had a girl hanging off his arm, sitting under it, chatting and eating. We all stop, share looks, and don’t even bother going any further. We turn around and go sit at the circular stone fixture out in the front yard of the school, our second favourite place to sit.

Caleb immediately starts to rant about Alan and his group stealing our spot, loud enough for everyone around us to hear. I stay silent, just eating a few fries, but I listen to him and have to hide my smile, because I think it’s funny when Caleb rants. I love him and all, but most of the time his rants are stupid, but his commentary is funny. Michael was probably ignoring him, zoning out and just eating his food. I watch him when I’m not paying attention to Caleb, and end up toning him out completely, and I can see him twitching every once in a while. His hands are a little shaky as he eats, and I wonder why he doesn’t just listen to music to stop the shaking while he eats like he normally does.

“And then I can’t believe that-- Austin, are you listening?” I hear Caleb’s voice and I get sucked out of my trance, shaking my head a little and turning to look at him, a small, meek smile on my lips. He rolls his eyes. “You totally weren’t listening to any of that, were you?” he asks, and I shake my head shamefully. “Wow, what a good friend,” he teases and I chuckle.

“Well you rant a lot and sometimes it gets boring so I just don’t pay attention to you and then you get all bitchy at me,” I respond, giving Caleb a sassy look, causing him to pout. “Don’t pout, you big baby, I listen sometimes,” I laugh, nudging Caleb with my foot.

“Dude, I rant on a daily basis, are you telling me you don’t listen to me at all?” he asks, sounding hurt. I roll my eyes a little, nudging him again. “That hurts, dude. Hurts.”

“Do you want me to kiss you to show you I’m sorry?” I ask, raising an eyebrow and playfully leaning towards him. He starts to shake his head, but I make a kissy face and just lean further.

“You guys bicker way too much,” I hear Michael’s voice from off to the side and turn to look at him. He was staring at us with a raised eyebrow, and I just laugh softly. “Seriously, if I wasn’t friends with you, I’d think you were dating because of how much you bicker,” he snorts, shaking his head and looking back down at his food to continue eating. I notice him steal a glance over towards Alan and his group, and I raise my eyebrow questioningly, but I don’t ask him about it. When I look back over at Caleb, he’s looking in his lap and I’m almost certain he was blushing, which causes both of my eyebrows to raise questioningly, but I just stay quiet again and go back to eating. A few minutes later, Caleb and I bicker a little more, just to annoy Michael, who didn’t even seem to be paying attention to us anymore. After another few minutes, he clears his throat and rises up. “I gotta go, guys. I’ll see you in class or after school, alright?” he says, looking down at us for a minute before he takes off towards the school doors.

Caleb and I stare after him, and then we share a look. “Where do you think he ran off too?” he asks, and I just shrug. I turn and look at Alan and his friends, noticing Tyler was gone, along with the girl that Shayley was sitting with. I didn’t necessarily like her either, she looked like she tried too hard. Her name was like Jenna, Janette, Jasmine or something weird like that. It started with a J is all I know, but I didn’t know too much else about her, other than that Shayley had started dating her way in like freshman year. I didn’t like him either, but he could definitely do better than her. I dislike a lot of girls at this school, for somewhat stupid reasons.

Lunch ended not long after Michael ran off, and I was glad that all three of us had the same class together this period: Music. Unfortunately, Alan and Tyler have this class as well, and Alan almost always got there first, so when he walks in a few minutes after Caleb and I, without Tyler, we both share a look. Michael was still gone too, but we had both texted him like six times each telling him to get to class. He shows up after a few minutes, followed by Tyler, who avoids our gazes and just goes to sit by Alan, which was weird because he always had something rude to say to one of us. Michael also doesn’t look at us, and Caleb and I share another look, brushing it off and waiting for the teacher to come in and tell us to mess around, like always.

The bell rings, and the teacher walks in, looking a bit flustered and lost. He scribbles something on the board, telling us it was bellwork, and it was to get into groups of five, because we would be starting a project soon. Michael, Caleb and I all look at each other.

“Can either of you play any instruments?” I ask, and Michael sort of raises his hand.

“I sorta play drums, but I like doing vocals better,” he responds.

“Same here with the vocals. All three of us liking vocals isn’t going to work,” Caleb sighs, and I frown.

“I kinda play guitar, but not much, and... we don’t even know what the project is, yet, guys,” I point out, but they both give me a look. I sigh heavily, looking around the room. I spot a group looking our way, mumbling something and pointing to Michael. “Looks like you’ve been chosen by another group,” I say, and I look over to see Michael watching them already anyway. Upon another glance at the other group, I see Tyler’s there and I scowl a bit. “Sorry, Micah,” I sigh again and he shrugs, making his way over.

Caleb and I just kind of stood off to the side, looking around the room again. Another group was standing by the door, trying to make it look like they weren’t staring at us, and we were the only two left standing in the middle of the room. Everyone else was in a group. Caleb rubs the back of his neck, looking up at me. “I’m gonna go with them, good luck,” he says in a soft voice, and I shrug a bit, watching him walk over to the other guys.

I sigh to myself, figuring I’d either just not have a group or I’d have to squeeze in with someone else, and I frown a little when I see that no one looks like they’re going to offer me a spot in their group.

Looks like I'm alone.

I back up a few steps and sit in one of the seats off to the side, pulling out my phone and scrolling through my music, about to put my headphones in when I hear my name being called. I glance over and see Phil, a stoner guitarist that sometimes talked to me when he had nothing better to do, waving me over. I rise unsteadily, but make my way over to him.

“You’re all alone, and we need a vocalist, so you should join us,” he says, before I have the chance to say anything.

I bite my lip. “I was just planning on working alo--,” I start to say, but I get cut off by an all too familiar voice.

“Just shut up and sit down.”

I look over and groan under my breath. Of course Alan was going to be in this group, and of course he was giving me that attractive half-smirk he always does.

Just. My. Luck.