Like Air.

Buckner's Pov

I made my way down the broad hallway that lead to the cafeteria of the school. Today I was dining alone. I got detention for skipping class yesterday.

For lunch today, I had a tray of some of those craptastic processed peas and carrots, a nice-sized bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade, and a bunch of fruit that I brought from the house.

As I neared the cafeteria double-doors, my mind wandered to what had been bugging me lately.

Kirk saw.

I saw him run away, and I followed suite. I heard the sound, and I got pretty shaken up. I could've told him... But I was afraid that he would think I was some kind of freak. Or maybe he wouldn't believe me... I didn't know what to think, and they fact that... those things were so near to campus...

They only come near scenes of bloodshed in the future.

Like twisted Grim Reapers...

Oh dear god.

So many thoughts welled inside me... I'm getting stressed... I couldn't shut myself up alone with these worries... It was too much for any sixteen year old to handle by himself.

But I soon found out that I wasn't gonna be eating by myself.

Someone had been following me the whole way.

I looked at them out of the corner of my eye. Blonde hair. A girl.

I was about to say something to her, but then she did the most random thing possible.

She sneaked up behind me and jumped on my back.

We whirled around the hallway almost hitting the wall a few times. All I could see was a flurry of curly blonde hair in my face.

She giggled as I struggled to walk straight.

"What the fuck?!" I said, giggling in spite of myself as she covered my eyes and I heard something clunk to the ground.

Oh yeah, my lunch tray. Oops. It fell.

"YO!" she shouted in my face, deepening her voice to try and sound like a jock's. "I CUT MYSELF SHAVING LAST NIGHT, CAN YOU TELL?!"

I kept giggling really high-pitched and swearing at her to get off. It was the most retarded, stupid, random, and lighthearted thing I've done in weeks. Just what I've needed.

After she finally stopped piggybacking me, I pointed out to her that she made me fuck up my lunch.

"Ah well," she resolved, still giggling, "At least you can say that you ate your vegetables." She pointed to the disgusting-looking, greenish smear on the floor that I probably had stepped on. It looked like some poor kid had vomited on the way to lunch.

"Quick!" I gasped out, still laughing with a cracked-up voice. "Run! Now!" I grabbed my Gatorade and as much fruit that I could salvage, and we snickered as we sneaked into the cafeteria, pretending like we hadn't done anything at all.

We plopped down at a long table way in the back, near the booths that were lined-up at the windows. We had the whole place to ourselves.

The blonde sat across from me and revealed a plastic grocery bag full of junk food and strawberries.

As soon as we settled down and finally stopped laughing I studied her features looking for anything familiar. Dirty-blonde hair. Light blue eyes. She was actually kinda pretty. She reached her arm out across the table. I shook her hand.

"Abbi Ragland."

"Buckner."

"Hey! I remember you!"

"You mean from the other day, by the stairs?"

"Yeah. And from... Freshman year?"

"Oh yeah..." I busied myself with stuffing my mouth with food. It got quiet.

Now I remembered... Abbi had been that girl that I had been avoiding most of that year. There had been rumors that I liked her.

"You know," I said out of nowhere, "I did have an tiny crush on you, for like a week. That ship sailed a looong time ago." I rested my head on the table and studied the ceiling.

Finally, I got that off of my chest.

"Did it, now?" she asked jokingly as she tried to steal my tangerine.

I slapped it out of her hands without looking away from the ceiling, and she covered her mouth with her hand, amused. "Yes, yes it did."

"What changed your mind?"

"I got a girlfriend."

"Oh."

As if on cue, my cellphone made that little jingle sound, saying I had a new text message. I whipped it out of my front left pocket.

ILY!
xoxo (and see you soon!)

I chuckled to myself as I shut the phone and put it back in my pocket.

"Who was that?"

"Katara."

"Oh. Didn't you go out with her like, last year?"

"We still do."

"Long-distance?"

"Yup."

"What did she say?"

"'I love you' and 'I'll see you soon'."

"Awww!" Abbi ruffled my hair.

"Quit it!" I whined. "No one touches the hair!"

"Except Katara," she said wryly.

I threw a soft grape at her. "Ha, right."

"So where is she anyway?"

"Home."

"Home being...?" she asked as she ripped the green top off of a particularly large strawberry.

"Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Our hometown; it's near Michigan."

"-Wait. You're Canadian?"

"Yeah."

"You don't sound like it."

"Well isn't someone being a bit stereotypical today?" I commented.

"Just sayin'."

"And you're from Louisiana, aren't you?"

"How did you know?!"

I paused to laugh. "Because." Damn. You can't stay even miffed at Abbi Ragland for long. I think that was one of the reasons that I used to like her.

She comically bit into another large strawberry, the lower half of her face almost hidden.

"Jeez, what did you do to those strawberries, put them on a steroid diet?"

Abbi laughed, spraying pink bits of chewed strawberry on the table. "Mahybeh," she said, her mouth full.

"Smooth." She laughed even more. I bet more than half of her strawberry was scattered on the table and on her hoodie. It was way too funny.

"Calm down, Abbi!" Her laughs lessened into involuntary giggles every now and then.

Finally, when she could look at me without bursting out laughing (I know, I look too good to stand), she smiled as if she was humored by something.

"Got it all out of you system?"

"Nope," and she ducked her head and laughed for a couple of minutes before it faded away. "Now I do."

I chuckled.

"So..." she said suggestively.

"What?"

"What's Katara like?"

I bit my lip to hide my smile and I looked away. "Oh my god, I am not gonna start talking to you about my girlfriend."

"What happens in Vegas stays with Vegas?"

"What?!" I burst out and giggled. Yes, I very well notice that I have a habit of giggling, if I laugh at all. "Why do you wanna know, anyway?"

"'Cause I like romantic stuff."

"Like those romantic strawberries? Doesn't get better than that, does it?"

"Sure."

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"Ooh, now the Vegas man wants to talk. Talk, Vegas man, talk! Tell me anything."

"Uh...well, her name is Katara-

Abbi scoffed. "No, really?"

I chuckled. "Shut up! Let me finish!"

"Oh, excuse me for interrupting such crucial details."

I rolled my eyes at her, amused. "Moving on. She's 16 years old. Has a British accent. Childhood friend... Blah, blah, blah... Here's her picture." I pulled out my wallet from my other pocket and flipped it to the picture Katara and I took at the spring folly. "The end."

"She's pretty," Abbi commented. "-No homo." I laughed. "I can definitely see who the emo one is and who's the cheerful one. Tell me, Buckner, what does she possibly see in you?"

"Brian from Family Guy."

"-Wait, what?!"

"Don't worry about it."

"Ahhh... I see..." she responded carefully, as if she were a psychiatrist. Then she waggled her eyebrows at me, causing me to stop drinking the Gatorade and crack up before I spit on myself.

I checked the time.

"I have to get to class in a couple of minutes."

She nodded and started clearing her mess.

"-One question. What did you get detention for?"

"Disruption in class." She snorted.

"Nice."

"And you?"

"Skipping."

"Ooh, check it out, Buckner's a bad-boy! Does someone need to teach you a lesson."

I waved my hand lazily and grinned at her. "Psh, please. I could take you without either of my arms."

"What're you gonna do, wiggle over and bite my nose off?"

"Ha-ha, funny."

"I know. Hey Buckner?"

I turned around before guzzling down the last of my Gatorade. "Yeah?"

"There's something I've always wanted to ask."

"Shoot."

"Is Buckner your real name?"

"Nah, it's my last name, but that's what I go by."

"What's your real name?"

"Wait and find out."

She smirked. "Fine."

I dumped my tray and stacked it on top of the trash can with the other trays.

"Same time tomorrow?" she hollered across the cafeteria as she stood at the exit. Her voice bounced off of the walls.

"Sure." I yelled back. "-Wait! Except I usually eat around 12."

"Okay. I'll bring some cards."

"Later."

"Bye!" And she left and went to her next class.

Now... What had I been troubling over before? I can't remember.