That Lover Is So Two Hours Ago

"Rarn loves you with the intensity of a thousand burning infernos," I said while rubbing my ball of yarn against Chadi's arm.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Yamari! Go hang out with some girls! This table is for manly men only!" Trautmann yelled, pointing to my table.

The lunch room was divided by grades for the most part. There were also two specific tables only for guys. They claimed they needed some peace and privacy to just be guys. This table was seating Chadi, Jason, Cameron, Derek, and Trautmann at the end. They were like a pack of hungry, strange wolves. They never left each other's side at lunch time.

As I turned around to join my friends, I hear a loud belch with some applause. I shook my head and dropped my flute and other things off at the table to go stand in a lunch line for ten minutes.

Chandler, my ultimate flute buddy, was waiting right next to me. We started talking about the debate we would be doing in global studies next week. Her topic was Civil Rights and mine was health care. We branched off into plenty other random subjects until, finally, being able to return to our lunch table.

Sydney was sitting there, finished eating, and ranting on her favorite band, Tokio Hotel. Abby was messing with her vibrating dolphin. I noticed something was missing but couldn't put my finger on it.

Lunch progressed slowly. We all talked and talked about nothing and everything until our 45 minutes were up.

We all conversed up until we had to split and go to our lockers on different floors.

After that the remaining three classes I had went by in an unidentified blur. It was Friday, after all.

Before I knew it, it was the end of 5th hour. I was dashing up the stairs trying to get to my last hour on the highest floor when I noticed a flurry of girls from my grade surrounding someone. I didn't notice who it was until they were forced to leave and go to their own classes.

Trautmann revealed himself from under the string of females. His face showed how distant his thoughts were and how dysphoric his mood was. Emma and Megan still clung to him. Their conversation was visiting many different subjects. It went from Ugly Dolls, to shoes, to schoolwork, to hairstyles on boys.

I could tell that Trautmann was one sentence away from bursting out in angry remarks of how annoyed he was. He seemed to be looking for something that just wasn't there at the moment. He looked as if his yearning was about to pay off.

We were on the steps leading up to the floor where my last class, global studies, was on. It seemed like everyone was already in class or on other stairwells because it was empty and silent except for the energetic conversation between Emma and Megan. Out of nowhere, Jason swooped in and put his arm around Marc's shoulders in a friendly way. The mood suddenly uplifted and became jolly.

The bell boomed. We were all late. I was frozen where I stood, too intrigued to move but to afraid of the wrath of my teacher. Emma and Megan continued down the stairs while Jason and Marc stood lightly staring at each other. For some odd reason, they burst into laughter.

Jason had a piece of paper that he scribbled something like an address on and handed it to Trautmann. He winked and started off into the second floor hallway.

Trautmann looked down at it and nodded. He turned to watch the invisible path his friend. He turned his focus to the one witness of this event. Me.

"Hey, Lewis, want to go to a party with me?"

"Let me think about that. No!"

"Well, that's too bad. I heard everyone was going to be there. Even Mary and Margie are going! Guess you just aren't cool enough."

He's known me for several years. When I was younger, I made my low self-esteem evident by mistake. He now used it against me.

"Whose party?"

"Jason's. He's turning 13 on Saturday. I'll be picking you up around 7:30. Try and look like you didn't just get out of bed. Thanks, bye."

"Whatever," I replied, obviously annoyed.

I realized I was two minutes late for class! I hurried up the stairs and into the classroom. Mrs. Johns got a little mad but no big.

She was giving a lecture on China and we were writing down notes that would be mentioned on a test some time next week. That continued until school was over, and all the students rejoiced as they fled into the halls.

All that was on my mind was why no one told me about this party and why Trautmann of all people would be the one to invite me. What was I going to even wear? Not like I cared what Trautmann thought...or Jason or Chadi thought about me. Not at all.