Beloved -A Tragedy of Time

Luke was dumbfounded by October's behavior. What could she possibly say that would make him hate her? His mind was still stuck in "best friend mode" so it wasn't clicking what she meant by "rejection". He couldn't grasp the idea that she was reciprocating his feelings for her.

"October, you can tell me anything, and it would never change the high opinion I hold you in. I'm your best friend and that's never going to change," Although, I kind of wish it would..." he thought to himself. Why did girls always have to go after the worst kind of guys, when there were perfectly good, decent guys all around them?

 

Luke narrowed his eyes. October had totally dogged this. This was something that was bringing her down, and something she thought would potentially ruin their friendship. So why was she so easy to drop it like it was nothing?

He put on a smile though, trying not to seem too down. If she wanted to drop it, then he'd drop it.

"I'm ok, I don't know what you mean by 'jumpy' though. " just then the bell rang, causing Luke to jump. dammit he thought to himself bitterly. Next was second period....which he shared with Toby. worse yet, he sat right next to him. Luke couldn't stand Toby, but he was too nice to say how much he hated him to the guys face, so he was forced to act civil to the guy's face.

"I'd better go, I'll see you at lunch" he said to October. Then he walked off to second period.

 

As Brittany walked to class she wondered what "type" of guy Toby was. Maybe he was the kind of guy who liked one-on-one time with girls or liked to hang out with a bunch maybe the only way he would admit to likening a girl was if he saw her with another guy. She also kind of wondered what kind of guy Luke was, and why was he always hanging around that October Elizabeth chick? Anyway she had more important matters to attend to, like finding the hottest guy in her chem. class and striking up a conversation. as she walked in she spotted the perfect guy sitting in the corner, texting. "Who ya texting?" she asked with a small giggle. "My girlfriend" he replied uninterestingly. At that moment she knew that this would go nowhere but she couldn’t just drop her reputation. "Well she’s one lucky girl. If only I was as luck as her" she said pretending to pout while flipping her hair. She walked away at that. She knew that today was a good day, and by the end of the day she would have at least one guy (if not one than many) drooling at her feet. She smiled at herself and took her seat for class.

 

“Ok class take your seats” Mr. Kelley announced. "Today we are going to work on our projects for our freezing reactions unit. You have the entire class to work because well quite frankly I have a lot of stuff to grade so get busy. Oh and please don’t let it become too loud”

This is the perfect opportunity to skip class.

After the rest of the class started working, Brittany walked up to Mr. Kelley in a cute almost bouncy kind of way. “Mr. Kelley may I please go out to my car so I can get my poster for this project?”

“Yes that’ll be fine.” Mr. Kelley said without even looking up. “Just don’t be too long Brittany” he said as she walked out the door.

Brittany walked down the hall wondering why Mr. Kelley never tried to be a good teacher. Maybe he just didn’t care? Either way it got her out of class. And she had no intentions of being back shortly. When she walked outside she stopped “Where did I park again” she said aloud to herself. As soon as she saw the bright pink bug she hopped down the steps and walked toward her car.

From his trunk, Toby could see Brittany but Brittany could not see Toby. “No way! Is that seriously Brittany? What are the odds” Toby thought to himself. He got up and started walking over to her.

Brittany was digging around in her purse for a while. Once she found what she was looking for she put it in her jacket pocket, threw her purse under the seat.

“Hey” Toby said.

“OH MY GOD!” Brittany yelped before catching her breath. ”You scared me. What are you doing out here?”

“I could ask you the same question” Toby said with a smirk.

“Wellll…. To be honest I was ganna smoke a joint”

“You smoke?!” Toby looked amazed when she said that.

“Pshshh yae” she said trying to play it off cool “you could come smoke with me if you wanted to… just ‘cause your so cute” she said with a small giggle as she locked and closed her car door. “So you wanna?” she asked as she started walking toward the tree line.

 

Luke went down to the cafeteria.

where the hell was Toby? he couldn't help but wonder. He was a bad influence, not the kind of person October should be into. Then again, was October into Toby, or was this all just in his head? No, she had reacted weird when Brittney had put her arms all over the two of them, and he was just her friend. Why would she worry about other girls touching him?

Luke spotted October at their usual spot and made a beeline for her.

"is that all you're having? he asked indicating the can of Monster. He placed his own bag lunch on the table and started munching on his ham sandwich.

 

After walking into the lunchroom Brittany saw Toby walk over to October and Luke, but she had no intentions of joining them. There weren't enough cute guys around and she didn't really like October. She turned to head to a table where the football players sat.

"Hey guys. What's up?"

"Oh hey Brittany. 'Sup"

"'Sup" Some of them didn't even acknowledge that she joined the table, and she wouldn't stand for that. She looked at the one right across from her. "Hey Paul! Did you end up getting that tattoo?”

“Oh, what? Oh. Um no. Anyway bro I was sitting there….” He continued talking to his buddy next to him and basically ignored Brittany. Brittany didn’t want to look rejected.

“Well it was nice chatting with u guys but I have a prior engagement” she gave them all a flirtatious smile, and walked toward Toby, Luke and, sigh, October.

“Hey Luke whats going on” She wrapped her arms aroung him without even sitting down. “ And hello again Toby” She said with a teasing smile, sitting down, and removed her food from her lunch bag. “Hey October” she said without even looking up from her food.

 

Where the hell have you been? he wondered to himself as Toby joined them. Not that he really cared, but It most likely meant he was out getting high or drunk or whatever. Luke hated him. Just like he hated all the idiots in their class. Why did they have to make dumb choices like that? It made no sense to Luke.

This is why I hate people... He begrudgingly thought to himself.

Luke nearly choked on his sandwich when Brittney came up from behind him. She scared the crap out of him.

"Oh, hey...*cough* *couch*" he said trying to dislodge the ham from his windpipe. Great now she was here too. Damn slut. why couldn't they just leave Luke and October alone?

 

Brittany noticed that October was paying extra attention to Toby. She didnt like that, especially now that she had become at least a little bit closer to Toby. She looked down at her food, then back ot October noticing that she was intensley staring at Toby. Knowing that OCtober undoubtedly had a thing for Luke, she wanted to meke her jealous, and draw Toby's attention from October to her.

She waited a minute so she could make a plot. Once she finished her food, she got up to throw her trash away. While walking back she got the idea to play with his hair.

"your hair looks so shiny and pretty today" she ran her fingers through it and saw October twinge, when a smile appeared on her face. "oooooh, and its soft too. How do you do it?"

 

Luke wasn't sure which was killing him more, the ham lodged in his windpipe or the fact that October, his one true crush, was actually going to go out with a jerk like Toby. After a few more good coughs, he managed to take care of the former.

He wanted to speak out, remind October that they always met after school to hang out. But would bringing it up like that make him sound petty? He'd only be digging his own social grave.

So, there was nothing he could do to stop this. Perhaps that's what hurt the worst. He needed to do something. Something to bring October's attention back to him. But what? For now he had to play it safe.

He remained quiet, with an air of bitterness around him. Although, he doubted even October would catch it. It's not like anyone was talking to him, he could stay wrapped in his own mental bubble of unhappiness for the time being.