could get me in. I mean, that was a lot of fear and rejection.
“Geez, Amber,” Chase muttered disapprovingly at my persecutor.
“What? It’s the truth,” Amber narrowed her eyes on me. She was really pretty with her short rich brown bob with red highlights. Her face was pixie-like with a cute nose and full lips underneath her huge eyes. She was definitely pretty enough to get all the attention of the boys at this table. She shouldn’t have had to fight me for it anyway.
But she did.
We both knew it.
Only I was the only one who knew why.
“I’m sorry about my rude friend,” Chase sighed, shooting Amber a look. Her eyes narrowed infinitesimally more and I recognized the pain she was trying to cover up.
She liked him.
“It’s alright, she’s right.” I had to stop with the pity party or I would never be able to keep my stone-cold-bitch rep up. I went through the routine I always did, the one where I stripped away my real feelings and replaced everything about me with what was expected of me. I sat up straighter, and pulled my wavy red hair over my shoulder where I knew it would look the most attractive, I put on an amused smile and then laughed. “Guess you guys are stuck with me.”
That was met with a murmured chorus of “We don’t mind,” from the guys around me.
Amber did not like that and with a snort of disgust, got up from the lunch table followed by her posse of high school socialites.
“She’s kind of annoying, right?” a guy from across the table asked.
I shrugged in response, but his amused tone made me lift my eyes to meet his and when I did I almost audibly sighed. He was one of those adorable kind of high school boys with curly, way too long shiny brown hair and a once upon a time broken nose. He was scrawnier than most of the guys around me and endearingly disheveled.
On closer inspection, he was less scrawny and more…. gangly. Like really long and lanky, which was my favorite type of guy, but only because they always seemed so cartoonish and I was oddly fascinated by very tall people.
“When did you get back?” tall guy asked casually.
Chase shifted next to me. This was an uncomfortable road we were about to walk down, he probably didn’t want his friend pissing me off and ruining his chances with me. If only he knew he had absolutely nothing to worry about.
“Uh, yesterday,” I mumbled.
“Whoa, and you’re already in school?” tall guy blurted in disbelief. “I would think you should get at least the rest of the week off.”
I laughed at his nonchalance about the whole thing. Good for him. “I’m pretty sure this is just all part of my mom’s never-ending scheme to punish me until the day I die.”
“Ah, I have parents like that,” tall guy nodded knowingly.
“I doubt they’re as bad as mine,” I sighed.
“Really? My name is Phoenix,” he laughed and the rest of the guys around him laughed too.
“Phoenix?” I smiled. He was kind of contagious.
“Yep. Phoenix. They’re total hippies. My little sisters have it worse than me; their names are Sparrow and Wren. But the baby, as in the newborn baby my forty year old parents conceived and then birthed… at home…. In the bathtub…. they named him Buzzard.”
I gasped loudly. It couldn’t be helped. “No they did not!”
He just nodded, laughing at my reaction. “It’s true. My sisters and I have already decided we are only ever calling him Buzz, but still, can you imagine my hippy mom with her dreadlocks and marijuana perfume chasing after him in the grocery store wearing all of her hemp clothes yelling ‘Buzzard you get over here!’”
I giggled at his story- giggled. The sounds felt strange and jumpy in my chest, but still they flowed out, exercising my ribs in a way that had been atrophied for way too long.
“I can totally see your mom doing that too,” Chase laughed with me. His hand had slipped to my lower back as if protecting me from falling backward off the slim bench.
“You’re right,” I gasped for air, this time in a good way, “six months of banishment and public school hardly seem bad at all compared to a lifetime of Buzzard.”
“So you see my point,” Phoenix nodded.
“Where were you banished to?” the guy next to me asked.
“Uh….” I stuttered. I was prepared to not deny rumors, but I hadn’t exactly prepared myself to come up