Chapter 3: Laura

He looked so sad...

Alan Gray looked lost, like the new kid in school who doesn't know anyone and doesn't know where to sit. He stood in the middle of the cafeteria, clutching his tray so hard that his knuckles were white.

Everyone knew the story. Nick Monroe had blacklisted his own best friend. Alan was no longer part of the 'in' crowd. He wasn't part of any crowd now. That probably added to the confusion on his face. It must be jarring to fall from such great heights. To go from social elite to social pariah in one weekend was one hell of a transition.

His face looked haggard, like he hadn't slept. Coupled with the splotchy black eye he looked down right terrible...

... and sexy.

I was probably the only one who thought that at the moment.

But I probably don't count. He'd always look good to me. His tousled black hair and bright blue eyes had me the minute I saw him freshman year.

Sitting across from me, Ian Harrison was shoveling French fries into his mouth four at a time.

"What are you staring at goth girl?" Ian said through a mouthful of empty carbs.

He turned in his seat and connected the dots between my eyes and Alan's pitiful figure. He chuckled softly to himself.

"You've got it bad for him Rache." Ian said with a shit eating grin.

I rolled my eyes. "Please, he stands for everything I hate. Sports, jocks, popularity and shallow vanity."

Sam Gallinger elbowed Ian in the side. "Hey, leave off the dark princess for a moment; I've got a D and D question."

Ian glared at Sam. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop revealing the extent of our nerdiness at the lunch table?"

Sam shrugged. "Fine, suit yourself." Sam turned to Colin and started pestering him.

Ian looked back at me. "So if you don't like him, why do I catch you staring at him all the time?"

"I do not stare at him!" I whispered across the table.

Ian pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, "You're right, it's more of a subtle pining."

I sighed. "Remind me why I sit with you guys?"

Ian just smirked, "Because I'm dating your best friend goth girl."

"Who just so happens to be sick today," I said dejectedly.

Lavender would so be getting hell from me tomorrow. She wasn't sick, she just hadn't done her economics project and was taking a sick day to get it done.

I glanced over Ian's shoulder. Alan had taken a seat at an empty table. Even while he was eating he looked perfect. Like a brooding dark Angel, contemplating heavy things.

Ian turned and looked over at Alan again, "Have I ever told you that Alan is a friend of mine?" Ian asked casually.

I could feel my jaw dropping before I had time to think, "What!" I practically screamed.

A couple people at a neighboring table glared over at our corner table. Heat colored my cheeks as I blushed.

Ian chuckled, "Guess I never did," he said. "Well, Alan and I were friends in grade school. Now that his popular 'new' friends have dumped him let's see if he has time for an old one."

I watched in disbelief as Ian Harrison stood up, and causally walked up to the gorgeous Alan fucking Gray and tapped him on the shoulder.

I wanted to melt into my seat.

~Alan~ I never realized how bad our school food is.

I suppose I didn't notice simply because eating it was never on the forefront of my mind during lunch. Lunch used to be a time for talking shop and flirting.

I looked down at my Salisbury steak and green beans, and grimaced.

I suppose it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I wasn't ambushed at the front doors ... no one rushed me with knives or fists. Everyone from my previous circle of friends just refused to talk to me.

I had tried to talk to Chad before first period and was rewarded with a 'fuck off.' The same was true of Jake and Neil. My 'friends' just refused to acknowledge my existence.

All in all that wasn't too bad. It was a bit lonely, and I had suffered a huge hit to my ego ... but I had come in expecting worse, so I could deal.

I glanced over at Nick's table ... my old table.

He had his arm casually slug over Evie's shoulder. He was talking to Jake and Chad. They were smiling.

Fuck them.

I now knew what it was like to be on the outside, looking in on the popular table. It felt like I was watching some great fun scene from a movie that I couldn't join.

I thought I saw Evandra sneak a look over at me once.

But I might have imagined it.

I felt a light tap on my shoulder. Twice fast, once slow. That was the secret tap Ian and I made with each other in fourth grade.

I twisted my neck around. Ian smiled at me. "Hey man, I know we had a rule to give each other space in school, but I was thinking things might be different now."

My eyes darted back to Nick's table.

I smiled back at Ian, "I think you might just be right dude, are you sure you want to sit with the most hated guy on campus right now?" I asked

"What are friends for," Ian said.

I grabbed my tray and stood to follow Ian.

"Where do you normally sit Ian?" I asked off hand.

"I'll introduce you to the crew." Ian said. "Just be warned, you might find yourself talking about more dungeons and dragons than you'd ever care to."

I chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind."

Ian led me over past several tables until we were at the back of the cafeteria. I realized he was leading me to the corner table, farthest away from both the lunch line and the exit ... meaning it was the least coveted table in the room.

The table was made up of a motley group. One wiry boy with dirty brown hair and giant glasses was reading a graphic novel. Across from him facing away from me was a slightly porky kid overdressed in black pants and a white flannel shirt. I ignored those two. What struck me as odd was the girl sitting next to glasses boy. She had perfect alabaster skin and deep dark brown hair. She was dressed in a tight black V neck sweater that hinted at pale supple cleavage. Lying at the slope of her breasts was a tiny silver cross. On any one else I would have thought it gaudy ... but she pulled it off.

After my initial assessment of her I began to see the flaws. She was a mite on the thin side ... bordering on anorexic looking. Her eyes were lathered in too much eye shadow, which served to overpower her forest green eyes instead of accentuate them. Her nails were also painted black with silver glitter.

I don't care who you are; no one can pull that off.

Ian elbowed me in the shoulder, "Try not to let goth girl's stares affect you, she stares down everyone."

I smiled, "I'll try and be cool." I said.

I noticed 'goth girl' was staring at me rather intently.

Ian pulled up at what must have been his seat. "You sit next to Laura, Alan," Ian said with a grin.

I walked around the table and pulled out my chair. "Hey," I said to the three strangers at the table, "My name's Alan Gray."

"We know," said glasses boy and flannel shirt boy at once. "Everyone at this school knows who you are Alan," Glasses said.

I must admit my beaten to death ego stirred a little at that. "Um, okay, cool. Who are you guys?" I asked awkwardly.

Glasses looked up from his manga, "I'm Colin. I'm the year book guy that took pictures of the basketball team last year."

"And I'm Sam," said flannel shirt.

I turned to the girl next to me, "And you're Laura."

She nodded, her pale skin turned a bright red, "Yeah that's me. I didn't know you and Ian were friends."

I laughed. "It's a well kept secret, but Ian and I used to be as thick as thieves."

Ian leaned over, and we fist bumped. "Yeah, Alan and I were tight, we made up hand signals and friend handshakes. During the summer we used to spend all our time in Alan's pool."

Sam looked at both of us as if he were seeing us for the first time. "Huh, what changed?" He said finally.

Ian held up his hands, "I don't know, high school started and Alan tore up the courts in basketball and I didn't. Freshman year we sort of drifted apart."

"You guys don't act like you've drifted apart." Laura mumbled next to me.

Ian grinned at her. "We hang out on weekends."

"Oh," Laura mumbled. She started twirling a strand of long dark hair on her finger.

I couldn't keep my eyes of her slender fingers. Shit, this girl is kinda hot, in a vampire kind of way.

In fact, she looked exactly like all those cheap B movie vampire chicks looked like.

Ian glanced over at me and caught me staring. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. I scratched the tip of my nose which was our middle school sign for 'fuck off.' Sam asked me a question, and I found myself strangely engrossed in the dynamics of the group.

~Evandra~ Talking with Jake is absolutely no fun.

Out of all the guys that sit with us Jake is the worst about his leering. I don't even think he knows I have a face. I'm two talking C cups to him.

When Nick oogles me at least it's flattering, when Jake and his eternal wingman Chad oogle it just makes me nauseous.

I poked my plastic fork at my salad. If Alan was here he would have offered me one of his french fries or half of his brownie by now.

I sighed; I guess I didn't realize how much I enjoyed that till it was gone. My body grumbled at me. I guess it had gotten used to its daily lunch treats. I briefly considered going up to the lunch line and getting a brownie.

No I better not. That would just be inviting Stephanie and Lauren to jump down my throat with their talk of empty fats and strict dieting.

Unbidden, I looked up at where I had glanced Alan a few minutes ago.

He wasn't there.

Puzzled, I scanned the entire room. He hadn't left had he?

Finally I found him, sitting in a corner table. He was talking rather intently with his tablemates. I saw the guy that had been in the mall with Alan when Nick got a little cranky. I didn't know the other two guys. What really shook me was the girl sitting next to him.

She was dressed in black and had a ridiculous amount of makeup on, but despite that, she was stacked with a decent face ... which was all a girl really needed. The girl was obviously completely smitten with Alan.

What a bitch, I thought uncharitably. Even though I was dating Nick, I still felt protective of Alan ... the poor guy could do better. Or, at least, before last week he could have done better. Now with Nick and his crew all pissed at him that black wearing slut was probably what he would have to settle for.

I kept my eyes fixed on this new girl.

She was staring at Alan, and hanging on his every word.

Alan though, being a guy, of course, didn't notice. He was busy talking to his friend across the table.

Nick casually slung his arm back over my shoulder and pulled me close into his chest.

Stephanie shot me a glare at Nick's obvious possessiveness. I smiled at her. I usually didn't like it when Nick was this clingy, but if it made Steph angry then it was worth it.

"So, Evie," Nick said, "Lauren, Jake, and Stephanie are going to hit up the movie theater later today. What do ya say we join them?"

No good movies were playing. The one chick flick that I had wanted to see we saw this weekend. Though to be honest, Nick punching Alan had driven most of the plot out of my head.

Still, Nick would probably go, and as his girlfriend it was practically required of me.

"Sure okay. What are we seeing?" I asked.

Nick grinned at me, "Jake and I have wanted to see this one horror movie for a few weeks now."

Oh shit, I was a complete baby through horror movies.

I turned to Lauren and Stephanie, hoping a little girl power would be able to sway the guys from such an obviously unacceptable course.

But I could tell upon looking at them that I would get no help there.

Steph was undressing Nick with her eyes, and Jake was whispering something very naughty in Lauren's ear.

I guess I would be faking a head ache then. Not something I liked to do, too many fake headaches and people get suspicious ... or concerned.

The bell rang overhead.

Nick gave me a quick kiss on my forehead, "See ya later babe."

"Yeah, later Nick."

We both stood up and walked out of the lunch room together, only to separate in the halls. Our lockers were too far apart to stay together.

I briefly watched Nick disappear into a crowd of his basketball crew.

I sighed; today was not turning out to be any better than last weekend. I turned in the other direction to walk down to my own locker.

I caught a glimpse of Alan strolling down the hall. He had his hands in his pockets, and his bag slung over one shoulder.

Maybe it was my imagination, but he looked happy.

~Alan~ Sam is one of the most freaking hilarious guys. He had me in stitches all through lunch. Ian assured me he wasn't always as funny, apparently he needed to think up some new material every now and then. I didn't mind, I'd be worried about the state of my ribs if he was that painfully funny all the time.

I spun my locker dial around in the correct order and popped the door open. I reached in and grabbed my copy of The Sound and the Fury for English class.

I also couldn't help but have a lasting impression of Laura. She wasn't loud or particularly talkative during lunch ... in fact I think she kept her eyes down most of the time. Still ... there was something I liked about her ... beyond her more than good looks.

I couldn't help but think that under all that makeup was a girl I'd be interested in.

I stopped mid stride in the middle of the hallway.

That was the first time I'd considered another girl since Evie stormed into my heart.

A big guy barreled into me from behind. I staggered forward a little.

"Hey, watcha stop in the middle of the hall for?" Asked the big guy.

I turned.

Fredrick Davison was perhaps one of the biggest guys on campus, in both height and girth. Fred was the star offensive lineman for the football team ... he also had the heart of a friendly giant.

"I'm sorry Fred, I've been a little out of it recently," I said tiredly.

Fred nodded sagely. Clearly he had heard my recent woes.

"I get it man, sorry to hear about the shit storm that came down on you," Fred said.

"Thanks, you'd be surprised how little sympathy I've been getting."

Fred smiled, "Just between you and me Al, I've never liked your friend Nick very much. Being good a sports doesn't mean you rule the roost."

I laughed, "Don't let Beck hear you say that Fred."

Fred frowned slightly at the mention of the quarter back. "I know my man Beck has a bit of a reputation for a swelled head, but he's cool about it." Fred paused, as if deep in thought. "Well any way I've got to get down to econ, we've got to present our shit today. I'll see you around Al, try not to feel so down."