weatbumpershoot

Over the next few days, Josh couldn't seem to get his mind to shut up. He kept replaying the scene in the hallway repeatedly in his head, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle. But the puzzle was broken. No matter how many times he tried to solve it, something never seemed to fit. It was frustrating, since Josh was a perfectionist. He hated when things were left undone.

He had to figure this out.

The first Thursday of the school year, Josh strolled into the cafeteria late after talking to his teacher about the lesson from that day and slumped into a chair across from his brother Zac and his friend Taylor. Neither of the babbling boys took notice of Josh and continued talking excitedly amongst themselves.

Josh sighed loudly, glancing at them, but got no response.

He frowned, shifting noisily in his seat and giving another fake, attention wanting sigh.

Still, there was nothing.

"Oh for the love of God, are your ears seriously that bad?" Josh demanded, leaning across the table at them, practically yelling.

Zac slowly looked over and raised an eyebrow, "Are you talking to me?"

Josh groaned, throwing his hands up dramatically he sat back in his chair. "Yes, Zac, yes. Took you long enough. How many times do I have to pretend to be wallowing in self pity for you to talk to me?"

Taylor chuckled, "That was your fake sigh?" Josh nodded, "Man, you gotta work on that. That was pathetic!"

Josh groaned again letting his head fall against the table with a loud thud, not caring that his face was squished up uncomfortably. "My God...I need a life...No, I need new friends."

"Oh, c'mon! We're not that bad. Look at us."

"No."

"Look at us!"

Josh ignored their immaturity and stared mindlessly at the towering pile of fries on his plate; he wanted to eat them but he couldn't bring himself to it. He knew something was off about the whole Hayley thing and couldn't stop thinking about her.

"So, Josh, how are you and Hayley?"

Great, now I'm even imagining Zac mentioning her, he thought.

When the table grew silent, he realized he wasn't imagining that. He quickly looked up and stared wide eyed at his brother who was glancing between stealing onion rings from Taylor's plate and Josh with a serious look on his face.

"What are you...are you out of your fucking mind?" Josh asked in bewilderment, his voice seething quietly.

Zac raised an eyebrow, "Are you?"

Josh sighed and rolled his eyes, "Now isn't the time for jokes and games, Zac. This is serious. You can't be talking about her like that. Someone could hear you and then rumors will start and Ryan will..." Josh trailed, dazing off into thought. "Oh dear Lord, I don't even want to know what he can and will do to me if he hears anything."

"It's not like she's his property. It's not illegal to talk about her. She's just a girl," Zac reasoned.

Josh shook his head, "Yeah, try telling Ryan that and see where that will get you."

Zac frowned, taking a sip of his drink and Josh lowered his eyes back to the table, zoning out once more. "Then why is she looking at you?"

Josh looked up at Zac with a look that told him he was crazy. "What the Hell is wrong with you? I think you were dropped on your head many times as a baby, in fact, I KNOW you were. Why on Earth would you think that Hayley was-" he half-glanced over towards her table and choked on his own breath.

He was instantly lured in by deep, soft green eyes that met his for only a moment before looking down. Josh kept looking across the cafeteria at her, he noticed she kept her head down and played idly with her hands but he could also tell she was desperately trying to keep her eyes on her hands and not elsewhere. Josh frowned and swung his head back to look at Zac, who gave him a pointed look.

"What did I tell ya?"

Josh waved his hand around, dismissing Zac's comment. "Shut up. That's not what...." he found himself at a loss for words, growing more confused with each passing second.

This was getting really weird.

Zac gave up trying to strike up a conversation with his brother and began to talk to Taylor. The two paid no attention to Josh's flustered self.

His mind was now working in overdrive trying to conjure up some sort of explanation for all of these bizarre incidents but nothing seemed to do the trick. Soon, he found himself looking back at her. She still forced her attention on her hands as though they were the most interesting thing in the whole planet. But very secretly, she lifted her eyes up the slightest bit and snuck a glance at him again. Her hair hid her eyes fairly well but Josh still saw. She wasn't as stealthy as she thought. This only confused Josh even more.

So now she was SNEAKING glances at him? What the Hell was going on?

He turned away slightly and out of the corner of his eyes he saw her lift her head up more and felt eyes on him. He almost turned back to catch her in the act, but he thought better of it, especially since Ryan was talking to her. He would surely be in for it had Ryan seen what was going on between them.

But that didn't explain why or what was happening.

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Ok, this has got to be the most horrendous piece of writing I have ever called an update ever. I'm sorry you had to read through that. But, I managed to write something in my time. This is the last short chapter in this story. The plot will really start picking up in the next one and it will be better. I promise.