Finally it was lunch... my favorite time of the school day.

As I walked out of the detention room I could practically feel Andy following me. I refrained from talking to him as we made our way to the lunch table... before I was stopped by a familiar face.

"Hey Norie," Jullian smiled, giving a side glance to Andy, who apparently decided to stop as well.

"Hey Jullian," I said giving a small smile, taking out one of my earbuds. 

"You want to sit over with me today- there seems to be an open spot since Veronica is at the nurses office because apparently she got punched in the face... weird," He chuckled, giving a quick smirk before continuing, "so?"

"She sits with me, thanks for offering," Andy buds in, followed by Jullian's face turning into a scowl.

"Didn't know you were Norie," he sneers as they begin to start a glare-off.

"You know what that sounds fantastic, I'll see you around Andy," I say, watching Andy's face drop, then him nod.

"Whatever, hope you're having a good time sporting those bruises, Jullian," He mutters before starting to walk off.

"That resulted in my having a really good time actually, so I guess I should thank you," He grins turning to me, giving me a wink, which I try to ignore. Andy quickly stops before turning back around, giving him a menacing glare.

"You what?" He says, fury written all over his face.

"Just ignore him Andy," I muttered, grabbing Jullian by the arm, "Let's just go." 

"What? Can a boy not just have a little fun?" Jullian chuckles, getting a well deserved glare from your one and only (that's me).

"No. There's no point in pushing him anymore than you already have," I scoff, approaching the table.

"Okay, mom," He grins as I give him an eye roll, stopping when we get to the table.

The table consists of almost every single person I hate in the school... because they're all associated with the one person I hate the most: Veronica. It consists of mostly guys, besides 3 girls which 2 of them are Veronica's minions.

"Why the hell is she here? Shouldn't she still be rotting in detention," One of the minions 'whisper' to the other, both of them giggling.

"Shut the hell up Macy, my god why are you here? Not one person here can deal with your voice," One of the boys snarl back, going back to his phone. I stop myself from laughing as I watch her sit there, speechless, "And close your mouth, you're going to attract flies," he mutters, making some of the other guys laugh. She quickly shuts her mouth and looks down, as if she was a scolded puppy.

"Nice introduction Alex," Jullian chuckles, "anyways this is Eleanor, probably none of you know her," he continues and I turn to glare at him, which he looks back with a grin. He sits down before tapping the seat beside him, instructing me to sit. 

"Finally another non-plastic girl at the table," Lauren scoffs, the other girl of the group. I see the other minion scoff and glare at her, which she gives one back, "Yeah Sophie, neither you, Macy, or Veronica are real, just ask your surgeon, have an issue?"

"Whatever," Sophie mutters, giving a small eye roll.

"Anyways... before I was interrupted," she mutters, giving a side eye to Sophie, "I'm Lauren, basketball player, volleyball player, but most of all soccer captain." She smiles, which I nod.

"I know generally who all of you are," I chuckle, which she shrugs.

"You do any sports?"

I shake my head before giving a subtle sigh, "Nope, I used to be in soccer but I quit when I broke my arm when I was 8 I was scarred for the rest of my life, so that's the only sport I've played."

"I remember that," Jullian chuckled, putting his phone face-down on the table, "I started freaking out... I thought she was gonna die." He smiles, recalling the memory.

"Yep," I nod, watching his eyes light up as he continues to go further into the story.

・eight years old・

Eleanor was running the field, ball at her feet, running towards the opponents goal, Jullian's voice screaming above the crowds. She turns as she sees her best friend jumping and cheering, screaming her name. She quickly turns around to look back towards the goal before the ball is taken from beneath her feet, an opponent tripping her in the process. She reacts by giving a small scream, trying to catch her self from falling by extending her right arm.

That was a bad idea on her part.

The crowd gasps as Eleanor begins to cry, the ref blowing the whistle, Jullian being the first to reach her. "Norie!" He yelled, his face going pale as he sees the injury, "Her arm! What happened to her arm!" He yelled, the ref and coach approaching them.

"Honey they're going to need you to come back off the field so they can take her," Eleanor's mom said, hand placed on Jullian's shoulder.

His face of disgust was priceless.

"What do you mean back off? She's dying! Do you see her arm! She's not going to able to play anymore!" He said, going off on the adult. "I'm not leaving her alone, I'm going wherever she's going," He huffs, pointing at the crying Eleanor, starting to be picked up by the medic on the field, "It's my job as a best friend to be there 24/7 with her." He says as his final statement, starting to follow the medic, never leaving Eleanor after that very moment.

・・・

"Well aren't you two just a couple of lovebirds" a voice sneers, getting the attention of the entire table. I turn to see Veronica, sporting a new bruise on her left cheek bone, "I'd just hate to interrupt... but you're in my spot."

"Actually- she's not, is your name on it?" Lauren scoffs, "nobody wants you here anyways, well besides your little minions over there, but we hate them too." She continues, making Veronica give an aggravated sigh before placing her hand on her hip, nearly dislocating it.

"That's not true, Jullian wants me here, don't you babe," She says giving me a look before turning to Jullian, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, then going up to his ear, "Or you know, I could just sit in your lap."

Jullian stays quiet before Lauren decides to bud in again, "Good job Veronica, you put him in such a state of disgust that he can't speak anymore, thank you."

"You sure? Because I know the real way to make him speechless," She whispers more to Jullian than anyone, making his face slightly go stiff, I watch as he just sits there as she tries to get him to look back at her desperately wanting an answer, "You know... I am free after the game," she whispers then looks to me, giving me a slight smirk.

Jullian remains quiet for a second before looking to me, then back to Veronica... then back to me, "No, I'm good," he sighs, Veronica's face turning beet red.

"What do you mean 'you're good?' We always hang out after the game," She begins to pout, attempting to be more seductive by slowly placing her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm actually going with Eleanor to a party after the game," he says, shrugging her hand on his shoulder, glancing to me. I look around to see the other boys keeping in their laughter then look to Veronica who's scowl is set on me.

"You-You've replaced me with this- this trash?!" She gasps, starting to glare, "Do you never listen Eleanor? I swear you're just asking for it," She snarls, looking to her minions, "Come on, we'll go sit somewhere with people who don't accept... desperates," She says, giving me one final look before walking off.

"People who don't accept desperates," One of the boys laugh mocking her, mimicking her glare as well, "As if you'd be the desperate one."

"Brendon's right, she's clearly the desperate one, did you see the way she was basically begging for sex," Another boy scoffs, starting to chuckle.

Lauren gives an annoyed eye-roll before looking back at her twin brother, "Everyone has eyes Landon, my god she's such a-"

"We get it, you hate her the most out of all of us," Landon interrupts, earning a glare from her.

"That's a bet," Alex- the boy who'd cut off Macy- mutters, typing away on his phone.

"Oh yeah didn't Alex and Lauren-" A familiar voice speaks up before getting kicked in the leg by Brendon, his face turning sour, "what?"

"Logan can you just... not talk about anything that's happened at this table," Lauren mutters, a hard glare turned to him. He nods slowly in agreement before going back to his lunch.

"Don't you usually sit with Andy," I ask and he shrugs, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"I sit here sometimes too but today I didn't want to hear him complaining about... never mind." He says, turning his attention away from me quickly. I give a nod before looking away, back to Andy's table to see him giving a hard glare towards Jullian.

"Just don't think about it... plus, looks like you're coming to a party with the best person in school," Jullian says to me quietly which I just look back at him and give him a small eye roll.

"Great..." I mumble, taking out my lunch.

・author's note・

Lowkey was hesitant about publishing this chapter lmao...

Some tea between Alex & Lauren's past??? 

You'll learn more about the lunch characters later... what do you think will happen at the party? Will Anthony prove Eleanor wrong??

ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1K READS WOOOO 

AND FOR OVER 10K READS ON MY OTHER BOOK WOOO

Incase the whole lunch character thing was confusing:

Macy & Sophie - Veronica's minions (probably the only chapter with them speaking tbh)

Logan - dumb one (lol) 

Lauren - only other sane girl (past with Alex) 

Landon - Lauren's twin brother 

Brendon - other guy at the table (you'll learn more later)

Alex - rude one... told Macy off at the start (past with Lauren)

・originally published July 10, 2017・updated on June 24, 2019・