Evelyn and I stumbled back over to our table still feeling a little tipsy. We were silent for a while, just staring at each other. Then we both glanced back at Zack’s table where Damien was now sitting. Apparently, he arrived back in town yesterday. We looked back at each other and I finally broke the silence. “Why is he back?!” I whisper-yelled.

“Like I fucking know!” Evelyn whisper-yelled back.

“Oh god, what am I gonna do?” 

“Kayden, calm down.”

“All three of them are here. how am I supposed to calm down?!” We continued in a heated argument of loud whispering and quick hand motions, that everyone around us could most definitely see and hear until Evelyn put her fist on the table making me jump.

“Why are we panicking? They aren’t even paying attention to us.” Evelyn pointed out.

“Sawyer looked right at me when he came in. Do you know how scary that was? I almost pissed myself,” I said, very seriously.

“That’s disgusting. It wasn’t that bad. It was only for a second and then he moved on. What if he doesn’t remember you?” I thought about it. Damien not remembering me. It’s likely. We didn’t have many encounters but whenever we did run into each other it wasn’t pleasant. We actually used to be friends.

***

“Alright Eve, I’m heading out,” I spoke to Evelyn on the phone.

“Same. You skating?”

“Duh.”

“Last one to school is a crusty sock!” And with that, she hung up. I practically leaped down the steps in front of my house and jumped onto my skateboard. I had to beat her or else she’d call me a ‘crusty sock’ for at least a week. Today was the first day of high school for both of us. Evelyn lived in the neighborhood next to mine so we’re basically the same distance from the school. 

While I was riding, a brown-haired boy who looked my age zoomed past me.

“No way,” I scoffed and started speeding up until I matched his speed. He glanced over at me and I gave him a cheeky smile. “Hey! Are you heading to the high school around here?”

The boy nodded, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Wanna race?” I challenged, smirking. I saw a little spark in his eyes before he nodded again. 

And with that, we were racing down the empty sidewalk. I kept spitting cocky remarks which only made the brown-haired boy speed up even more. At some point, I started falling behind. The closer we got to the school, the more distance began to grow between us, and the more I regretted egging him on. When the school came into view I saw Evelyn standing there with her skateboard, wearing a stupid grin on her face. The brown-haired boy ended up beating me by a good 15 seconds. Evelyn tackled me as soon as I got there.

“Haha! I beat you Kayden the crusty sock!” Evelyn yelled, hanging onto my shoulders. The brown-haired boy chuckled at the scene. “Who’s he?” Evelyn asked.

“Don’t know yet but if you get off my shoulders maybe he’d be able to introduce himself properly,” I said. Evelyn let me go and I walked up to the boy holding out my hand. “Hi. I’m Kayden Gray-“

“The crusty sock!” Evelyn interrupted making the boy chuckle again.

“And this moron next to me is Evelyn Solace. What’s your name?” I continued, ignoring her antics. The brown-haired boy took my hand and shook it.

“Damien Sawyer.”

***

Time passed by and we both relaxed after a while of Zack’s table ignoring us. Evelyn went back to enjoying the food and drinks, talking about random things that crossed her mind. I did too except a part of my mind was still thinking about the group. It had only been an hour and a half since this event started. The night was still young and it would feel wrong to leave all this free expensive food behind so I might as well suck it up and ignore their presence the best I can. 

Evelyn roughly placed her cup down on the table and grabbed my wrist, startling me. “What? What’s wrong?” I followed her eyes to a girl with curly ginger hair across the restaurant sitting alone drinking pink lemonade and scrolling through her phone. I looked back at Evelyn, “know her?” 

“No, but I plan to by the end of the night.” She winked.

“What do you mean? What about Josh?”

“Come on Kayden we broke up a week ago. I told you this. The guy was a scumbag.” Evelyn said, with an incredulous look on her face.

“What about me? What happened to not leaving my side for a second?” I remarked.

“I know, I know. Please, Kayden? I promise I’ll make it up to you.” Evelyn begged.

“You are the worst best friend.”

“Really? A few minutes ago you were crying about how amazing I was.”

“I was clearly out of mind.”

“Please, Kayden.” Evelyn clasped her hands and gave me puppy dog eyes.

“Treat me to lunch for two weeks.” 

“Deal.” Evelyn stood up and walked to my side of the small table, squeezing me into a crushing hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’ll be fine okay? Call me if you need me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now get off me you oaf,” I said, shoving her away playfully. Evelyn walked over to the ginger-haired girl. I watched as they exchanged a few words. The girl giggled and motioned to the seat in front of her. Evelyn sat down and they started talking and laughing. After a few minutes, they got up and walked out of the restaurant, whispering and giggling like two girls on a playground. Evelyn made it look so easy. It wasn’t fair.

I sulked a bit at the fact that my best friend had just left me in the middle of a lion's den for a cute girl. I should have made it a month of free lunch, I thought, chugging a beer. I glanced over at Zack’s table and had to do a double-take. Damien wasn’t there anymore but both Zack and Griffin were conversing amongst themselves while staring directly at me. When my eyes met Zack’s he gave me a sly smile. I looked down for a minute to contemplate my next move. Alright. Time to go. I stood up and was immediately pushed back down into my seat by a large hand on my shoulder. 

“Hey now, what’s the hurry?” Zack chuckled, pulling up a chair next to me. Griffin sat down across from me. I gulped, staring down at my fidgeting hands. I should have made Evelyn treat me to a year's worth of lunches.