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I ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza, and she ordered a slice of Chicago deep dish, sprinkling on extra parmesan and red pepper flakes after we sat down at one of the tables, one painted to look like a meat lover's pizza. I took longer chewing than I usually did because we hadn't said much since we ordered our food and I asked her if she had a table preference, and, of course, she didn't.
I knew I was trying too hard, so a part of me wondered if I should wait for her to break the silence, but she was chewing for just as long. Her sigh did sound kind of reluctant, like maybe she thought it was easier to just sit with me and hope she never bumped into me again, never stepping foot into Weirdough again because their patrons took the pun a little too literally. I took another bite of my pizza, glancing at her and offering a closed smile when she glanced back at me. I could practically feel the awkwardness radiating from her in waves. Maybe eating by myself would've been easier. At least then—
The bell above the door chimed and I caught a glimpse of a Chanler blazer out of the corner of my eye, realizing as my stomach dropped that it was Noel Preston.
Again.
"Crap," I whispered, before realizing what I was doing, or that I was slouching against my seat now, untucking the hair from behind my ear and angling my profile away from him as he approached the counter, already pulling his wallet from his back pocket. Then I glanced up, becoming aware of how cliché I was acting—but I had no idea what else to do, it wasn't like I could excuse myself to hide in the restroom until he left—and that Bronwyn was across the table, a witness to it all.
Her eyebrows were raised, speaking around a mouthful of pizza. "What?"
I grimaced. "I kind of know him."
"Okay?"
I wanted to groan but I was too afraid that then he would look over, finally notice me there, finally remember just where exactly he knew me from, and everything I confessed to him the last time I saw him, most mortifying of all being that I had liked him, in a way that the word crush made feel too simple until it was all I felt when I thought about him. Absolutely and devastatingly crushed.
"He doesn't remember me, and I went along with it because...because I told him I liked him, and he turned me in for cheating on a test."
She frowned, turning to look at him and I had to restrain myself from slithering under the table because of how pathetic it all sounded out loud and maybe then Noel Preston wouldn't notice me as he craned his neck to look for someone to come out from the kitchen to take his order, and I knew his mannerisms well enough to know that he was hurrying for some reason. "So, he turned you in for cheating on a test because you told him you liked him?"
"No. I liked him before, but he's obsessed with being at the top of the class and was, like, competing with me academically and I cheated on a test because my grades were slipping. He found out and turned me in, so I cried, told him I liked him, and then to go screw himself."
