2 | Mad World

Just like that, the first period was over, along with several other classes that passed by. Josh and I only shared the first period together.

Before I knew it it was lunchtime. I walked down the cafeteria and went straight to the short line that is now starting to get longer, right after I joined the first short group.

I looked at today's menu, already getting disgusted with all my choices. French onion soup, dopiaza, onion rings, and onion topping pizza. Clearly today's theme was onion. I hate onion with every fiber in my body so I decided to go with the pizza, not even bothering to get any fruit or milk. I just grabbed a water bottle.

My eyes scanned the cafeteria searching for my friends, they never stick to a table so every time I come out for lunch they would be in a different location.

"Z, we're over here today,"

At the sound of my nickname I looked to my left noticing my friends at a new table.

"Again guys?" I asked, waiting for some terrible reason for the sudden change of table.

Jenny shrugged and took a bite of her pizza, I made my way to the new table — taking a seat between Renae and Jenny.

"Come on Z, you saw how those nerds were drooling all over me." Renae jokes, with a sarcastic tone in her voice.

Ted rolled his eyes, before stuffing his face with hot onion soup.

"After eating that, you're out of the group Ted," Jenny said, with a serious tone in her voice.

Ted nervously chuckled, "it was a joke right?"

Then I remembered none of us like onions, it was the hate that we shared for onions that made us become friends. Ted likes it though, it was kind of a deal-breaker for Jenny in the beginning.

I chuckled, "no Ted we’re serious, it's us or the onion meal,"

Without any hesitation, Ted took another spoon of his soup. Clearly rubbing his choice over our faces "yummy." he added.

"Wow, now we know where you stand Ted," Renae's vengefully said, desperately trying to scare Ted to take back his choice.

Jenny whispered loud enough for Ted to hear. "You guys, he was named after a serial killer for fuck's sake, of course, he like onions." she joked.

Our laugh echoed in the cafeteria, somehow we always manage to tease Ted.

"Hey, I heard that," Ted whined.

"Don't worry Teddy bear, that's why we kept you." Renae cooed.

"kept? I'm not a dog." Ted mumbled under his breath.

I snickered another laugh, the way Renae talks to him is always entertaining to watch.

———

After that, lunch was over. I walked to my next and last class for the day a little relieved that it's almost time to go home. One of the perks of being in a private school is that you only have six classes — and the last class just happens to be after lunch.

I walked into class two minutes before the bell. Taking my seat in the far back of the class I hate sitting in front. I lay my head down to wait for class to start, taking a moment to gather all my thoughts together.

"Zoey." a voice whispered.

I groaned before looking up, my eyes widened when I noticed Josh’s lean body towering over me, his arms crossed against his chest as he studied my surprised expression. My brows furrowed when I made the realization.

He's not in this class.

"You're not in this class?" I scrunch my nose in confusion.

"No shit sherlock." He grinned, "I switched computers to psychology" he said as he slowly took a seat next to me.

I didn’t complain about him sitting next to me, I just went along with whatever he was playing at.

"Are you stalking me, Josh?" I joked.

"You wish, but I just wanted to get away from someone In my last class."

"Care to elaborate?" I grinned as my eyes lit up from curiosity.

"No"

I continued to poke on the matter, " what? tough break-up?"

His eyes darkened, as he clenched his jaw. "I don't do relationships". His voice dropped from the playful tone to a cold tone.

I took the hint, our playful tone dropped. I didn’t want to take this conversation further, so I went back to resting my head on the desk. The teacher didn’t bother me because he knew that I was listening.

Usually when I rest my head on the desk I just relax, but today I didn’t even realize when my eyes fluttered close. The sound of the bell is what woke me up, I glanced around noticing everyone walking out the door — I gathered all my papers from the desk shoving them in my backpack, I didn’t realize Josh was still seated next to me until he cleared his throat.

“Lend me your notes.” he demanded.

I rolled my eyes, “A please would be nice.” I grimaced.

He let out a hearty laugh, “Cute.” he mumbled, “Lend me your notes.” his tone is more serious than before.

He always managed to make everything more serious when it clearly didn’t need to be. Being polite and having basic human decency doesn't hurt anyone.

I fished the psychology notebook out of my backpack — handing it to him. He took it from my hand with a thin smile on his face. With the notebook in his hand I hooked the backpack on my back making my way out the class without saying another word to him.

I walked school in the pickup line searching for a familiar truck.

As soon as I saw my dad's truck I quickly walked toward and hopped inside. Greeting my dad softly "Hi dad." as he greeted me back he casually turned up the music on the radio, shifting the car to another direction as we left campus jamming our way home.

The mood escalated quickly by one familiar car.

My mom's car...