Chapter 5: New friend

“Hi. You’re Lottie, right?”

Lottie looked up from her notebook on the table in front of her. She saw a blonde girl with shoulder-length hair, her school uniform a bit big around her small body. “Yeah…” she said slowly, hoping she wasn’t a mean girl.

“Can I sit here?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, remembering the girl’s name was Sabrina and they were together in Spanish and Literature classes.

“Forgot to do your homework?” she asked with a frown when Lottie kept writing into the small notebook.

“Uh, no,” she smiled and looked back at Sabrina in a few seconds, “I had an idea for a poem, so I wrote it down.”

“Right, I’ve noticed you like literature.”

“I do, yeah. Do you?”

“No not really,” she chuckled. “I’m better at math and all that.”

Lottie nodded, understanding that and looked back at the table, feeling awkward talking with people. “You’re new, right?” she asked.

“I mean I came in September, but yeah.”

“I’m a nerd,” she said quietly, making Sabrina chuckle.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” she smirked. Lottie raised her eyebrows at her with a small smile, looking towards her. “I mean…” she shrugged, “You seem sweet. But I know you have like all A-s, so you’re definitely a nerd.”

“Yeah,” she smirked. “Sabrina, right?” The girl nodded just as the teacher walked in with a stack of their first exams. “You’re sitting next to me to ask for help, aren’t you?” Lottie asked quietly.

“Yep.”

#

“Hey,” Sabrina said, sitting next to Lottie on the bleachers when she was texting away in her phone. Lottie looked up with raised eyebrows and pulled one of her earbuds out, sending the half-written text to Thomas.

“Hey?” she made it a question.

“Can I eat with you?”

“Didn’t you just sit with me because you needed my help?”

“No, I’ve been meaning to talk to you for weeks now,” the girl said, screwing off the lid of her coke. “You want some?” she asked, offering it to her.

Lottie shook her head with a polite smile. As much as she wanted to sometimes drink sodas, she hated coke. It made her teeth sticky and gross.

Thomas: English, you?

Lottie: Trigonometry

Thomas: Ugh good luck

Lottie: (:

Thomas: U’re creeping me off, Lottie

Thomas: : this goes first

Thomas: And then )

Thomas: Not fucking (:

Thomas: You’re a psychooo

Lottie: Love u tooooo

She smiled at the kissing emoji with what he replied and then sighed, placing her phone down again and going back to eating her apple.

“Your boyfriend?” Sabrina asked.

Lottie smiled. “No. My internet best friend. Or well, best friend, really.”

Sabrina smiled at that excitedly, suddenly looking more engrossed in the conversation, her knees towards Lottie. “Where did you meet?”

“Twitter.” She wasn’t telling the truth, but she also wasn’t 100% lying. They had interacted on Twitter before talking on Wattpad, but they only later found out it was them.

“Where does she live?”

“Ohio. And it’s a he.”

“Oh, so it still is your boyfriend?” Sabrina asked with a frown.

“No, we’re just friends.”

She nodded and went back to eating. Lottie was confused. The girl only seemed to be interested in her for a minute and then come back a few days later. “What about you? Where did you move here from?”

“Virginia,” Sabrina said. “I miss home.”

“You have any friends here already?” Lottie asked.

The girl shrugged. “A few,” she said with a small smirk.

“From our school?”

“Yeah, but… It’s more like I just know them. They talk to me one day and then leave me alone for a week.” Lottie nodded, wondering if she knew she was doing the exact same thing to her. “Are you a cheerleader?”

“No,” Lottie said immediately. “My sister is.”

“So, you don’t want to?”

“I’m not good at that. And I can’t socialize even if I tried to.”

#

It was two weeks later when Lottie started feeling good while hanging out with Sabrina. She hadn’t left her at school anymore, eating lunch together every day (even though Lottie mostly liked to sit outside with all their winter clothes on). They had shared some things about their lives, but not too much. She had started to trust the girl.

Lottie: I think I made a friend…

Thomas: Really?

Thomas: Who?

Lottie: Her name’s Sabrina

Lottie: I don’t know, she acts weird sometimes, but we’ve talked for about three weeks now and she’s pretty nice

Thomas: That’s nice

Thomas: I was getting worried u were too lonely

Lottie: Thom…

Lottie: I have you

Thomas: Always

Lottie smiled at that and put her phone back down with a sigh, ignoring the chemistry notes in front of her and tearing out a piece of paper from it instead. She had inspiration.

I don’t know how I feel

Am I obligated to?

I’m just a teenager,

I don’t know myself,

I don’t know who I am.

Am I reckoned to see how I feel?

What I feel?

Stop asking.

I’ll answer “I don’t know”

Even if you don’t agree.

Stop asking,

I don’t know.

Neither do you.

I can not help you see inside my head.

Because…

The thoughts are mine…

The feelings, are mine.

So, quit asking,

Because you are not a part of me.

You are not mine.

And I am not yours.

Not yet.

#

Sabrina: U wanna party today?

Lottie frowned at the message from Sabrina, having hoped it was from Thomas. Of course, she did not want to go out partying. She had thought Sabrina already knew that.

Lottie: Not really

Sabrina: Oh come onn

Sabrina: I’m sure ur sister will be there too

Sabrina: Cmon u can’t leave me

Lottie: I really don’t want to

Lottie: I told u I don’t like parties…

Sabrina: But it’s at Jordan’s house

Lottie: Who’s that?

Sabrina: Um only the hottest football player in the school

Lottie: Stop

Lottie: I’m not going, srry

Sabrina: Ugh

Lottie waited for another response, but there was none, so she just sighed and changed it back to Thomas’s chat. He hadn’t been online for hours. She was slowly starting to get worried.

#

She had no idea what had woke her up.

(Until she acknowledged the buzzing.)

Lottie turned a bit, grabbing her phone from next to her and swiping her finger over the cancelling button. She wasn’t in the mood for phone calls at the moment. Her face snuggled itself back into her pillow and she tried falling back asleep, but another row of buzzing started. The brunette groaned, just answering it.

“Hello?” she murmured, bringing it to her ear.

Thomas’s soft chuckles filled her ear. “Lottie you look like you’re dead.”

She frowned in confusion, her eyes opening a bit as she was glaring at him on her screen. “Thommy I’m asleep.”

“You’re sleeping away all the opportunities,” he said with a mock seriousness.

“Thom, they’re not at home. If I sleep while they’re here, my mom will think I have depression again,” she murmured.

Thomas laughed at that. “Get up and take me downstairs.”

“No,” she mumbled into her arm on what she was sleeping on now.

“Lottie they’re not home, I’ll show you how to make a homemade burger. Go downstairs.”

Lottie sighed, opening her eyes again and going back to glaring at him, only making him only more amused. “Cheese, salad and tomato,” she said.

Thomas rolled his eyes and waited patiently until her hunger won and she got up, grabbing the phone too. She was already in black leggings and one of her hoodies, so she just walked downstairs in the empty house. Once she was in the kitchen, she placed the phone on a counter against the wall, letting Thomas see her and a bit of the surroundings.

“Alright. You told me you had a sandwich grill?”

“I better get the smell away before my mom gets home,” she murmured, taking it out from one of the kitchen counters. “Do I plug it in?”

“Not yet,” Thomas grinned. “I imagine you maybe might have white bread?”

She shook her head in disagreement. “I can’t Thom, she’ll notice.”

“Then you send her to hell.”

“No,” she sighed.

“Lottie, take four out now.” The girl sighed, doing what she was told, Thomas giving her next instructions. “You have mayo?”

“Mh,” she murmured with a nod, taking the almost empty pack out from her huge fridge.

“Okay turn the machine on. Put the cheese on two breads and then cover them with other two and place them in there.”

“I know how to make a sandwich…” she said tiredly but did as she was told.

“How should I know if you’re not allowed to eat them? Which is very very stupid by the way.”

“I know…”

Thomas kept giving her instructions, finding out they didn’t even have ketchup, but tomato sauce instead. She parted the hot cheese sandwiches and put a small amount of mayo between them, very small amount of the tomato sauce, then some lettuce, a few tomatoes, cucumber, and then seasoned it. By the time it was all done she was in a very good mood and Thomas made her put some of the avocado hummus on the other side of the sandwich before also adding the pre-heated meat that she had grilled in the sandwich grill as well.

“There you go,” Thomas smiled when Lottie had two burgers in front of her, taking a huge bite from one and groaning in joy.

“God this is good,” she breathed out before taking another bite.

Thomas just watched her with a soft smile on his face, seeing how she enjoyed a good burger almost as much as he did.