Sasha is a bit loud and obnoxious at times whereas Ansel is more easy-going. Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without them.
“You don’t have to eat lunch in here,” I remind her, munching on a chip.
She rolls her eyes, setting down her lunch. “Like I would make you eat with these losers.” She nods her head at Ansel beside her and Seth at the end of the table between Ansel and me.
“Losers, huh?” Ansel raises a brow.
“Oh, shut up.” She opens a ketchup packet and squirts some on her burger from the cafeteria. I wrinkle my nose in distaste. I hate ketchup. “We should do something this weekend.”
Seth looks up and around at all of us before his eyes dart back down to his lunch. I don’t know much about the guy beyond the fact that he’s extremely shy and an artist like Ansel.
“Like what?” I ask when no one else says anything.
I’m not the queen of socialization by far, but it might be nice to do something as a group. For the most part, if I do spend time with someone outside of school it’s Ansel.
“I don’t know.” She chews and swallows a bite of her food. “See a movie or something? Surely there’s a Marvel movie we could see. Doesn’t a new one come out every week?”
Ansel leans back in his chair, pointing at her with a pencil. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for the superhero movie lover.”
“I’m not. But there are plenty of hot guys in them.”
Ansel rolls his eyes and looks at me while Seth lets out a quiet chuckle that turns into a cough like he didn’t mean to find Sasha funny.
“What do you think, Meadows? Should we go see a mainstream superhero movie or do something else?”
I bite my lip, thinking of the dark, closed off room I’d be trapped in to see a movie and I know it would send me straight into a panic attack.
None of them know that side of me and I like it that way. As long as they don’t know it means I can pretend I’m normal for a short amount of time.
“No.” I shake my head. “Let’s do something else.”
“What about a hike?” Ansel suggests. To Sasha he adds, “Meadows hasn’t seen some of the fucking incredible views around here. She has no idea what she’s missing out on.”
Sasha purses her lips as she thinks. “Hmm, yeah, that could be fun. It’ll be getting too cold for hiking soon enough.”
Ansel grins. “The cold means skiing, which is even better.”
Sasha nods in agreement. “Can’t argue with you there.”
“Wow, what a surprise.”
She starts to retort but I snap my fingers, getting both of their attention.
“Why are we even talking about skiing? I thought we were going on a hike?”
&
nbsp; “Have you ever skied?” Ansel tilts his head, appraising me.
Beside me Seth sinks down in his seat like he’s trying to hide.
“No.”
“Seriously?” His brows rise. “It’s like a religion around here. I’m getting you on some skis soon, Meadows.”
I’m sure soon isn’t an exaggeration. We’re a little less than a week away from October and already the weather has significantly cooled. Most days start in the 40s and might creep up to 65 degrees at the warmest. I’m used to this kind of weather, so I don’t mind it. But it does mean snow is around the corner.
“So, hiking this weekend then?”