Forbidden Desire

“Where’s Lora?” The smile fell from her face as if she’d expected me to be there for her. A week ago maybe, right now I couldn’t tell you what color her eyes are because I wasn’t looking. “She got a restroom pass before the bell rang, so I guess she’s heading straight to the cafeteria from there.”

The little shit saw my play and outsmarted me. I stomped my way towards the lunchroom, leaving Tiffany following behind and not giving a shit about whatever it was she was whispering to her girls about. I saw them as soon as I walked in, saw the nervous look Paul threw my way as I made my way over to them.

I started to grab her arm and pull her away from him but knew she’d be embarrassed, so I did the next best thing. I grabbed a chair and moved it around between the two of them. “What’s doing, kids?” I gave Paul a death glare hidden behind a shark-like smile, and he had the good sense to look scared.

“What did I tell you?”

“We were just talking.”

“Not what I asked, get lost.” He stood up and moved away, looking back at her apologetically. Lora started to get up from her seat, but I tugged her back down. “Stay.”

She fumed, but one look at my face told her that I was not playing around. I just looked at her, not saying any of the things I was thinking. Like the fact that I was being an ass, sending mixed signals, and all the other bullshit her eyes were accusing me of.

“I don’t want you around him.”

“That’s none of your business.” She gritted the words out as the table began to fill up with the rest of the team. They each greeted her and went on talking about whatever it was they were discussing, seemingly unaware of the tension.

When she tried to get up once more, I grabbed her hand and held it under mine beneath the table out of sight of the others. I knew she wasn’t bold enough to make a scene, so we ended up eating lunch like that, with me holding her hand and trying to eat with my left hand.

No one seemed to notice the odd juxtaposition, but I could feel her displeasure; she was pissed. “Eat your lunch; I doubt you had breakfast.” She dropped her fork and sat back in her seat.

“I’m not hungry.”

“I can always feed you.” I smiled at her knowing that it would piss her off. She grew tense and stared at a point over my shoulder. I turned to see Sherry making her way to our table. Shit.

Tyler

I released her hand but knew from her reaction that she thought I did it because of the other girl. I did it for her sake, though. “Don’t be stupid; it’s not what you think…Lora.” She got up and walked away before I could stop her. That look she just gave me though, damn.

I looked back at Sherry as she approached me with a not too nice look on my face. “What is it?” Not exactly welcoming. I was fine with her, in fact, until last night. I didn’t think much of her befriending me once she moved back to town after being gone for so many years, but I didn’t get the feeling that she wanted to be anything more than friends until the stunt she pulled.

“You don’t have to be rude; I just wanted to know if you changed your mind about the movie.”

“I already told you no, by the way, my dad says he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. He never expected us to be an item.” The change that came over her face was gone in a second, and she regrouped, waving her hand in the air as if to say it wasn’t a big deal.

“Just a misunderstanding, I guess. It looks like your stepsister got over whatever was upsetting her, I didn’t know those two were dating.” She looked past me at something across the room, and I was sure of what I was going to see when I turned around.

Paul looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here while Lora chatted him up and once he saw me watching them, he made an excuse and left the room; good. Lora gave me a scathing look before going back to her usual table with her friends, and I got up to leave too. I’m over this shit already.

“Hey, you didn’t answer me.” I’d forgotten she was there and I wasn’t in the mood so totally ignored her as I made my way to the exit, I’m not hungry. I realized that this was the worst place to try to talk to Lora and that what we had to say to each other needed way more privacy than the cafeteria of a high school with way too many eyes and ears.