Page 5 of From Me to You

“Nice to meet you too, Lily,” I said, smiling at her. She gave me a shy smile back.

The group soon started bickering amongst themselves. It was like they had known each other all their lives. It felt nice. Although I was an outsider, they didn’t make me feel that way. I was generally very quiet and introverted, so it felt comfortable just listening to them.

I felt someone’s gaze on me. I looked up to see Jay staring at me with his intense blue eyes—Emerson, not Jay!I scolded myself again. Was he trying to kill me? My heart was already beating too fast in my chest that I feared that it would jump out!

I looked down and stared at my tray as if it were the most interesting thing on earth, starting to feel nervous all over again.

“It’s not going to eat itself.” His warm husky voice washed all over me.

“Uh?” I looked up at him, confused.

“The sandwich’s not going to eat itself. You have been staring at it for a good five minutes,” he said, pointing at my tray.

I flushed. “Ah, yes,” I said, picking up my sandwich—I glanced at him again.

Ja- no, Emerson was still staring at me with a smirk on his face while he slurped on what looked like a carton of strawberry milk.

Okay, now I was definitely red. How was I going to eat while he stared at me like that?

I gave him a small smile as I took a bite of my sandwich. He returned with a wide grin that made his eyes twinkle.Oh no.I started coughing. I did not expect that. He was too gorgeous to even be here.

“Evy, are you all right?” Matt asked from his seat beside Jay.

I sighed internally, at this point, I think I would just call him Jay in my head.

“Yes, I am fine,” I replied to Matt.

“I think she needs water.” Jay leaned in and opened my water bottle. “Drink.” He held it up to my mouth with an amused look on his face.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, taking the bottle from him.

Matt looked at us with a smile on his face, shaking his head.

“Baby! There you are. I missed you at the party yesterday,” said a voice that sounded more like a high-pitched bird. A tall, beautiful girl in a very short white skirt and a very tight crop topsnaked her arms around Jay’s neck. Oh God, she must be his girlfriend. Of course, he had a girlfriend who looked like that.

All the lightness dropped from Jay’s face. “I told you I wasn’t coming, Lia,” he said, removing her hands. He had an irritated look on his face. Like he was annoyed with her presence.

“Oh, come on, babe! We could have had fun.” Lia grinned while she took the empty seat on his other side. The conversation around the table died down as everyone turned their attention to Lia.

“What do you want, Lia?” Jay asked.

“Do I need a reason to come up and say hi to you? I thought we were friends.” She was still speaking in a whiny falsetto voice, leaning toward him with an overly sweet smile on her face.

“Well, as you can see, I am busy at the moment.” Jay glanced around the table, dismissing her.

Lia rolled her eyes and flicked her hair like she was too cool to even be here. “Well, whatever. I will see you later,” she said as she got up and walked to the table in the middle of the cafeteria. Two other girls who sat dressed in little less to nothing in their very revealing tops and shortest skirts squealed delightedly at her presence.

They looked like they barely passed the school dress code. Soon, a group of boys wearing football jerseys joined their table, and it got louder, and almost all eyes were on them. I guess it must be the popular group at school.

“She is so annoying. Her voice grates my nerves. Like, why does she even speak like that?” Katy exclaimed, “I don’t know why you even put up with her, Em.”

“Well, she is the hottest girl in school and is more capable in other activities that don’t involve talking. Can you blame my man?” Mike chuckled at Katy.

That put a sour taste in my mouth. I glanced toward Jay, who looked like he was already done with this conversation. Heleaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping something on the table. I couldn’t make out what it was. I picked it up as a nervous habit.

Jay suddenly looked up, as if he had noticed me staring at him. I quickly averted my gaze like I was somehow so invested in the gleaming white wall behind him.

“We should go, guys. We’re going to be late for practice,” Jay said, getting up from the table with his tray already in his hands. All the guys got up and followed him, bidding us all a collective goodbye. I waved my hands awkwardly, not knowing what to do. I presumed they must be on some sort of sports team. Although none of them looked very sporty, except for Matt, who looked like a football player. They were all very fit, though.