"Hey, Melanie over here!"
Melanie turned around, she had her lunch tray in hand as she recognized the familiar voice of her best friend.
She walked over to her best friend, Britney Spear's table and almost wished she'd pretended she hadn't heard her when she saw the others she was greeted with.
"Hey, Brit!" Melanie forced herself to gush as if happy as could be. "What's up, everyone?"
"Actually, we wanted to ask you that, Mel." Britney replied.
Melanie took a seat and remained nonchalant. "What do you mean?"
"Well, Becca mentioned that you almost ran her over?" Britney gave her friend a pointed look.
Melanie inwardly grimaced. She should've realized Rebecca would spill that little tid bit. She was the gabbiest one in the whole bunch.
"Yeah," Melanie laughed nervously. "Sorry about that, Becca."
Rebecca shrugged. "It's cool. So, what was up with you disappearing with Mr K for a half hour?"
I knew I should've gone out for lunch, Melanie thought to herself. But no I decided to eat in the lunch room with the firing squad.
"He uh..." Melanie ran a hand through her hair. "He saw me nearly hit you and reprimanded me about it."
"Wow," Rebecca said surprised. "He always seemed to easy going."
Melanie shrugged. "Yeah, well all's not as it always seems. He's a jackass and a loser." She inwardly felt bad about badmouthing someone who had recently become a good friend to her, but she couldn't let them think she had anything going with Mr K.
Sure, they were all nice to her, but they could be lethal. She didn't want them getting the wrong impression or spreading false rumors around.
"I'm sure you told him who your parents are, right?" Britney spoke up. She saw something she couldn't quite place in her friend's eyes. This was all a front. Why, she could not figure out.
"I don't want any special treatment because my parents happen to own half this town," Melanie replied tensely.
"I don't get you, Melanie." Another girl from the table who was sitting next to Rebecca. "If I had your kind of power, I'd be using that right up. Why don't you?"
"I don't believe in abusing something just cause you have it," Melanie replied tersely. "I'll see you all later."
"Mel," Britney called confused. "You just sat down. We have like fourty minutes left."
"I think it's the lunch room or something guys," Melanie replied, the lie rolling right off her tongue. "I'm starting to feel stuffy."
"Do you want us to come with?" Britney asked concerned.
"Brit, she doesn't need you to hold her hand every five minutes," Rebecca teased.
Melanie forced a fake smile. "It's cool, Brit. I just need some air. See you all later,"
With that, Melanie took off out of the lunch room.
"You'd think she hates being around us or something," Alex spoke up.
Britney looked at the girl sitting next to Rebecca before nodding her head. "Yeah, that's exactly what you'd think..."
***
Melanie briskly walked from wing to wing until she was onto the junior wing.
"I don't know what's happening to me," Melanie whispered to herself. "I hate my friends..." She ran a hand through her hair as she shook her head. "No," She corrected herself firmly. "I hate who I become when I'm around my friends and that's just the simple truth."
Melanie sighed as she slid down the lockers to the ground.
It was like whenever she was around them, she felt like she had to tell them what they'd want to hear.
It was no new thing, she'd been doing it ever since middle school. So, what had changed? Why was this bothering her now?
Than, it suddenly hit Melanie like a ton of bricks.
It was Mr K...Chris...her teacher....it was him.
He was rapidly becoming one of her best friends and she cared about him. For the first time since becoming best friends with Britney, she cared about someone more than she cared about herself or her stupid social rep.
That's why lying about him in such a negative manner had bothered her so much that she'd high-tailed it away from all of her friends.
It had hurt her to lie about him and that was the honest truth.
"Britney, where do you think she went?"
Melanie inwardly grimaced as she recognized Rebecca's voice.
"God, can't I have like five minutes to myself?!" Melanie groaned. She quickly stood up and scampered off in the opposite direction.
Ten minutes later, Melanie was still dodging her friends and it looked to her like she'd wound up right where she'd started off at.
With a sigh, she leaned against the lockers.
"You can come in here if you want."
Melanie's head snapped up at the familiar voice, she looked over and saw Chris Kirkpatrick sitting at his desk with a bunch of papers.
Melanie slightly smiled as she walked over to his door. "And why on earth would I want to spend my remaining lunch time with you?"
"Hey, it's your choice." Chris shrugged. "Don't feel obligated or anything, but if you continue to run through the halls, another teacher might ask you to give up all of your lunch time and not be as nice as I'm being." He looked up at her with a slight smirk. "But, hey it's your choice."
Melanie walked into his classroom and sat at the desk right in front of his.
"Wise move," Chris acknowledged with a smile.
"Was I really running?" Melanie asked.
Chris smiled. "Actually more like sprinting, but that doesn't change the fact that you still aren't supposed to be playing musical chairs in the hallways while other classes are in progress."
Melanie nodded. "I know, I know. Not the brightest move on my part."
"So, why were you?" Chris asked.
"I really wasn't playing a game or trying to interrupt a class, I was just trying to get a little peace." Melanie admitted.
Chris furrowed his eyebrow in concern. "What's going on?"
Melanie sighed. "It's my friends....they can be a little too much at times. I needed some space from them."
"You're avoiding your friends?" Chris asked her confused.
Melanie nodded. "I love them, Mr K, do not misunderstand me, but...."
"But?" Chris encouraged.
"But sometimes I wanna push them off a cliff!" Melanie blurted and than let out a breath. She felt some kind of relief at saying that, finally she had one person in her life she could be honest with.
Chris looked at her stunned before letting out a slight laugh. "Um, I gotta be honest Melanie, you caught me off guard with that one..."
"Sorry," Melanie laughed. "That was a little over dramatic, but you have no idea what it's like not to be able to be real with anyone. It's exhausting and it even makes you feel like sometimes you're going just a little crazy."
"You can be real with me, Melanie." Chris told her seriously.
Melanie smiled softly. "Thanks and that means a lot to me. I'm so tired of pretending with them and I kind of felt like I just couldn't do it anymore today, so I dodged them."
"Do you wanna talk about why?" Chris asked, his eyes studying her gently.
"I, um..." Melanie sighed as she decided to just be honest and upfront with him. "I kind of owe you an apology."
"For what?" Chris asked her confused.
"At lunch, I was sitting with my friends and I said some bad things about you." Melanie admitted and rushed on as if to stop him from thinking the worst of her. "I didn't mean them though!" She ran a hand through her hair. "I didn't mean any of them. I just...God this is gonna sound so lame and superficial, but I only badmouthed you to my friends because I didn't want them to think there was something between us and start spreading false stuff around."
"What's superficial about that?" Chris asked her. "It sounds like your heart was in the right place."
Melanie sighed. "It was but it wasn't."
"Okay?" Chris was confused once again.
"Okay," Melanie placed her hands in front of her as she leaned forward. "this is the part where you're totally gonna think less of me..."
"I doubt it," Chris interrupted with a soft smile.
He was completely convinced that this girl was alot harder on herself than anyone else could ever be and he worried about what that kind of thing was doing to her self esteem.
Melanie paused and than looked up into his eyes. "Why?"
"Why do I doubt that I'll think less of you?" Chris asked.
"Why…all of it?" Melanie asked him. "From the first day that I carelessly knocked you over making the both of us late...you've never been anything but nice to me. Why? Why are you always so nice to me?"
Chris slightly frowned. What had happened to this beautiful girl to make her think so less of herself? The more he thought about it he realized it had to be a who. It was a question of, who had happened to her. "Why do you think I shouldn't I be?"
"Because...." Melanie sighed. "I'm a fake and a fraud. I'm not this great person that you think I am. You shouldn't want to be friends with me Mr..." She paused as she remembered that he told her she could call him Chris as long as class wasn't in progress. That made her feel worse. He truly thought of her as a friend. "Chris," She stressed. "You shouldn't want to be friends with me, you should want to get as far away from me as you can."
Chris looked at her sadly and his heart went out to her. "Why?"
"Because I'll just wind up disappointing you." Melanie admitted. "I disappoint everyone. All I am is a disappointment..."
Story Tags: school jc justin chris
