Lunch

"Watch where you're going, loser," Harley snarls. His eyes are filled with delight at tormenting me.

"Get stuffed, jerk," I snap back and shove passed him to join Jackie. He grabs my wrist, stopping me, I spin around and glare at him. "Leave me alone, Harley."

"Why? It's fun to mess with you," he says, his lips curl up into a mischievous grin. I roll my eyes at him.

"Go torture your girlfriend or girlfriends. I don't want anything to do with you. Or have I not made that clear enough for you?" My patience with him is running thin, I yank my wrist out of his grip and start walking away with Jackie.

"But they aren't as fun to mess with as you," Harley replies, following after us.

"Why are you even following her?" Jackie asks him. "Won't Jessica get jealous that you are talking to your EX?" We both look at him, he just smiles at us.

"She will get over it," he laughs with confidence. Still thinks he's God's gift to women I see, I think to myself.

"Harley, let's go eat lunch," calls Jessica's high pitched voice, as if on cue.

"Sounds like you are being summoned," I smile at him. " Now be a good boy for once and leave." He just laughs, stepping forward to try and hold my hand. I cross my arms over my chest before he can. Jessica storms over to him and links her arm in his, glaring at me.

"Let's go eat lunch," she tells him for the second time. "She isn't worth your time," Jessica gives me an I-hope-you-die look, while trying to steer Harley away from me.

"Thank you for taking the trash away, Jessica," I tell her with a smile. She turns on her heel and slaps me across the face, I chuckle. "What? Didn't like that I called Harley what he is?" Harley has an even bigger grin on his face, clearing finding this encounter entertaining. Jessica pulls back her arm to slap me again. I caught her arm and twist it back behind her back, before shoving her away from me. She stumbles and collides with Harley, who to my surprise actually catches her. "Can you two leave now?" I growl, annoyed that I still have to deal with him.

"Aw, but it was getting good," Harley teases, both Jessica and I glare at him.

"I don't think she wants to deal with you. So leave her alone," I hear the voice of the guy I bumped into this morning say. He comes up beside Jackie and me, and winks at me when he sees me looking over at him. Blood rushes to my face, making it warm.

"Who asked you, Garret?" Harley spits at him.

" No one, but it seems like you can't take a hint." Garret say, getting in between Harley, Jessica and me. "Just go with your girlfriend to lunch like she asked you to, Harley." Harley sighs heavily, but turns around and heads to the cafeteria, leaving Jessica to jog to catch up to him.

"Thank you for helping me," I say to Garret. He turns around and smiles, his smile makes my heart skip a beat.

"Any time," he says. "Did you really date that jerk?"

"Yeah, and regret it ever since," I say putting my books in my locker. "Going to lunch?"

"Yeah, what about you two?" He asks, we look at each other and smile.

"We may eat lunch here if it looks edible. If not we are cutting out," Jackie informs him. "Want to join?"

"Sure," he replies and we head to the cafeteria together. The noise from the chattering students greets us before we reach the doors, along with the smell of a variety of foods.

"Do you know what they are serving for lunch today?" Jackie asks, I shrug.

"I think they said it was some form of mystery meat," Garret says in disgust. "Want to go get burgers instead?"

"Sounds good to me," I say taking my keys out of my purse, that is slung over my shoulder.

"Count me in," Jackie says, linking arms with me. We walk down the hallway to the side exit, that has the alarm turned off. Garret opens the door for us and we walk out to my black 2004 Chevy Impala SS. Once we get near my car I click the unlock button twice on the key fob and we load in the car. The car roars to life with a turn of the key, we pull out of the parking lot and head to the drive-thru at the local burger place.

Hard rock plays through my speakers as we wait. Once we get up to the speaker, we have decided what we wanted and order the meals we want. I pay for the food, and pull forward receiving our drinks first. Putting Jackie and my drink in the front cupholders, I hand Garret's drink back to him.

"Thank you," he tells me, placing his cup in the armrest cupholder in the back.

"You're welcome. It's my treat for helping me get rid of Harley," I tell him with a smile. The drive-thru worker, hands me the brown paper bag that contains our food. I hand the bag over to Jackie. She opens it and pulls out some French fries, munching on them. The smell of the fast food causes my stomach to growl. After getting food, I drive to the nearby park that has a lake in the center. The park is mostly empty other than a few older men fishing off one of the decks. Driving around to the side where a white wooden gazebo is and park my car.

We get out with our bag of food and drinks, walking over to one of the picnic tables in the gazebo. Jackie hands out the food and we start eating. "This is so much better than eating at school," she comments.

"I agree," says I, unwrapping my burger. "Where to after this?"

"How about going to the beach?" Jackie suggests, taking a bite of her chicken nuggets.

"Alright," I say, wiping the corners of my mouth and hands with a napkin, before grabbing some fries that I dip in ketchup. Garret finishes the burger he ordered.

"I'm okay with that," says Garret, stirring mustard and mayo together on his burger wrapper with a fry. "Do you two normally cut classes?"

"Nope," I answer, after swallowing the food in my mouth. "Today just seems like a good day to not deal with school."

"That and she is tired of dealing with Harley," Jackie chimes in. He nods in understanding.

"So much for him leaving me alone like I thought he would." I sigh, then finish my burger and eat a few fries before offering them to Garret and Jackie. They eat on a few of them. I lean back stretching my arms over my head "Enough with that issue. What I need is a break from it all."

"I hear that," Garret says. "My dad wants me to go to medical school like he did. That is more schooling than what I want to do. Plus I'm not good with blood." His face scrunches in disgust.

"In real life or overall?" Jackie asks, before I can.

"Real life," he replies. "Movies and TV shows have fake blood, so it doesn't affect me much."

"Why does he still want you to be a doctor if he knows you can't stand blood?" I ask, thinking I would hate to be told to go into a career that doesn't suit me.

"My dad thinks that I will outgrow the fear," he sighs. "I highly doubt it though."

"What do you want to do rather than becoming a doctor?" Asks I, as Jackie finishes her nuggets and they both finish off the fries.

"I want to be a writer," Garret says with a smile. "Fiction is fun to write. If I go to college to be a doctor, there would be no time to write even outside of classes."

"Then go to college to become a writer," I tell him, and take a sip of my drink. "Or if they force you to go to a college you don't like, change the major to something that interests you rather than what they want."

"I like Rayne's idea," Jackie says with a smile. Garret looks over at me and smiles. We get up and throw away our trash in the trash can next to the gazebo and head for the car. "Ah, I haven't been to the beach yet this year."

"Well it has been raining a lot," I tell her. "But I thought you went to the beach with Rex last week."

"Nah, he decided he didn't want to go to the beach. So we ended up at the movies instead," Jackie explains, as we get in the car.

"You're dating Rex Thompson?" Garret asks from the backseat.

"Yeah," she says, a smile creeps across her face. "What's wrong with Rex?"

"Nothing," he says with a smile. "Just never met his girlfriend yet."

"We just started dating, so that's not much a surprise," she replies. "Are you dating anyone?"

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