SWNOVELS Chapter 12 The Deal
“Hey, Ben!” Allison hollered, her red tray filled with a sandwich and some carrots, making her way towards us, looking happier than ever. Then she turned to Josh, who was sitting right next to me, and her face fell. “Joshua,” she said in a sour voice.
Josh responded in the same snarky way. “Allison.”
There was a long, cold, awkward silence. It was probably the longest, coldest, and most awkward silence of my life as she sat down at the table with us. I wanted to say something to break the tension, but Josh beat me to it.
“So... uhh... I take it you’re still mad at me for...”
Just then, Savannah, the eighth grade girl from Social Studies, came up to our table. “Hey, Ben,” she said. Then she looked at Josh and Allison and said, “Ooh... am I interrupting something?”
“No, you’re good, Savannah,” Josh said. “What’s up?”
“Well, I heard your birthday is coming up during our DC trip, Ben,” she said. “So a couple of my friends and I wanted to give you this.” She handed me a birthday card addressed to me.
I looked at it, then back at her. “Wow, thanks, Savannah,” I replied, surprised.
“You’re welcome,” she said, blushing. Then she turned and walked away.
As soon as she was gone, Al said, “And you said Savannah didn’t have a crush on you.”
“This is so thoughtful,” I said, completely ignoring her as I admired the homemade card.
Josh then made a pouty face and commented,
“She didn’t do that for my birthday.”
Al then took this opportunity to jump in and say,
“Maybe if you weren’t such a jerk unlike our sweet friend Ben here, then maybe she would have.”
Taken aback Josh barked back,
“Or maybe she simply forgot and had to be reminded. You know how girls can be so forgetful lately.”
I guess that was targeted towards Al in spite because she apparently replied with a hint of anger,
“That was one time, Joshua and I promised both of you that I would make up for it!”
“Oh, so we are just gonna pretend that you bailing on us… last minute… didn’t happen again on Friday?”
Oh my god. He called her out. Me and Al were stunned. Not expecting Josh to do that at all. Seeing us still stunned he added,
“Yeah, that’s right, I haven’t forgotten what you promised me and Ben that day.”
This was getting good so instead of popcorn I was eating the rest of my lunch while Al changed the subject by pointing out,
“Like you haven’t done the same thing to us. Speaking of which, whenever I say or try to be helpful to you on projects, you ignore me like I’m some sort of ghost.” as she emphasized that last word. “I speak for me and Ben when I tell you how you try to get us to agree with your stupid ideas for projects… it’s almost like you don’t trust us and I am sick of it!” She took a deep breath through her nose and said “If you wanna start apologizing, I’d say that’s a good place to start.”
“Well… uh that part doesn’t count, Ally. You’re different.”
“Different!?” She exclaimed “How in the world am I different? Is it because I’m a girl? Is that it?!” as she raised her voice.
“You’re one of the guys, Ally… of course I’m going to be treating you like that and Uhh…” tugging his shirt nervously and whispered in my ear,
“Ben, can you help me out here?”
I’m not taking the fall for him, so I answered,
“No, thanks. I think I’m good. I want to see where you go with this.”
“Me too.” Al grumbed.
He grunted.
“I’m sorry. Okay. Is that what you two want to hear?”
We both nodded.
“I’m sorry that my big ego gets away from me at times. You are right. I should listen and respect you guys more. From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry for all the bad things I’ve ever caused or said to both of you over the years.”
“And?!” she exclaimed with raised eyebrows.
When I thought that was it and I was outta here, he surprised both of us by saying,
“BUT I am not sorry for what I “apparently” said on Friday in the slightest.”
“WHAT!?”
Me and Al both said in complete unison surprised by his statement.
“Al, if you truly knew me like you say you do then you would know that I would never ever say that. The person who told you that just wants us to be apart and wants you all by yourself.”
“SO YOU ARE JEALOUS! SHE WAS RIGHT!” All of a sudden, dozens of kids started to head out of the gymnasium. Guess lunch times over. Al then got up from our table and before she dumped her lunch in the trash bin right next to us and cold bloodily stared at me for what seemed like an eternity, she said,
“THANKS FOR GETTING MY HOPES UP FOR NOTHIN, Ben. I’ll wait for you out in the hall.”
SHE then took off like a speeding bullet.
When she was gone, Josh then had the audacity to say,
“Well, that didn’t work.”
“Yeah, no shit sherlock. You could’ve put it a little nicer. So it’s not so obvious. Now if you excuse me, I apparently gotta join her now, wish me luck.” I then ran to catch up to her. I first went to my locker and grabbed my school stuff when Al apparently had a bad time using the bathroom.
When Al left to go use the bathroom and Josh was out of sight leaving me all alone, someone menacingly hollered,
“Hey, You!”
I looked behind me and saw a shadow figure
Pointing at me.
“Me?!” I asked. Pointing at myself.
“Yes, you. Who else?” the figure scoffed. As the figure menacingly got closer, I saw it was none other than Brittney. She then said,
“You have some guts talking to her still after that stunt you pulled on Saturday.”
“Stunt? What stunt?”
“Ohhh I don’t know? Bike riding in your neighborhood that she nonstop talked to me about earlier today.”
“Hey, she’s the one that showed up at my door and asked. Not me.”
“Well, you could have lied and said no.”
“And I would do that whyyyy?”
She then coughed and deepened her voice and grabbed me by the shirt and said,
“Let me repeat what I said to you two last week since it clearly didn’t stick through that thick skull of yours. She’s our friend now before someone lets slip about what really happened during the incident back in fifth grade.”
I don’t know why, but I blurted,
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
She cheekily replied.
As we glared daggers at each other, she suddenly let go of my shirt and pulled me into some sort of a hug. I guess Brittney must´ve saw Al coming our way because I suddenly felt someone grab me by the hand which at the point I’m like 100% sure it was Al who said,
“Oh, hey Brit, what were you two talking about?”
I stared at her evilly and jumped at the opportunity to say,
“Oh, we were just talking about how she doesn’t mind me and Josh hanging out with yuh for the first two days of the DC trip. Ain’t that right, Britt?” She didn’t like that one idea I guess as she grunted, but one look of Al forced her to nod in agreement.
“Wow, really. Thanks, Britt. I wish we could keep this awesome conversation going but—” she then turned to me and said, “Ben, Art isn’t going to start without us. See yuh tomorrow.” As she waved Brittney goodbye where I was then seemingly dragged against my will. Am I really going to have to deal with being dragged wherever I go on the Washington DC TRIP too? I wondered.
I HOPE I can fix this before that even happens.
BUT ONLY TIME WILL TELL.