Double Life: Chatting

The next day Josh saw Nichole at the cafeteria breakfast line. It was early for a Saturday therefore it was more or less empty. He walked towards her.

“Hey!”

“Josh” she nodded and advanced in the line. There were three students behind her. Josh hesitated little and started to walk to the end of the line.

“Josh!” she pointed to the spot in front of her, he grinned and got in the line “Don´t get used to special treatment” she teased and he chuckled.

“Did you change your mind?” he asked while paying for his cereal, milk and toasts

“About?”

“Going to town”

“Ah, nope, no interest in that” she paid as well.

They took a table inside the cafeteria, it wasn´t crowded as in the weekdays or late in the morning during the weekends. They ate in confortable silence.

“I had a dream about you” Josh commented when they were almost done. She raised both her eyebrows “well, sort of…”

“Ok”

“I think it was…” he trailed off

“It was a nightmare” she stated with a half-smile

“Eh, no…no…” he rushed to say “it´s not how you think”

“And how do I think?”

He exhaled; he felt that he was always like that around her, tripping with his own words. He told her his dream.

“I guess it makes sense” she said once he finished and knitted his brow

“It does?”

“Yeah, you were asking me about my dislike for that particular nickname…  and I don´t know I guess that´s why you dreamed about it but who knows how that mind of yours work!” she shrugged.

“I guess…”

“Well, I´m going now, bye Josh”

“Hey, if you change your mind we´ll be going for lunch and then movies”

She smiled “Have fun!”

He smiled back as she left.  He watched her go, still unaccustomed to her particular way of walking. She could be a model he thought and laughed at his own silly thoughts.

The group of boys got to town very quickly, one of the boy´s parents had sent a driver to take them and then to pick them up. Two of the boys were in Josh´s class and one of them was in Aaron´s class, they had been the ones that Aaron had met the first day they got to Burgeoys School. Josh thought they were ok.

They went to a pizza place and then they went to the movies, all their classmates seemed to be there.

“I thought it was not going to be this crowded” Brighton, the one that got a broken nose from Nic, complained.

“Seems like everybody thought that” Jose, to whom they all called Joe, replied

“Just shut up and get in line” Christian a guy that had been in Burgeoys school as long as Nic said. He seemed to be the leader of the former three; he was also the one that had given them the ride to the town.

After a while in line, halfway to the tickets booth someone called the twins names.

“Aaron, Josh!” a group of girls waved at them. The line had gotten very long.

“Michelle!” Aaron smiled, so did Josh and the rest of the boys.

“Girls, do you remember Aaron and his twin Josh” Michelle motioned to each of them. “Josh, Aaron –she said- this is Lex, Mia and Ale” the girls waved as their names got called.

“Come on! Michelle, only Mia didn´t know these guys, after all only you and her got changed to other sections” said Lex rolling her eyes.

“We didn´t know Josh in person, Lex” Mia disagreed and Josh recognized her for the time in which she and Michelle had been giggling in front of him while he tried to study in the library.

“He´s Aaron´s twin” Michelle offered

“Obviously” Lex rolled her eyes again and the whole group laughed.

Once inside the theater the girls sat in between the boys and Michelle made sure to sit between the twins. Lex was at Josh´s other side and Aaron was at the end of the seats. They were watching some scary movie. Josh was glad that Lex was at his side since every time a scary scene appeared Michelle would grab his hand or his twin´s and then apologize for it whereas Lex laughed at it pointing out how ridiculous it was, she made it funny and she was not as loud as Michelle. Josh thought that this girl Lex could be good friends with Nichole.

After the movie, the group split, Michelle tried to convince the twins to go window shopping but they declined so, Michelle, Mia and Ale took Brighton and Joe with them. Josh Aaron, Christian and Lex went for ice-cream

“I owe you one, boys!” Lex said as they sat to eat their ice-creams “I hate window-shopping”

“And with Michelle, it´s worst” Christian added wrinkling his nose.

“Ah, ever gone with her, Chris?” Lex asked

“Unfortunately, yes. Never repeating that self-imposed punishment though” he said and Lex nodded chuckling.

“Was she on your section?” Josh inquired

“Yeah, Michelle and Mia were with us and Brighton and Joe were where they are now”

“Why were they transferred there?” Aaron asked

“Michelle´s a jerk sometimes –Lex said- Don´t look surprised Josh! I bet you´ve seen her…” Josh nodded and both Chris and Lex laughed. “She had taken the task to annoy Leah”

“Leah was just a girl that was hottest and smartest than Michelle or that´s what was said” Chris explained.

“She´s like the evil witch in snow-white” Lex chuckled at her own words and so did Chris

“That sounds stupid, to hate someone ´cause they´re prettier or smarter” Josh commented now knowing why she seemed to hate Nichole.

“Girls are crazy” Aaron said

“Hey! Watch it!” Lex threw him a scrunched napkin

“See? That proves my point” he said and they all laughed.

“So, Josh, I´ve heard you´re dating Nichole” Lex stated. She´s very straightforward, Josh thought. Everybody was looking at him.

“We´re friends” He could guess where Lex had heard that.

“Wha! I thought you were with her!” Chris said surprised

“Why?” both twins asked at the same time. Lex and Chris looked at each other.

“It´s the first time see her talking to someone” Lex said

“Maybe you haven´t seen her” Josh stated as nonchalant as he could.

“I mean, obviously, she talks, we greet each other when we pass in the hallways of the dorm in the morning but not like friends, you know, having lunch and all, right?” Lex looked at Chris

“Yeah, I only saw her with a friend once, her roommate, I don´t remember her name though, that was my first year in Burgeoys but after that, not any more…”

“Until you” Lex finished

“Maybe no one talks to her” Aaron said and Josh was surprised he was defending her.

“Thought that you hated her” Chris raised both his eyebrows

“She´s not that bad” Aaron said somehow reluctant. Josh noticed something in him that he hadn´t noticed before. He made a mental note to ask about that.

“We wouldn´t really know, she´s very private” Lex continued

“Psssshhh people´s just scared, Lex” Chris said.

“I guess” she shrugged

“Come on! Why would anybody should be afraid of her?” Aaron started, Josh nodded and the other two looked at each other “not those rumors again!” he seemed annoyed

“Yeah, I think that´s kinda silly too” Lex agreed after a while. Josh nodded and liked her a little more.

“I don´t know but I think it´s really   creepy   that her roommate died just like that, next to her bed” Chris provided

“Sure, but she was little besides, there´s even a rumor of the ghost of the girl there” Lex rolled her eyes

“Really?” Josh was curious of this

“Yeah, supposedly that´s why she doesn´t have a roommate” the girl explained

“Didn’t they say that was because of her family paid for that?” Aaron asked knitting his eyebrows. Lex shrugged.

“She´s got it bad, it must  suck having people telling stories like that” Josh commented wanting to say   something to dissipate the rumors. “No wonder you´ve never seen her with friends”

“Yeah, I mean, all of you have been her forever whereas Josh and I have just come and since we don´t know it´s obvious it´d be easy for us to be friends with her”

“And why you didn´t bring her?” Lex asked

“Josh couldn´t convince her” Aaron said quickly. Josh huffed.

“She ignores you, doesn´t she, Aaron?” Chris asked amused

“No, but Josh is in her class, you know”

“Right, right”

“I´ve never seen her in this things, though” said Lex

“Hey Lex, how did you become friends with Michelle?” Josh asked. She didn´t seem at all lie Michelle and he wondered how they wounded up being friends

“Well, she´s my cousin” she grinned as the twins widened their eyes

“I know, I know we don´t look alike at all”

“Yeah, I would’ve never guessed that one” Aaron said

“The things is that we´re very different but I don´t know that´s the way it is, family is family or something like that”

“It was hard for me to believe it too” Chris commented

“Ah, she´s not that bad” Lex defended her “ok, ok, she can be that bad –she said when the boys looked away- but her dragon-self only gets crazy when she feels threatened”

“She wasn´t so nice to you for a year, remember?” Chris said, Lex rolled her eyes, the twins looked at her

“That´s just ´cause she liked Andrew and he happened to like me, she got nice again when I told him I was not interested … and I wasn´t”

“Sounds extreme” Josh said

“It´s her mom” Lex justified her and Chris did too in time with her. Lex glared at him

“You always said that, Lex”

“It´s true, her mom gives her everything she wants but her attention and she has to fight for her mom´s attention and now she doesn´t know how else to be”

“Agghhr come on, Lex! We´re all her ‘cause our parents don’t want us close or are too busy to pay us any attention” Chris countered.

“I´m sorry Chris but I have a happy family that pays attention to me, thank you very much” she said smug

“Ok, ok, happy kid” All of them laughed

“What about you, guys?” Lex asked the twins “happy family   or no attention?”

“No, Lex, if they´ve just come this year this two must be trouble” Chris said and Lex raised of her eyebrows to the twins

“Ever seen us get in trouble?” Both twins smirked mischievously

“Oooohhh –the other two said- so you must be good”

“We´re good, never in trouble” Josh added and they kept the smirk

“Nice” Lex said and proceeded to tell about their pranks. Both twins were glad that they didn´t really had to talk about their reasons for being there.

The ride back was made in the same groups, Lex and the three boys since the other group decided to have dinner there but Chris´ driver was already there. Josh was glad to have met Lex and Chris, they were friendly. At the school they went to their rooms, the twins went to the cafeteria for dinner

****

I didn´t find a suitable picture for this one.. =/