Time for School Ch. 08

It was a brief, yet delightful walk to our destination. I opened the door to the cafeteria and allowed her to go ahead of me. She let go of my arm and turned to me with a happy sigh.


"Well," she spoke up as the door closed behind us, "looks like we're here. Thanks for that really nice walk."


"It was nice," I replied with a smile. She giggled again.


"I'll see you later, Anthony."


"Looking forward to it, Talia."


She reached out to me and let her hand slide down my arm. Then, she headed off to go see her friends. I happily gazed upon her for a moment before walking off to go get my own lunch.




My friends seemed to be eagerly awaiting my arrival as I approached them.


"Hey, man!" Brandon greeted me.


"Hey," I replied to him as I took a seat. Nora blushed slightly and smiled at me as I looked at her. At the same time, Frank had a rather suspicious look on his face while keeping his eyes on me.


"So," Josh spoke up with a mouthful of food. "Saw you walk in with a new girl. How many girlfriends do you have?"


I snickered and rolled my eyes before taking a bite of my sandwich.


"We were actually going to talk about the fight yesterday," Josh said.


"Yeah," Brandon chimed in. "You handled yourself damn well! Nora agrees with us on that." Nora sighed quietly, closing her eyes as she nodded.


"I... will admit that," she said. "I was really scared you were going to get hurt, but I had no idea you were so good at defending yourself!"


"The boy was like a bullet with those moves!" Brandon joked, holding his hands out in a karate pose while the others laughed. However, not even a chuckle spilled from Frank's lips. Instead, he folded his arms across his chest and sighed in annoyance.




Nora curiously looked at me as she remarked, "I'm surprised your bruise from yesterday healed up so quickly."


"It has?" I wondered, holding my previously injured cheek.


"Yeah," she said as she dug through her lunch bag. She pulled out a pocket mirror and flipped it open before pointing it toward me. "Check it out."


"Wow," I uttered in surprised as I slowly rubbed my cheek, "it really did heal up."


"Nice," Brandon said. "You're like Wolverine with that healing factor. I bet you got an adamantium skeleton in there somewhere, too, huh?"


"Sure do," I turn to him with a grin. "And claws that come out of my hands," I added as I held my fingers out like claws. Brandon jokingly leaned back, protecting his face from me. The others laughed while Frank just shook his head. As I looked over at him, I couldn't help getting the obvious feeling that Frank was annoyed with me. I had no idea what I could've done to him.




Once we finished our lunch, we got up and all said our 'goodbye's—all of us besides Frank. Nobody else seemed terribly worried about Frank's demeanor so I figured I shouldn't be either. I threw my tray away in the trash and waved to them. We then went our separate ways... or so I thought.


After I got outside, I casually placed my hands in my pockets. I decided to go and pay a quick visit to Eve and Lila before class resumed. But as I got around the corner, a hand quickly grabbed my shoulders, pushing me against the wall.


To my surprise, it was Frank. My jaw hung agape as I looked at him in sheer confusion, wondering what was going on.


"You and I need to talk," he sternly said, "one-on-one, man-to-man, right now."