Apples definitely shouldn’t be on the floor, especially not the one I was going to eat for lunch.
Shit, shit, shit.
I couldn’t eat that apple now. There was no way. I also had to have an apple with my lunch. I had an apple with my lunch every day. I didn’t have any cash on me, so I couldn’t buy another one, and I just had to have an apple.
I closed my eyes and started to count to one hundred by tens as fast as I could. I knew Justin was still talking, and I felt him smack my shoulder, but I didn’t open my eyes. I just kept counting, switching the method every time I got to one hundred. I counted by twos, then threes, then prime numbers.
It wasn’t helping.
Where was I going to get another apple?
Joe was saying something to Justin, but I couldn’t make that out, either.
Could I just wash the one that was on the floor?
No.
Definitely not.
Combined with thoughts of the apple were thoughts of Mayra and thoughts of not working with her on the project anymore. She wouldn’t come over to my house if we weren’t working on the project. When my car was fixed, she wouldn’t drive me to school anymore, which meant I would go back to only seeing her in our ecology class.
Sitting right by Justin Lords.
The thought of not being around her was almost as bad as the apple on the floor.
I couldn’t even fathom it, so I opened my eyes and met Lords’ gaze.
For the longest time we were just staring at each other. My entire body was tensed as if it were ready to spring,
and there was definitely a part of me that wanted to haul back and punch him, but I wasn’t wearing my gloves. Aside from not having my gloves on, Justin had this little dribble of slobber on his lower lip. It actually made a little bubble sitting there.
He was drooling.
I couldn’t help myself; I laughed out loud—one single, explosive burst.
Justin reared back, and his eyes went wide as he moved back to the edge of the table and nearly lost his balance. That was even funnier, and I laughed again.
“What the fuck is your problem, freak?” he yelled, but I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to respond.
Joe started snickering as well, though I don’t know if he noticed the lip-spittle or not. Maybe he was just laughing at Justin nearly falling off the table. I told Justin sitting on the table like that wasn’t right.
Justin shoved himself off the tabletop and stood back on the floor where he was supposed to be. He continued to cuss me out, but between Joe’s laughter and my own, I couldn’t really focus on his words. The little bit of spittle ended up on his chin as he backed away from the table.
“This ain’t over, Rohan,” he said. He pointed a finger at me and shook it. “Not by a long shot!”
He spun around on his heel and headed out of the cafeteria. I looked over at Joe, who was still snickering as he got up and retrieved my apple.
“I don’t suppose you are going to eat this now, are you?” he asked.
“No,” I replied.
Joe rubbed it on his shirt before taking a bite out of it.
“Gross,” I mumbled as he walked away.
I watched Joe head over to the cafeteria line, buy another apple, and bring it over to set in front of me. I glanced up at him and gave him a half smile.
“Thanks.”