The cafeteria was the size of an airport terminal.
I'm not exaggerating. It was enormous; high ceilings, long windows, food stations running along the entire left wall, and tables arranged in this very specific social geography that I clocked within about thirty seconds of walking in.
Every school has it.
The table in the middle that everyone pretends they don't care about but absolutely do.
The quiet tables near the back. The groups that spread across two or three tables because they need the space.
The loners who've claimed their corners.
Tessa grabbed my arm before I could stand there too long looking like I was mapping the room which I absolutely was.
We got food. I got a chicken wrap and she got salad. We found a table near the far windows. Just the two of us. I was so relieved I could have cried.
I'd barely unwrapped my chicken wrap when Tessa leaned forward with her elbows on
the table and her voice dropped.
"Okay. Crash course. Because things happen in this cafeteria and you need to know before they happen to you." She said picking at her salad with the fork.
"What kind of things?" I asked turning my eyes at her.
"Just listen." She tilted her head toward the center of the room. "The big table. You see
it."
I looked. I'd already clocked it when we walked in. It was the loudest, most visible table in the whole room. The kind that takes up space even when it's not full.
"Yeah?"
"You don't sit there unless you're personally invited. You don't walk up to it. You don't
stand near it. And if someone at that table looks at you, you look away first. Those are
the rules and everyone here knows them."
"Why are you telling me this? I have zero interest in that table so don't worry." I scoffed.
"No one ever thinks they do." She looked at me steadily. "And yet."
I looked back at it. The girl sitting dead center was dark-haired and sharp-featured and
laughing at something. The kind of laugh that was a half a beat too loud, like it was
being performed as much as felt. She had two girls flanking her on either side like
bookends.
"The one in the middle," Tessa said, "is Bianca Harlow. Her family paid for the new
sports complex. Basically she owns this school - not on paper, but actually.
The one on her left is Sienna. She smiles at everything and means none of it. Sienna is the one who actually does the damage when Bianca points her at someone.
The one on the right is Petra - she's mostly harmless but she repeats everything she hears to everyone who'll listen."
"The 3 musketeers huh? Okay got it." I nodded and took a bite of my wrap.
"Noted. What else?" I asked.
Tessa laughed - a real laugh, surprised out of herself. "I like you." She said.
"How is that possible? You've known me shorter than it would take to run around a football field." I replied.
"Well, I know enough." She picked up her juice. "You remind me of me when I first got here. Except I wasn't fast enough and Bianca made my first month feel like I was living inside a nightmare. So. Learn from my mistakes."
I wanted to ask what happened. But I shrugged it off instead. We ate. It was easy and quiet and for the first time since arriving I felt my shoulders actually drop.
Tessa was real. This table was safe. I could do this. I thought.
Then Tessa went very still.
I felt it before I saw it - that shift in the room. The volume dropping like someone had
turned a dial. I looked up.
Two guys had just walked in.
The whole cafeteria didn't stop. But it changed. The way a room changes when
something walks in that everyone clocks at the same time but nobody wants to be seen
clocking.
Heads turned and snapped back.
Conversations hiccuped.
The one in front - I noticed him first because the room noticed him first. He had dark hair,
sharp face, hands in his pockets, not looking at anything or anyone in particular.
He walked through the cafeteria like the space was already his before he got there and he knew it and didn't care that he knew it. No performance. No showing off.
Just presence. The kind you can't fake.
The guy beside him was the opposite in the best way. Sandy-haired, easy grin, already
talking and gesturing like whatever he was saying was the funniest thing that had
happened all day. He was the kind of person who made you want to lean in without
knowing why.
"The one in front," Tessa chipped quietly, "is Zane Calloway."
"Who is he?" I asked.
She paused for a second, like she was picking her words carefully. "Complicated. His family has money but he doesn't act like it. He's not in Bianca's circle even though he
could be. He's not really in anyone's circle. He just exists at a level above all of it."
*Another pause.*
"Stay out of his way." She added.
"And the other one?" I asked.
"That's Ace Monroe. Zane's best friend. Probably the most charming person in this school which sounds like a compliment but isn't - charm is how people get you. Ace is warm and easy and before you know it you've told him something you never meant to say out loud."
I watched them move through the cafeteria without staring. Zane pulled out a chair at
the center table without looking at Bianca. Bianca looked at him the way you look at
something you want but aren't sure you can have.
That was interesting.
"What's the history between Zane and Bianca?" I asked leaning close to Tessa.
"Long story." Tessa picked up her fork.
"Let's keep that for a different day." She said.
" Mm,Fair enough." I went back to my food.
"Don't look now," Tessa whispered.
My senses kicked in late and I looked.
Ace was staring directly at me. Not at our table. At me. He tilted his head - not a smile, just a recognition, like he'd been watching for a while and I'd finally caught him and then turned back to whatever Zane was saying.
I looked away and concentrated on my food.
"Mila I told you not to look," Tessa muttered into her juice.
"You said it after I already looked, sorry."
She put her cup down. "This is exactly how it starts, Mila. Every single time."
"Nothing is starting." I countered.
She just looked at me and shook her head.
I didn't say anything else because honestly - the way he'd looked at me sat in my chest like something that hadn't decided what it was yet.
I ate the rest of my wrap and told myself it meant nothing. Or so I thought.