Find You in the Dark (Find You in the Dark #1)(4)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

“You make it sound so easy, Maggie. One day you’ll get it.” Daniel muttered. I just shrugged and focused on my lunch, letting Rachel do the whole advice and consoling thing. She was much better at it anyway.

While my friends ruminated on the disastrous state of Daniel’s love life, my eyes flitted around the cafeteria. Everyone and everything was just as it should be. The population of Jackson High School existing in their perfectly predestined circles. The jocks ate at their table in the middle of the room, making suggestive comments to the cheerleaders and tripping the AV geeks as they scuttled by. The goth kids sat in the back, writing bad poetry, or applying more eye liner, or whatever it was they did. The social outcasts sat on the fringes, not making eye contact. Nothing changed. Everything was so predictable and boring I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

Then my eyes landed on him. That familiar black head and beat up army jacket. It was the not so pleasant guy from this morning. Now, there was someone who was anything but boring, even if he seemed a bit psychotically temperamental.

He was making his way through the lunch line, haphazardly dropping food items on the tray. He obviously couldn’t care less about what he was going to eat and seemed to be doing nothing more than going through the motions.

Even from here, his ridiculous good looks were startling. He definitely had the attention of most of the kids in the room. The girls whispered to each other as they batted their Mabelline mascaraed eyes in his direction. The jocks stared him down, feeling the threat of encroaching testosterone in their territory.

What was interesting to watch was that this guy clearly didn’t give a shit about any of it. In fact his body language practically screamed “Leave Me Alone!” He stood with his shoulders hunched forward, his chin pointed inward towards his chest. His shaggy hair hung in his face, obscuring his eyes. He shuffled along as if he were trying not to draw attention to himself.

Good luck there buddy. Davidson was a small town and the arrival of a new student was like dropping a bloody steak into a tank full of sharks. He’d be devoured in no time.

I watched him pay for his food without saying a word to the lunch lady. He picked up his tray and moved quickly toward a table near the back. Into outcast zone. Interesting. This guy could easily have sat anywhere. He could have carved out any place within the social hierarchy that he wanted. But instead he sat at a table by himself without once making eye contact with anyone. He pulled an MP3 player out of his tattered army jacket pocket and put the ear buds in. His vibe was loud and clear; don’t approach under fear of death!

“Hello! Earth to Maggie!” Rachel wiggled her fingers in my face, breaking my single minded focus on Mr. Cute and Gloomy. Rachel followed my line of vision and smirked. “Ah, checking out the new kid, huh?” I grunted noncommittally and turned my back on the lonely boy at the back of the cafeteria. I looked at Rachel and Daniel who wore identical grins. “What?” I asked defensively.

“Aww. Mags has a whittle ol’ cwrush.” Daniel obnoxiously rustled my hair. I swatted his hand away and smoothed the fly away strands. “You’re as crazy as your Glenn Close psycho girlfriend. I met him this morning and he’s a total ass. Not remotely crush worthy.” I lied, stuffing my mouth with a Snickers bar in an attempt to limit conversation.

Rachel laughed. “Well, whatever he is, he is smokin’ hot with a capital H. Though he’s kind of an odd ball. He was in my Creative Writing class this morning. His name is Clayton Reed and he just moved here last week from Florida. But he’s some kind of social phobe or something. He wouldn’t talk to anyone and pretty much ignored everyone who tried to talk to him. And lord knows the girls were trying.”

“Well, he certainly didn’t have any trouble talking when he was chewing me a new one this morning.” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Clayton again. “What is this? Was he mean to you? Do I need to have a talk with this guy?” Daniel asked, jumping into protective brother mode. Daniel took his role as pseudo- sibling very seriously. No one messed with Rachel or me without making a very serious enemy. It was nice to know someone like Daniel had your back. The boy had clout in our little ecosystem and I felt pleasantly protected by Daniel’s friendship. But I recognized the mama bear glint in his eyes and I had to neutralize it before it led to a confrontation and further humiliation and embarrassment.

“Heel, Danny. I’m a big girl and can fight my own battles. I wasn’t Miss Suzy Sunshine either.” I conceded. Rachel chuckled. “Now, that sounds more like it. Our Maggie doesn’t take being verbally berated without giving as good as she gets.” I tossed my straw paper at my best friend. “Shut up, Rachel. I’m the nicest person you know.” I told her with mock indignation. Rachel balled up the paper and flicked it back in my direction.

“Yeah right, Mags. It’s not like you don’t have a reputation for taking people out at the knees or anything.” Daniel joked, jabbing his fork into his fruit cup. Okay. I admit it, I’m not the easiest person to be around sometimes- or maybe even most of the time. I had a habit of speaking my mind without thinking, of telling the absolute truth without any thought of possible consequences. I had no time for fluff, so I simply didn’t bother.

“I just have a low bullshit tolerance and I for one think that is an admirable trait.” I bit out, a little annoyed with my friends for painting me in such a negative way. Daniel patted my arm, noticing my dark look. “You’re right. I’d rather be around someone who tells me like it is than having to second guess everything coming out of their mouth. I think you are a refreshing change from the rest of the sheep at this school.” Rachel smiled at me. “Ditto.” She said, reaching over and giving me a one armed hug.

My friends were so cool and great for that needed self esteem boost. There was a reason I kept them around.

My attention was suddenly pulled back to the table being occupied by Clayton Reed. I heard a raised voice and groaned at seeing meat- head Paul Delawder holding Clayton’s MP3 player. Paul was a raging douche bag. He made it his mission in life to taunt, terrorize and humiliate most of the student body. He skipped school at least three days a week and failed most of his classes. He had already been kept back twice and he was the oldest senior in our class, being nineteen and all. He had a designated desk in the detention room and bragged about getting a plaque for it. A nasty moron with a taste for abuse and definitely not my favorite person. He and I had had multiple run ins over the years and I had been on the receiving end of his harassment more times than I could count. My hands clenched as I watched the school bully zero in on his new target.