CHAPTER FIVE: MISTAKES

“He talked your way out of suspension? That is so sweet!” Lexi cooed over lunch. She seemed to be the only person at our table interested in my story. With Sebastian being the main character, that wasn’t surprising.
    I spun my unopened bag of Ding Dong’s on the tabletop. “Yeah, adorable,” I grumbled. I had been brooding over the incident ever since it happened. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful. It’s that I’m baffled by how he did it. He barely said anything, and Harold went along with it like it was nothing. I want to know what he’s hiding.”
    “Mmm, I like the sound of that,” she played with the straw in her soda, giving a sheepish look. “I wonder what he has hiding under those tight Hollister-”
    “WOAH-KAY!” I coughed, cutting her off. “I do not want to think about that!”
    “Why? Are you afraid that you might like what you think?” she challenged.
    “That’s disgusting.”
    “I think you like him.”
    “You’re so full of it.”
    She took a small sip of her soda, eyeing me with a look that suggested much more than I was comfortable with. I returned an annoyed glance, then went back to spinning my bag of Ding Dongs.
    “Maybe Principal Wyatt knew punishing you was wrong,” Sami tried, offering a shrug of her sharp angled shoulders. “After all, Jill did provoke you.”
    “Or maybe Sebastian is really that much of a master of manipulation,” I retorted. I liked my explanation much better, it was more plausible.
    Lexi shot me a glare for the comment. “Give him a chance. He’s not as bad as you seem to think.”
    Her remark rubbed me the wrong way. I turned to face her. “And you would know that so well, right?” I bit back, “with the whole thirty minute conversation you had with him? I’m glad you can make such a good assessment of someone’s character that easily.”
    She blushed, moving uncomfortably in her chair. She opened her mouth to retaliate, but I talked over her. “What? Are you going to tell me I’m wrong? Because I don’t think you have much ground to stand on, Lexi. Just because you think he’s hot doesn’t mean he’s a good person.” I scooted my chair away from the table and stood. “Get over yourself,” I snapped before storming out of the cafeteria.
    I was halfway down the first floor hallway when Payton caught up to me. “Hey,” she gently touched my arm.
    “I don’t want to hear you try to defend her,” I said. I continued walking.
    She paced me. “I didn’t come after you to try to defend her. I came after you because I think that you’re right. But-”
    “There is always a but,” I grumbled under my breath.
    “But,” she continued, “you have to remember that Lexi is a sixteen year old girl with a crush. You can’t expect her to listen to logic.”
    “So what am I supposed to do? Allow her to dilute herself with her hopeless delusions of being with him?”
    “Yes.”
    I stopped walking so I could look at her. Her expression was serious. “What?” I was taken back. Out of everyone I knew, Payton had always been the most level headed. Now, here she was, staring at me with her deep brown eyes, waiting patiently for me to understand.
    “She’s young. She needs to make mistakes. Without them, she’ll never learn.”
    “So you’re saying you want us to let her get hurt?”
    “Yes.”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. There was truth to her words, but the idea of letting one of my best friends fall into such a disastrous trap was impossible to accept. I shook my head and began to walk away again.
    “Riley!” Payton called, but I waved her plea off. I didn’t want to hear any more.

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I told my teacher I wasn’t feeling well, that my lunch was disagreeing with me, and skipped biology. The thought of sitting in the same room as Sebastian for an hour made me feel sick to my stomach.
    As I laid on the hard plastic cot, Payton’s words continued to replay in my head. I contemplated them, trying to decide if I should agree and let Lexi make one of the worst mistakes of her life, or continue to fight against her inane schoolgirl fantasy.
    Rumor had been circulating that Sebastian had already taken three virginities in the few days he had been attending Hickory High. I didn’t want Lexi to end up another number. I didn’t want to see her lose such an important part of herself to someone as devious as Sebastian.
    When the bell rang, I was tempted to keep up the charade, but skeptical glances from the pudgy-faced Mrs. Jones and a queasy looking Austin Shmitt gimping into the room caused me to reconsider and leave.
    In gym I decided to join a group of girls I vaguely knew in attempts of avoiding conversation with Sebastian. At first, they seemed timid to take me in. I’m sure word of me breaking Jill’s nose had circulated around the school by now, and the rumor beforehand probably didn’t help my reputation.
    When Sebastian came strolling from the locker rooms, they all began to banter the same way Lexi did, so I got up and left. I’d rather talk to Sebastian personally than hear other people talk about him. At least when I was talking to him, even though he was crude, I didn’t have to hear great details of him without clothes.
    “You weren’t in Biology,” he said, taking a seat next to me.
    “Good observation,” I said back.
    “Why?”
    “I wasn’t feeling well,” I lied. When he rose an eyebrow, I touched my stomach. “Bad lunch.”
    “You didn’t eat lunch,” he told me.
    “How would you know?” I asked, hearing an edge in my voice.
    “I saw you spinning the same package of Ding Dongs the entire time before storming out of the cafeteria. Was something wrong?”
    I shook my head and looked away. Then, second thought caused me to turn back to him. “Actually, yes, something is wrong,” I told him. “It’s my friend, Lexi.” I stopped then, deliberating if continuing was a good idea. I didn’t want him to get any ideas for a next conquest.
    He waited for me to continue. When I didn’t, he asked, “What about her?”
    I decided that being vague would be the better option. “We got in an argument. That’s all,” I said, deadpan.
    “Want to talk about it?” The way he said it, the tone of his voice, implied too much interest.
    I tried to play it off. “Nope,” I said, bending down to re-tie my shoes.
    “You sure?” he pressed.
    “Yep.”
    “Lexi… I met her in English, right?”
    “She’s the one you told you hoped you had biology with,” I tried to re-jog his memory, adding an icy look at the end.
    “Yes, I remember her. She is very cute.” His smile was provoking. I felt my cheeks begin to heat in reaction. “Is there something wrong, Mariah?”
    I turned away and crossed my arms. Coach was busy setting up nets in the gym again, and I already knew who my partner was going to be.