But We're Not Dating

We wandered over to the lone table, casting longing glaces back to the one we had just left. A burst of laughter erupted from it, echoing throughout the entire room.
Jason Angelo was lying on the ground, face up, while Dan Martinez lowered Ramen noodles into his open mouth. We turned away quickly and attempted to focus on trying to be good.

But, wow, it was hard.

"Hey, you must be the new kid!" Emma exclaimed, an overly cheery smile plastering her features. The rest of us slammed our lunch boxes down on the table without even asking. There was no going back now.

"Uhh..." he mumbled through a face of black hair. I could barely make out his mouth, much less his eyes. We were probably making him uncomfortable on all kinds of levels.

Sucks that the only people with half a clue for others' feelings also happen to be the most socially awkward people on the plant.

Then we all just sort of say there, blinking at each other. I shifted uncomfortably in my hard seat and untucked my shirt, hoping no teachers would notice.

Finally Robyn, probably the only half-normal one in our small group, spoke up.

"So, what's your name?" she asked as we all groaned inwardly. Why didn't we think of that?

"Gerard." His voice startled me. It was high pitched and rather nasally; not what I would have expected from the tall, older boy sitting in front of me.

"Oh cool," Robyn now had complete control over the situation, thank God, "I'm Robyn; that's Kate, Emma, and Anna." I gave a small, shy wave.

The table lapsed back in to more uncomfortable silence. No one else was eating, it was just THAT awkward. My stomach rumbled in protest, so I decided to break the tension and opened my lunchbox to pull out a bag of chips.
The crunching seemed to echo throughout the room, though that was impossible because it was too loud in there to even talk in normal volume.

Another laugh erupted from the tenth grade table. Involuntarily, I snuck a peek from behind my shoulder. Bri had out her baby blue Instax Mini that she bought yesterday. She was attempting to take a selfie, with the rest of the table pulling a goofy face. I couldn't help but to think that if we hadnt left, we could've been included in that silly picture as well. Based off their slightly disappointed expressions, I could tell my friends were thinking the same thing.

Meanwhile, the dry smell of burning popcorn permeated the cafeteria. Stupid freshmen can't even operate the microwaves.

Gerard wrinkled his nose in disgust. I'm not going to lie, the face looked quite funny on him. With his tiny nose (which I could barely make out between strands of raven black hair), he looked kind of like a chipmunk. I giggled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Okay, things were getting too awkward for my taste. I decided to overcome my social awkwardness briefly and make conversation.

"Hey, did any of you guys hear Panic!'s new single?" I asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

My friends sighed collectively. Looking back, I probably talked about bands way too much for them. Or Doctor Who.

"Really, Anna?" Kate rolled her eyes and I giggled.

"So that's a yes then...?" I joked grinning.

"You listen to Panic?" Oh, crap. I almost completely forgot about Gerard. I quirked an eyebrow, deciding to go way out of my comfort zone and make a joke because, hey, I like to live dangerously.

"You don't?"

To my surprise he grinned, revealing a set of tiny white teeth.

"Yeah, I heard the single, it was pretty epic," he brushed a strand of black hair back, revealing more of his face. Okay, now we were getting somewhere.

"What's your favorite era?" I questioned, grinning broadly. Yep, band kid. I SO called it.

"Probably Pretty.Odd." He responded. I wouldn't have thought that, but whatever.

"Mine's Fever," I smiled, "Emo to the extremo."

He laughed, "Mhm, but you'll never be as emo as Ryan Ross."

We started cracking up. Meanwhile, Kate, Emma, and Robyn were just kind of sitting there, wondering who the heckidy Ryan Ross was. I mean, it's not like I talked about him everyday like he was my own smol son or anything. Heh.

For the remainder of lunch, Gerard and I talked nothing but bands. Turns out he had the same music taste pretty much. He was a bit more heavy metal, though, while I would occasionally venture into the realm of obscure hipster music.

While we talked, he brushed more and more hair out of his face, revealing a set of twinkling hazel eyes and a round, dare I say babyish face.

Oh, boy. I'd given Lyn about t-minus two days before she'd come to her senses and Cameron would become the bug on the windshield wondering what the heckidy happened. And what Lyn wants, Lyn gets, followed up by a boatload of unnessisary drama.

Watch out Gerard.

Notes

Yay chapter two, and it's a longish one! :D I did want to say that I'm also posting a slightly altered version of this story on my Wattpad with music, so y'all shoul totally check it out (I'm TheLivingKilljoy, story title is the same).
Anyway I hope you enjoy, and as always feedback is much appreciated! ^•^