Falling For The Playboy

Feminine laughter drew my eyes to Axel’s table. There was an addition to the table. A girl sat beside him on his right side, pushing him to the middle  and he had his arm around her. There was a smile on her face as she looked up at him, but he seemed to be listening to something his friend said.

I couldn’t see her face yet I knew that she was pretty and classy. She’d done her nails -another thing the school allowed. He shook his head playfully at something his friend said then picked up something from his plate and fed to her.

I felt…. nothing. Of course I’d known he was a manwhore -evidences of that pointing to the first time we met. And there was absolutely no reason for me to feel anything because I had no business with him.

I picked at my food, my appetite nowhere to be found.

“Pretty boys. ” Laura sighed with a knowing look on her face, “All we do is admire them and take what we want from them. “-she glanced at Abi-“If we want to. But apart from that, they’re completely useless. ”

Abi shook her head. “Not all guys are useless, Laura. ”

“I said the pretty ones. ”

“Not all pretty guys are useless either. ” Abi argued.

Laura rolled her eyes again. “Right. The majority. ” she conceded defeat, “Were you being specific, Abi? ”

A blush found it’s way to Abi’s cheeks and her mouth fell open. “What? ”

She was cute, I felt myself smiling.

“I did not stutter. ” Laura said in the same tone.

“No, of course I wasn’t. I was just saying. ”

I burst out laughing. To the onlooker, one would think Laura bullied Abi because of her calm nature, little did they know that Abi held her own well.

“Point is, ” Laura continued, “Guys like Axel are like pretty clothes at the mall. You admire them, sometimes try them out, but you don’t really buy them. ”

“Why do you see guys like that? ” I wondered out loud. She did not think highly of them at all.

“It’s the truth. I mean, it’s obvious you have a crush on him and I probably had a crush on him one time too, but the good thing about crushes? ” she smiled, “They pass. And yours is going to too. So as the good friend that I am, I’m going to advice you not to act on it. ”

I was going to argue and say that I didn’t have a crush on him, but knowing Laura, I wouldn’t win that argument.

“I wasn’t going to act on it. ” I said instead.

“Good. Because if you do, the drama that comes with dating Axel isn’t really worth it when you find out he’s dating three other girls too. ”

I nodded, absorbing all what she’d said. He just had to be the cliche, handsome, popular, player at school.

Two more girls had joined Axel’s table by the time I looked again. His table was now officially the most crowded in the cafeteria. One sat between Ivan and a guy I didn’t know while the other one sat beside said guy. Basically, there was only one guy at the table that wasn’t sitting with a girl and he didn’t even look that into the conversation they were having.

All of a sudden, silence settled over the cafeteria, slowly and wholly, and the only sound one could hear, came from Axel and his friends.

Zoe walked in, poised, head held high, and like the goddess that she was, she drew the gaze of every single person sitting in the cafeteria, both male and female. We were helpless not to stare, really. There was just something about her that made you abandon whatever you’d been doing and stare. She demanded attention.

She walked straight down the hall, not even sparing a glance at anyone. I was pretty sure she knew Abi and I were sitting here, but she made no move to acknowledge us. Had I expected something different from her?

Avoiding her had become as mandatory as brushing my teeth each morning and going home without her had become a normalcy. I had no idea how she got home everyday, but she always did, sometimes, even earlier than us.

As she waited for her order, her eyes slowly flitted over the room. Slowly, they came to land on us, but they didn’t stay, they continued the journey round the hall and just when I thought she was done, her eyes stopped on Axel’s table. She seemed to freeze altogether as the soft lines of her body tensed.

Zoe Lawson was staring and it wasn’t to glare at someone, no, she looked…. shocked. The same person who’d told me on the first day of school, not to stare at anyone cause it gave them the illusion of power was staring at a person now. I followed her line of sight and found Ivan staring straight at her. Their gazes met and tangled in a fit of will and power. Who would look away first?

Scorching heat emanated from their gazes and I thought I could get third degree burns just from watching them alone. What was it with them? Perhaps it was because she’d caught the both of us outside the library that day? But I felt there could be more.

Her eyes shifted to the girl who sat beside him, paused, then finally, she turned around, collected her order from the lady who had been trying to get her attention for a while now, then left.

And everyone could breathe again.

“So her paper bag didn’t come with her today? ” Laura hissed, not caring that Zoe was probably still within hearing distance.

Paper bag?

The confusion must have shown on my face because she clarified, with a sardonic twist of her mouth.

“Her boyfriend. Dexter. “