Bumblebee Pebbles – Chapter One

Autumn

“For God’s sake, James, just go and talk to her,” I shushed Luke quickly, all too aware of his loud voice attracting attention around our table in the cafeteria. 

“Could you please just shut up?” I asked, picking my phone up off the table and turning it on, clicking absentmindedly through the apps, just for something to do.

“If you don’t, then I will,” I looked up at Luke, pushing my dark hair out of my eyes. 

“You wouldn’t dare,” I narrowed my eyes at him and he sighed.

“Look around, James,” he gestured to the room, “we’re the popular kids. There are at least ten girls in this room with a crush on you,” he made a point of catching the eye of a girl across the room and winking at her. She blushed and turned to her friends to tell them, all of them simultaneously turning to look at Luke, but he had already moved on. “First off, what does she have that they don’t?” I looked over at her. “She wears jeans and t-shirts. Look at that girl,” I turned to look in the direction he was nodding. The girl was tall, skinny, blonde. Her skirt was so short it barely covered her and she was wearing a top that intentionally highlighted her breasts. She was, in everything she had done to look as such, exactly Luke’s type. 

“She must be freezing,” I stated, knowing that it would annoy Luke.

“Seriously?” he asked and I shrugged. “Fine, secondly, she spends all her time alone with a book. Doesn’t that just scream to you that she’s a nerd who’s never had a boyfriend?” I frowned, looking over as she tucked her long, curly and messy hair behind her ear before turning the page, the light making her dark brown hair look lighter. Why were those two things a problem? She was smart, I knew because she was in my maths class and she could actually answer a question when asked, unlike me who only pretended I knew what was going on half the time. As for the boyfriend thing, who cared if she’d had a boyfriend before? It didn’t affect me either way, as long as she didn’t have one now and would accept me as one. 

Luke could tell his persuasion wasn’t working. He had been trying to set me up with different girls for the past two weeks, inviting them to sit with us at lunch and then conveniently having to leave for one reason or another. It was starting to get annoying, having to make polite conversation while trying not to make it too obvious that I was curious how they weren’t covered in goose bumps. It wasn’t cold out, but it was cold enough that I wasn’t comfortable without a jumper or jacket on. 

I watched in confusion as Luke stood up, running his hand through his hair. 

“Wish me luck,” he said, walking across the room before I could stop him. I sat and watched in horror as he walked up to her, sliding into the seat opposite her, and rested his elbow on the table, his face on his hand. She looked up from her book, her eyebrow raising. The bustle of the cafeteria meant that I couldn’t hear what they were saying, or more specifically what Luke was saying as she listened, but it wasn’t just my eyes that were on the pair of them. Luke wasn’t joking when he said that we were the popular kids. Well, he was at least half right. He was popular and so, by association, so was I. In particular, a girl sitting near me was staring, a girl who was staring at them so intensely that I was surprised Luke didn’t spontaneously implode. I knew who she was, her name was Lucy, she was currently the most popular girl in school because Luke had been ‘going out’ with her for a week. Ignoring her and the death glare she was directing at the back of Luke’s head, I looked back towards Luke to see how his ‘conversation’ was going. The raised eyebrow had turned to a look that seemed slightly confused and amused at the same time. Luke gestured towards me and I ducked my head, wishing that I hadn’t cut my hair last week and that it was still long enough to cover my eyes. When I glanced up again, she was looking directly at me, leaning back in her chair, glancing back towards Luke as he kept talking. I returned her gaze, wondering why exactly she was looking at me. Had Luke said something good or bad about me? With him, you could never be exactly sure what he would say. 

I watched as Luke stood up, I’m sure he winked at her before doing so, and started walking back towards me. She picked up her book from the table, grinning slightly as she turned a page. Luke threw himself into the chair across from me, beaming as he did so. 

“What did you say?” I asked, still fully aware of Lucy’s gaze on Luke. 

“Nothing,” his smile widened, “why don’t you go and talk to her?” I narrowed my eyes at him, grabbing my backpack and standing up, slinging it over my shoulder as I sent him a glare, silently warning him against interfering with my love life ever again, before I made my way over to her table. She looked up as I approached, glancing back down at her page before turning the book face down on the table to save her place. 

“I just want to apologise for him,” I told her and she made a face as if she was trying not to laugh, “and find out exactly what he said so I know if I have to defend myself or agree with him.” She laughed a little at that, leaning forward on the table, resting her elbow on it like Luke had done, but her hand rested itself in her hand rather than on her chin.

“Are you going to sit down?” she asked and I nodded, immediately flustered. Why hadn’t I sat down before? I let my bag slip down my arm and fall to the floor, trying to be cool like Luke had been when he walked over and sat down, but failing miserably as my leg got caught on the side of the table and I accidentally kicked her when I got my leg free. Damn long, clumsy limbs. I immediately started to apologise, but she shrugged them off. “You don’t have to apologise unless you did it intentionally and then regretted your actions,” she narrowed her eyes and stared at me. “You didn’t do it intentionally, did you?” I shook my head, wondering if she was being serious or not. “Of course not, I don’t know why I said that,” she sat back, pulled her hair over one of her shoulders and started twirling her fingers around the end of it. Was she as nervous as I was? The whole conversation suddenly felt very awkward.

“So, um…” I tried desperately to find a train of thought to board, but unfortunately, due to a storm, all trains were delayed and the platforms were packed with late businessmen who could do nothing but complain.

“I’m Grace,” she said suddenly, still playing with her hair, “just… so you know.”

“Oh, yeah. James,” I replied and very nearly held out my hand for her to shake before I realised that I wasn’t an upper class gentleman in the 1900s, so I didn’t need to do that. 

“You don’t need to worry about what your friend said,” she piped up, looking across the room. I turned in my seat to look towards Luke as well. He wasn’t being very subtle about watching us, even going as far as winking at Grace. “She doesn’t look too happy,” Grace said, and I looked at her to see a frown on her face. Trying to follow her gaze, I turned in my seat again and found myself staring at Lucy, whose death glare was more prominent from this side of the cafeteria. 

“She’s mad that Luke was talking to you,” I explained, turning to face Grace again. 

“How come?” She asked, picking up her book. I thought for a moment that I was boring her and that she was going to start reading, but she folded over the corner of the page and closed the book, putting it in the bag on the seat next to her. 

“He’s going out with her. Personally, I don’t think it’s going to last much longer,” I said as she pulled out a bag of crisps from her bag.

“Why not?” She asked, opening the bag and holding it out to me, offering one to me. I shook my head and she shrugged, popping one in her mouth.

“Because as far as he’s aware, they’re not actually dating,” I told her, glancing down at the crisps and wishing that I had taken one. She seemed to pick up on this and offered the bag to me again.

“Would you just take one already?” she exclaimed when I hesitated and I reached out, taking one. 

Grace seemed fully invested in the drama of Luke and Lucy and kept looking over at Lucy and started commentating to me what her facial expressions were doing so I wouldn’t have to keep turning around in my chair. “She looked like she just ate a lemon, except it was covered in popping candy and she’s allergic to citrus fruit,” I laughed, which made Grace smile. She seemed to enjoy making people laugh, or rather she enjoyed it when people found her jokes funny, which was an endearing quality. 

“What about Luke?” I asked and her gaze shifted.

“He’s not paying her any attention at all,” she told me, “they’re not even sat at the same table.” A grin twitched at the sides of her mouth and she plastered an overly wide smile on her face and held up two thumbs up. She started laughing to herself, looking back towards me. “He send me a thumbs up,” she explained and I raised an eyebrow, letting her know that she hadn’t explained enough. “I wanted to let him know how it feels,” she started giggling to herself again. “He blushed and looked away,” she finished and I found myself grinning. She was pretty, sure, that was what had caught my attention initially. But she was also conniving, entertaining – she knew how to make someone laugh and seemed to get very offended when I didn’t realise she was making a joke or if I didn’t laugh at the joke. 

I glanced over at Luke, wondering exactly what he had said to her and why she hadn’t mentioned it.

And done!

I wrote this ages ago, but I just know I'm never going to get around to releasing it, so I might as well share it here!

Plus, it gives you a little taste of what my writing is like. If you like it, I do have some published short stories... check them out?!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!