A Strange Case [2]

(Malory)

“Oh! Hey, my mom called yesterday,” I tell Olivia as we find seats in the crowded cafeteria.

“She did?” She asks excitably, “How’s everything in China?”

“She says it’s great. She had to do surgery on a panda.”

“Is the panda okay?”

“She said he’ll be fine after getting a lot of rest.”

“When is she coming back?”

“She’s supposed to be back in two weeks,” I tell her. “Supposed to be. I’m not counting on it. I know how messy her schedule is. Something new always comes up. She knows I can manage on my own, though.”

Olivia smiles, weakly. “I admire her so much.”

I smile, a bit sadly. “It’s amazing how she’s built herself up over the past year. She was such a mess after... well...”

Olivia frowns. “I know. You don’t have to bring it up if you don’t want to.”

She pats my back. I get a flashback of when Kyle slammed me into the lockers earlier today –how my back hit the metal lockers and I cringed. I straighten my back and clear my throat, taking a sip from my juice, shoving the thought aside.

“She keeps me motivated for the animal rights group,” I say. “It’s a shame I didn’t end up being great at science to take after her and become a vet. I’m kinda disappointed in myself. I used to be a science god in middle school. Time really shapes your path, doesn’t it?”

“I’m sure she’s proud that you’re doing what you love, so it doesn’t matter. Don’t be too disappointed. You may not end up in any career that deals with science but you can do so many other things.”

I laugh, pitifully. “I guess... but I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m pathetic.” I pout.

She stops rubbing my back and looks at me pointedly. “Not true.”

Ron appears out of nowhere and slams his filled lunch tray down on our table with a huff. Olivia and I look up at him as he stares blindly at the table. We look at each other and raise our brows, slowly biting into our lunches.

“May I?” He asks, exasperated.

Olivia scoots over and I follow her, until there’s enough space for Ron to take a seat beside me. He drops into the seat with a furrow of his brows.

“What’s going on?” Olivia asks.

“Is that doofus still ignoring you?” I roll my eyes.

He inhales sharply. “He’s pissing me off. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“Kyle?” Olivia chews her lunch.

“I’m tired of trying for today. I need to preserve whatever sanity I have left before one of my favourite classes this afternoon,” says an irritated and hungry Ron.

I pause in the middle of a juice sip. “Ron...” I said, carefully.

“Yea?”

“What if he got into a fight with someone?”

“I wouldn’t know about it,” he says in a spiteful, annoyed tone. “Why? Do you think he fought with someone?”

I wonder if I should tell him –or anyone at all. Then again, as Kyle said, I really should just mind my own business. Serves him right for getting punched... kinda. Maybe if I gave Ron a subtle hint...

“Did he even look in your direction at all today?”

“No,” he replies. “He ignored my existence, didn’t talk to me and looked at literally anything else. I don’t care anymore, though. We have two more periods before school ends for the day and I’m not about to spoil my mood before a double of literature. I’m just going to stay with you guys until he stops being a dick,” he concludes. “He isn’t leaving me with much of a choice anyway, being so closed off. You’d think at least opening up to one person would do him some good. Sometimes I wonder if there’s some real life horror story that’s going on in his life and nobody knows a damn thing. I’m not gonna lie. I’m worried about him and simultaneously scared for my own life. And all of this is just based on assumptions.”

“Can’t believe I’m saying this,” I mutter, “but I think you might be right.”

He definitely has some horror caging him in. The question is... What is it?

The other question is... Why on Earth do I even care?

“Just let him cool off,” Olivia says in a defeated tone. “He’ll be fine. I think he’ll be fine. He’s just having a really bad day.”

I take a big bite into my sandwich. He’s having such a bad day he had to bring up my father?

When my father died, the school was notified, and news about it trickled through the student body. It faded like any other old news story since I’m not actually that important around here, but I guess Kyle had been saving that line to use on me for a long time.

“Let the day pass,” Ron says, more to himself than to anyone else, and I find myself listening. If Kyle’s abnormal attitude gets out of hand, I’ll just get to the core of it like I always do.