(23) Lucy

Marie scouts the cafeteria for a table, holding a tray on her hand. It shouldn’t be this crowded this time of the day she thought grudgingly. What a day for her to suggest eating at the cafeteria. Smooth move Marie now she’ll never hear the end of it from her friends.

Someone knocks on her shoulder that she almost let go of her tray. The guy only turned to her looking bothered before moving on, and suddenly, she had the strong urge to start screaming at the rude jerk, and for her friends, who went ahead told her they’d call her when they find a table but it’s been a while and still no call.

She’s been walking around the cafeteria for a while at her wits’ end when she comes across the one person she feels she didn’t need to see.

Airi was eating at a corner table strategically placed next to the exit. There were other people beside her but immediately she could tell she wasn’t with them. She was basically alone, too busy writing in her notebook and making notes on what she assumes is for the upcoming festival.

Marie looked away, pretends she didn’t to see her. She had always felt bad at how she suddenly distanced herself from Airi, but it can’t be helped! With everything she heard she almost didn’t believe them (the sources were reliable), it was hard to be around her without being branded with her, be a part of her group, a minion.

And Luke and Neil too! She swears, despite her telling them not to, despite telling them everything she heard her friends said she did.

“I’m telling you guys she’s bad news! Lucy said so!” Marie had told Luke and Neil one day at Mcdonald’s while they were procrastinating on an assignment due that very day. She begain explaining why Airi is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, appearing cute, fragile and innocent while actually being a cold-blooded floozy out to snatch other girls’ boyfriends.

“Who the heck is Lucy?” Neil asks, an eyebrow raised in mild annoyance at her words that it somehow irks her, how it seemed like he was taking Airi’s side. “She’s my new friend, she went to the same school as Airi and Zoey.” She answers, somewhat hesitantly, defensively.

“Let’s just ignore her from now on.” She turns to Luke, who was far too bust writing to actually look at her.

“Wait, didn’t Ren just helped Airi out the other night?” Luke remembered, putting his pen down and taking a break from writing his report. It was about the incident at the bar with, how he stepped up and helped them, even going so far as to walk them home. “He was being a real chad then, almost made me not hate him.”

Neil pointed out a mistake in his writing and he sighs, exasperated. He goes back into writing somewhat irritated this time.

“T-that’s just Ren being kind and couldn’t ignore a childhood friend, which you guys should do too! And anyway, this isn’t about Ren, this is about what Airi did to Nina!” she defends.

“No, no, this is totally about Ren...” the two thought in unison. However, for the better part of themselves (and to avoid angering her more) they keep quiet. They have known each other long enough to memorize by heart how Marie feels when you talk against her.

The three had been friends for a long as they could remember, being that their parents know each other and lives relatively close with each other.

“I mean, did she really do it? It could just be another rumor, that girl seems to be surrounded with all kinds of rumor.” Neil says with a shrug, imaging that timid and quiet Airi going around bullying people who seemed more aggressive (not to mention taller) than her.

Luke stays quiet, more pre-occupied with finishing the assignment than anything. “Hey, Neil what does this say?” To which Neil replies to do his own damn assignment himself instead of copying from his.

“Are you guys even listening?!” Marie yells, her face flushed from anger. The two finally looks at her. Neil sighs while Luke returns back to doing his assignment, conscious of the few minutes he has left. Unlike Neil who was almost finished with his, Luke was just starting his.

“Honestly, I don’t care,” he says as he continues finishing his assignment. Luke looks over at it and begs him for the last time and asks for a copy; Neil names a price and he makes a face.

Seeing their obvious indifference made her slam her hands on the table and lash out, “you guys are always like this! You see a cute girl and already you think she’s an angel sent from heaven!”

Everyone was looking over at them, wondering what was wrong, the sudden attention made Marie sit down, lowering her head in embarrassment.

“Look,” Luke says finally looking up and shifting to face her, his tone suddenly serious. “What do you have against the girl? She didn’t do anything to you did she?”

Marie hesitates, “well, no, but—

Luke lifts his hand in front of her, as if to stop her. The look on his eyes caught her attention. “Then there’s nothing to talk about is there? It’s not out place to judge them, anyway.

Whether Ren and Airi are in a secret relationship, that’s not something for us to judge is there?”

There was a pause. Everyone turns in their direction.

”You don’t know what we’re talking about, do you?” Neil whispers.

”Not a damn clue.” Luke replies with a straight face.

And Marie just exploded. “You…Bloody... IDIOT!”

Marie leaves Mcdonald’s with Luke’s face buried in the table.

“Honestly. You deserve it.” Neil says, placing his finished assignment at the back of his head like some kind of offering.

“I don’t think you’re wrong though.”

.

It’s not that she doesn’t trust Airi, she had her doubts too, she asked questions, why was she hated so much, what was the extent of the horrible things she’s done.

And why Lucy hated her so much.

She got her answer one day as they were waiting for the others. It was awkward, since this is practically the first time they’ve been alone together. Probably due to the sheer awkwardness between them, Lucy spoke first.

“I had a close friend in high school who Airi bullied.” Lucy confesses to her, it caught her off guard because although they hang out together, it still doesn’t sit well with her that this girl suddenly appeared like a storm, destroying any kind of belief she had about a person she once called a friend, she wanted to just watch over her friends and have little to do with her, let alone have this kind of conversation. Whatever this is.

Although she notices Lucy’s apparent despondency, which is unlike her usual bitchy persona of telling her friends what to do, who to believe in and who to hate.

Lucy continues and proceeds to tell her all about this close friend of hers, about how she was an upperclassman from the same club. Lucy looked up to her like how a person would stare at a bright and shining star. “She was the kindest, sweetest person I’ve ever known. She is always there to support me.”

However, because she just happened to be close with Ren, she caught the attention of a certain girl. Marie notices the change in her tone.

“She changed one day when Airi called her out to talk to her. I don’t know what Airi had on her, but suddenly, she became her puppet. She would do anything that bitch says.” She clenched her fists, her anger fresh as the day it happened.

”When I confronted her about her odd behavior, she just broke down. I’ve never seen such a strong person like her so broken apart.

‘I hate her so much!’ she would tell me over and over,” Lucy clenches her fists. Her voice was solemn now, but the anger was still there.

It perplexes her to think that Airi had this capability. When she met her, she was meek and submissive, almost like a cat, careful and anxious. Hearing her side of the story made Marie sympathize with her situation. “T-then it must have been a huge relief when she transferred.” Marie finds herself saying, the words left a bad aftertaste on her mouth but decided to swallow it down, let it settle like a rock on her stomach.

Lucy smiles bitterly, still looking at the ground, “if only it were that easy. Airi might not have hurt her physically like she did with Nina, but she left permanent scars on my friend’s heart. She left the club not long after Airi’s transfer, apparently to focus on her studies but I don’t know...” she trails off. “I’m sure she will always be traumatized by that. Still, I hope she’s doing okay,”

.

Airi notices her. It didn’t take long for her to realize her predicament. She finishes her meal, fixed her things and moves out wordlessly with her tray, leaving the vacant seat for Marie to take. She must have been aware she’s ignoring her, she thought feeling bad for their situation. She was about to take the seat, when a voice calls out to her “Marie! Over here!” she hears her friends call her name, relief came to her, but so did guilt. She looks back at the empty seat in front of her, thinking how Airi probably finished her meal quickly to provide her a seat. She tightened the grip on the tray, uncertain.

Her friends call her out again and she shakes her head, and motions towards them. Airi isn’t that kind, considering everything she did. There’s just no way, she convinces herself. She sits down and smiles apologetically at her friends for being late and notices their heavy stares aimed at her. She felt tense, as if in the midst of being interrogated for a crime.

“Were you just approaching that girl?” ‘that girl’ being Airi, as saying her name has been something of a taboo to mention within the group.

“N-no it wasn’t like that!” she defends herself. “I was looking for you guys and saw her by chance. I-I totally ignored her!”

She sees them relax, the heavy atmosphere fades. “Geez girl,” Lucy then says, relaxing in her seat. “That girl is too unstable, who knows what she’d do to you!” she says with a mock-tone, her voice louder, enough for the tables beside them to hear. Everyone makes mischievous grins, taking the hint.

“Yeah, yeah.” The girl nudges beside her, her voice just as loud, “she could, like, I don’t know, scream at you and accuse you of stealing. How devious!”

“Or push you down the stairs,” another says with a snicker.

“Or steal your boyfriend. God, how awful would that be!” another girl pipes in and laughter fills the table. It has become something of a humor in their circle to make jokes out of Airi and every horrible she did, and it always went the same way. Whenever Airi was around and always with a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. It always starts with Lucy becoming a de-facto leader of the group. “That was so funny, don’t you think so Marie?”

Marie nods with a smile, laughing with them, her voice stuck on her throat, so heavy that she almost chokes.

She sees the people around them stare and whisper to themselves, the judging looks and laughs made her look down, her smile twists into disgust. She loosens her grip on the utensils, lowering them down. She had just lost her appetite.