Chapter 7

I stood stock still as I continued to look at the familiar eyes of Owen. A small sinister like smile made its way to his face as he stared right back at me. It was then that Kate turned around and realised that I hadn't been following her. "Lyra?" She quetioned. "Sorry," I looked away from his eyes and followed Kate but I realised that she was heading over to the exact table he was occupying with some other guys and girls. "Hey guys," Kate greeted everyone at the table and introduced me. "This is Lyra, she's new here." Then one by one, everyone introduced themselves but in the end I couldn't really remember most of the names save for one person. He even pretended like we hadn't met before. When I looked around the table I realised that only two chairs remained unoccupied. One was between Owen and a guy I think want by the name of Dustin, and another was between two girls. I was about to move to the one between the two chatty girls but Kate beat me to it. I sighed and went to sit at the only unoccupied seat. I was about to sit when the chair was moved from beneath me and I almost fell right on the floor but someone wrapped their arm around my waist preventing the fall. I looked up at the person who had helped me and noticed that it was Dustin. "Careful," he said and brought the chair near me so that I could sit. I stared at the food on my tray after noticing that most heads had turned over to see what the comotion was all about. When the cafeteria was finally filled back with chatter I looked up at Dustin and thanked him. "Nah. There's no need for that," he waved his hand dismissively," anyone would have done the same." Just as I was about to say something, a guy seated on Dustin's right side called him and soon they were in a heated conversation. I turned to my left and looked up at the person who was responsible for my almost fall. "What? Like what you see?" He said in his usual bored voice whilst sipping on his canned beverage. "What's wrong with you? You almost embarrassed me in front of the whole school?" I whisper yelled. "It's not my fault you're clumsy." I stared at him a bit longer but he didn't even spare me a glance. Deciding on not making a fool of myself, I picked up the chicken sandwich from my plate and began eating it. Lunch was very much uneventful and tried to eat my sandwich as slowly as I could. Dustin tried to involve me in his conversation with the guy seated next to him but I had half the brain to talk about cars. I didn't really have a particular interest in knowing which car did what and which didn't. So instead I decided to be honest with them. "As long as I'm able to get from one point to another." "Are you kidding?" The guy seated next to Dustin, who I soon found out was Alex, asked, looking at me as if I'd just run over his puppy. "I'm not." I responded. Feeling the need to defend myself. "A car is like a hot chick for me. The hottest for me. I can't simply go for something everyone has. I want something made for me. Something I can drive all night long." He chuckled and high fived the guy to his right. I found them disgusting for comparing girls to cars. I turned to Dustin to find him rolling his eyes. As if used to their antics. ********** When classes were over I made my way to the car park and noticed it was almost deserted save for three cars. I had completely forgotten about calling Mum in advance. "Lyra," I was brought out of my stupor and looked to my left where the voice had come from and saw Dustin push himself off the hood of his car and jogged over to me. "Hey Dustin. Uhm...thanks again for preventing me from falling earlier," I said sheepishly, not knowing what else to say. "Like I said it was no problem. I would have hated to see you fall when I could have done something about it." He tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. "Uh...my friends and I are going out and I was wondering if you'd like to join us." My heart swelled at hearing his words and I couldn't help but give him a warm smile, " Yeah, that'd be great." He grinned at my answer, "Great then let's get going." He walked over to the passenger door and held it open for me, "You don't have to." "I don't mind," he said ushering me to the inside of the car and I laughed a little and thanked him. He walked around the car and got in the car. Once he was seated, he pulled out of the car park and drove further away from the school to what seemed like a deserted beach. Was it ok for me to enter a guy's car when I just met him? Probably not. My mental judgement was definitely off. I looked at Dustin. He didn't like a sociopath so guess there was no harm. I took off my sneakers and socks and walked in the warm sand. There was a group circled around a fire, when we got closer to the group, I realised that almost everyone who was sat at the table during lunch was here including Owen the first class jerk. Dustin spread down a blue towel that I hadn't noticed he had earlier next to the circle that had been formed on the sand below a sand dune. He sat down and tapped the space near him as if asking me to sit down. There was some space left but when I sat down his arm and mine brushed from time to time. A guy threw a can of bear at Dustin and he caught it without difficulty. I was busy looking at the can of bear that I didn't have enough time to catch the can that was tossed at me when the same guy called my name. Instead it ended up hitting my forehead and a searing pain soon took its place after the can fell on my lap. I heard laughter follow after and the guy tried to appologise in between laughter. "Cut it out guys. Can't you see that she's hurt," Dustin said almost angrily and made me face him. He inspected my forehead with a look of concern,"There's no cut but it will swell. Let's put some ice on it," he got up and took an ice pack from the cooler box and placed it against my forehead, "that should stop the swelling." "Thank you," I said as I replaced his hand that was holding onto the ice with mine. "Don't mention it." Minutes had gone by and I actually thought that I'd relax but I was far from it. I kept on shifting the can from my left hand to right one and back again, not even bothering to open it. I felt out of place and uncomfortable and I decided that maybe it was high time I left. So I got up from the towel and Dustin looked up at me,  confusiom clearly written on his face. "Where are you going?" he said as he got to his feet. "It's getting late and I need to get home." "Let me drive you then-" "No. I don't want to bother you." "And how do you plan on getting home?" He asked as he crossed his arms across his chest. Unfortunately, I was too focused on the idea of getting away that I didn't have enough time to think about how I would get home. "That's what I thought," he took his towel from the ground and gently placed his hand on my wrist and pulled me towards his car. Just like earlier, he opened the door for me and I got in the car without arguing. The ride home was quiet and I only spoke up to give Dustin directions when he asked. I stared out through the passenger window and saw trees blur up as we past them. Soon the trees turned into houses and I noticed that we were now in my neighbourhood. "Thanks for the ride. I don't even know how I would have gotten back if it hadn't been for you." "There's no need for that. I'm really sorry for what happened earlier. I hope you get better." "It wasn't your fault...it wasn't anyone else's fault but mine," I slightly smiled in assurance, "See you tomorrow," I said as I opened the car door. "See you tomorrow," he replied with a smile on his lips and he drove off. Maybe today didn't go the way I'd hoped it would but at least I got to meet someone as kind as Dustin.