By: kf6tac (Brian) and Jamie Sommers
Email: kf6tac@yahoo.com
Rated: PG-13
Synopsis: This story is about Landon and Jamie’s
budding relationship. They’ve had their
first date; Landon has told her he loves her, now they have to face their
friends, their family and their own fears.
Written from both Landon (written in bold print by kf6tac/Brian)
and Jamie’s (written in italic print by Jamie Sommers) POV.
Chapter
3: Lunch Table Seven
The cafeteria was already starting to fill up
with people when we came in. I noticed
that Jamie was looking around the room.
“What’s up Jamie?”
“Oh, I was just wondering where you wanted to
sit…” she said, sounding a little bit uncertain.
I kissed her on the forehead and smiled. “Lunch table seven, of course? Where else would I want to go?”
She seemed a little bit surprised, but then a
big smile formed across her face. She’s
so pretty when she smiles. We headed on
over to table seven, which was just waiting for us. I pulled Jamie’s chair out for her, and sat down at the next seat
over. It felt good; the last time she
and I had sat there she wasn’t exactly happy with me. I watched as she pulled her lunch out of her backpack.
“Aren’t you going to eat Landon?” she asked me
when she noticed I hadn’t really moved.
“Well I actually don’t usually eat lunch… I’ll
have a snack now and then, and sometimes my mom gives me a sandwich. But usually I wait ‘til I get home.”
“Landon, you really should eat something. It’s good for you. Come on.”
Then she gave me that look. You know, the one where her eyes twinkle and
she kind of stares at me in a pleading way. Jamie had the most amazing way of appealing to me… first getting
me to dance in public, now she was getting me to eat school lunch.
“Alright, I’ll be right back. Did you want anything?” I asked as I got up.
“Mmmmm, I’m alright Landon. Just don’t be gone too long,” she said with
a smirk.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can!” I replied as I
walked briskly toward the lunch line.
‘Hmmm… a little pizza sounds good about
now. Yep
– pizza and a Coke.’
I knew I was
smiling. I just couldn't seem to help it. His words kept repeating
in my head over and over again.
"You sit
at lunch table seven, which isn't exactly the reject table but it's
definitely inside of exile territory..."
He waved to me
while he was getting his tray. 'Welcome to exile territory,' I smiled and
thought, 'better be careful Landon, next thing you know you'll be volunteering
to tutor on weekends.'
"All
right! Spill it!"
I looked up to
see Sally standing above me, just glaring down at me. "Spill
what?"
"You know
what." She looked over to the back of the cafeteria where Landon
normally resided and said, "Why isn't Landon sitting with his friends
today? Why did Belinda and Tracy try
and kill you today? Why are you smiling non stop?"
I took a sip
from my juice box, unable to wipe that silly grin off of my face, and
just shrugged my shoulders mumbling an indistinguishable, "I don't
know."
"Don't
give me that Jamie. What's going on between you two?" She
looked really concerned.
"Sally,"
I wasn't really sure what to tell her. How do you tell your friend what's
going on, when you don't really know yourself?
"Landon
and I...” I looked over at him again, his back was to me and he was
looking up at what the school was offering for lunch today on its overhead menu. "...we're..."
She was
worried he was going to hurt me, I could tell just by the look she was giving
me. If only she knew the truth. The only one that really risked
getting hurt if this relationship panned out, was
Landon.
"We're
what, Jamie? What are you and Landon?"
I just smiled
at her. I didn't know what to tell her, how to phrase it. I
definitely couldn't tell her I thought I loved him. I think Landon should
be the first one to hear that.
Before I could even answer she said, "He's gonna
hurt you, ya know? Look at what he did to Belinda and they’re
friends!! Do you even know why he
dumped Belinda?”
He was looking
at me. I don't know how I knew--I just knew. I could feel it like
fingers running across my spine.
"Jamie??
Are you even listening to me?"
Somebody
tapped his shoulder and told him to move up in line. I could make out his
'Oh, right. Sorry buddy,' from where I was sitting. He just winked
at me and took a few steps.
"Don't
worry about me, Sally." I told her, "I know what I'm doing."
I don't think
she believed me. She shook her head back and forth and said,
"Look. No matter what happens--I just want you to know--I'll be there
for you, okay?"
“I
know."
I stood up and walked
over to where Landon was in line and put my hand on his elbow. “Hey.
So what’re you gonna get?”
He looked at me with the
most mischievous grin I'd ever seen and said, "I'd tell ya, but then I'd
have to kill ya."
"Well
hello, Jamie. How're you today?"
"I'm fine
Mrs. Marsh and yourself?"
"Just
fine thank you. What can I get for you today?"
"Oh, I
brought my lunch but," I turned to look at Landon and said, "what'll
you have?"
“Uhm...got
any pizza?"
"I'm sorry
we're out."
"Oh...how
about a burger?"
"Landon,"
I laughed, "This isn't a restaurant," then something dawned on
me. "Landon, have you ever eaten in the cafeteria?"
"No.
I told you I just wait till I get home. I've never really been into all
this shi...stuff before." He looked quickly towards Mrs. Marsh and
said, "No offense."
"Oh,
don't worry young man, none taken. But you will have to decide
quickly--the natives are getting restless." She pointed out the long line
of hungry students forming behind him.
"Okay...I guess I'll
have... ummm..." he looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Give him
the tater tot casserole, Mrs. Marsh."
"Good
choice," she said as she plopped a pile of ground beef mixed
with string beans and tater tots on his plate. She garnished it with
a roll, some fruit and a carton of milk in lieu of a coke.
Sitting back
down at our table, he picked up his fork and gave the conglomeration a
questionable look.
I said a quick
thanks to God for our food and said, "Go ahead and try it. It's really
not that bad."
"I'm sure
it's great, but...what's this white creamy stuff holding it together? Glue?"
"No,"
I laughed, "It's cream of mushroom soup."
"Oh."
He held the fork in front of his mouth and held his breath while he shoved the
culinary delight in. "Hey!" He said, with a mouthful of food,
"This isn't half bad."
"See.
I told you."
"Yeah,
but to be on the safe side, I think I'll just pack a lunch from now
on." We chuckled a bit then he asked, "So what did Sally
want?"
I took a deep
breath and let it out telling him. "I guess your friends aren't the
only ones that aren't too happy about you and me."
"Well,"
he put his hand on mine, "don't worry about it. I don't care what
anybody thinks about you and me except for you and me. 'kay?"
“
‘kay." I agreed. I suppose I knew it
would be like this the moment I agreed to go out with him. We were from
two different sides of the track, him and I. Sure we both grew up in Beaufort, went to the same
schools, we even sat next to each other in the second grade but... It's
funny how two people from the same town can live in two completely different
worlds. I guess I should
probably find out about his world a little bit.
"Landon?
Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"What
happened between you and Belinda?" He just looked at me like he was
dumbstruck. "Why did you break up?"
I kinda choked when Jamie asked me about
Belinda. I would’ve liked to have
blamed it on the funny-lookin’ tater tot casserole I had on my tray, but the
stuff wasn’t actually that terrible so it wouldn’t really be fair to Mrs.
Marsh. Truth be told, the whole
situation with Belinda has had me walking on eggshells ever since we broke
up. I never really told anyone the
truth about it… and I guess Belinda had started some pretty nasty rumors to get
back at me. Funny how she would start rumors on the one hand and then try to get
back together with me on the other hand, all at the same time. Oh well. I just couldn’t believe that Jamie was asking me about it now.
“Well… why do you think I broke up with her?”
I needed to stall… not too long, but long enough so I didn’t say
something stupid.
“I haven’t the slightest clue Landon – that’s
why I’m asking you. I’d like to know.”
It looked like I didn’t have all that much of a
choice. She had me pretty much in a
corner, and I wouldn’t be able to talk my way out of it. So much for stalling while I collected my
thoughts.
“Please, Landon. I really need to know what went on.”
I gulped.
I guess someone had to find out sooner or later. Better that it would be Jamie than some
gossip queen. I lowered my voice a bit
when I spoke.
“Honestly, Jamie? I broke up with Belinda because… well… she was way too
possessive. I mean – she would barely
let me talk to any other girls without getting suspicious. That and… she wouldn’t take no for an
answer.”
“You mean she wanted to…” Jamie trailed off,
getting the big picture here.
“Yup. I
wasn’t ready for it, and she just kept pressuring me, so I eventually just
broke up with her.”
“That’s not a terrible thing, Landon,” she
re-assured me. “Why would people act
like you did something so mean when you broke up with her?”
“Well that,”
I said while looking down at the table, “that was one of Landon Carter’s more
retarded moments.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t ready to sleep with Belinda, but at
the same time I had this big image to keep up.
You know how it was with me back then.
So anyways, I stupidly decided that the best way to do this and still
maintain the macho guy image was to use some lame excuse on her. I ended up telling her that I didn’t want to
lose our friendship if something went wrong with the dating, you know… the same
old line. I guess that got her pretty
mad, ‘cause the next
thing I knew there were these rumors going around about how I was such a
terrible boyfriend.”
I paused for a minute as I remembered that
night… and the way Belinda had reacted to my “high-quality” breakup line.
‘Look Belinda, we’ve been friends for a long
time… maybe too long.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean Landon?’
‘It means that… Belinda… I think we should see
other people.’
‘But Landon, I don’t want to see other
people. I just want to be with
you.’ She tried to convince me by
brushing up against me.
‘Yeah,’ I had said, pushing her away. ‘Well maybe I want to see other people.’ I had acted so cocky when I told her that…
typical. I knew she hadn’t deserved to
be treated like that, but what the heck was I supposed to tell her? ‘If we stay together Belinda, we’ll
eventually have sex and the idea of you being my first is just…
unthinkable.’ Nope, that obviously
wasn’t going to work for big-shot Landon Carter. Couldn’t tell her that I wasn’t ready to have sex. So instead she got ‘It’s my senior year – I
just don’t want to be tied down.’
‘Fine,’ she said sharply, clearly disappointed. ‘Whatever.’
’Hey, Belinda,’ I said, reaching out to her as she angrily opened her front
door. ‘You know we can still be
friends.’
‘Sure Landon. Friends.”
I held my breath while Jamie contemplated what
I had just told her. I didn’t want her
to be angry with me because I was such a jerk to Belinda. Even more importantly, I didn’t want her to
think that I would do it again. When
she just stayed quiet, I decided to say something.
“Ummm… Jamie?
You’re not angry with me are you?”
“Oh no Landon, I’m not. I’ll admit it wasn’t all that nice for you
to give Belinda an excuse like that, but I’m pleasantly surprised that you
chose not to sleep with her.”
“Surprised?
Come on Jamie, what kind of a bad guy did you think I was?” I said to
her with a grin and a hint of sarcasm in my voice.
She laughed, then said to me, “Well I didn’t think you were all that
terrible… but my father… I'm not too sure about him. You know what he told me, that night you gave me the new sweater?” She looked at me with a smile.
“What did he tell you?”
“He told me that boys like you have
‘expectations’.”
“Me?
Neeever….”
She laughed again, that happy bubbling laughter
that I had come to love in the past few days.
“I guess it just goes to show that you can’t trust rumors. Are you going to finish your lunch? It looks like it’s getting cold.”
“Yeah, it is.
I should probably finish this up.”
I swallowed a mouthful of milk out of the
carton, and noticed that Jamie was again smiling at me.
“What is it?”
“You… you’ve got… milk all over your upper
lip,” she finally told me, interrupted occasionally by her giggles.
I sighed to myself as I wiped the milk off my
lip. I was so in love with Jamie
Sullivan.
Although I was
a little dismayed at the way Landon handled his breakup with Belinda, I wasn't
all that shocked. He did have a reputation for being a "bad
boy" but what he was
and what he is are two
different things. It never dawned on me that he would do something like
that to me--it just wasn't in him. There was one thing I needed to know
though--one question I had to ask.
"Landon? Why didn't you sleep with
her?"
The look on
his face when he answered me was one that will be burned in my memory forever.
"I didn't
love her."
I watched as he made his
way to the trash receptacle with the uneaten portion of his lunch, when I felt
a hand on my shoulder. Without even looking I knew who it was.
"What do
you want, Belinda?"
"To
finish the conversation we started in gym." She looked at me with such
contempt.
I started
gathering up mine and Landon's things, intent on avoiding another conflict,
wondering 'Will this ever end?'
"You're not going
anywhere." She threw my backpack to the ground and stepped closer to
me. I could hear the laughter coming from her group of friends behind
me. Landon must've heard it too because he turned around to see what the
commotion was. When he saw the circle of people beginning to form around
Belinda, and me he dropped his tray to the ground and ran back, forcing his way
through the barricade of onlookers.
"Knock it
off Belinda!" He picked up my bag and grabbed his things, "Come on
Jamie," he held onto my arm as if to escort me out.
"I don't
get it Landon." Dean chimed in. "A few weeks ago you were standing on
the front lawn making fun of her and now you're protecting her?? What the
hell..."
"JUST
BACK OFF DEAN!" He tried to push us through the crowd but Dean wouldn't
let up.
"So that's it?
You're just gonna throw away your real friends for...for...The Virgin
Mary?" He paused, "Or is she?"
Landon stopped
abruptly, letting our stuff drop to the
ground. I knew what he was going to do and I tried to tell him to let it go,
"...lets just walk away."
He shook his
head and whispered to me, "This ends here."
He walked back
to stand face-to-face with Dean. I was sure he was going to hit him again, but
he didn't. He looked at him and said, "My real friends? That's
what you think you are?" He looked around at all of them, his eyes
lingering on Eric's face a little longer than the rest and said, "If you
were my real friends then you'd accept her and me. You'd accept the fact
that I love her and I want to be with her." There was nothing but
silence through the entire lunchroom at his confession, "Yeah...that's
what I thought." He turned around and walked back to me picking up
our bags and holding onto my hand. He led us out onto the school's
grounds leaving the group of them staring at our backs in disbelief.
As I was dumping my tray at the trashcan, I
heard some sort of commotion going on behind me. I figured one of the jocks had just dumped milk all over a
freshman or something, but when I turned around I couldn’t believe what I was
seeing. Belinda had just grabbed
Jamie’s backpack out of her hands and thrown it onto the floor. That girl… she seriously just wouldn’t take
no for an answer. I just dropped my
tray right there on the floor and ran quickly back to Lunch Table Seven. I had to push my way through the crowd that
had gathered, but that didn’t pose too much of a problem.
“Knock it off Belinda!” Didn’t that girl understand that we were
totally through? What kind of sign was
she looking for?
I took Jamie’s arm in my hand and started to
lead her out of the room. And then Dean
had to open his big mouth.
“I don’t get it Landon. A few weeks ago you were standing on the
front lawn making fun of her and how you’re protecting her?? What the hell…”
The guy just didn’t know when to shut up. “JUST BACK OFF DEAN!!”
I really just wanted to leave, but Dean
wouldn’t budge. What the heck did he
want from us? I could tell he was just
waiting for me to try and knock a few teeth loose again… only this time I was
pretty sure he’d fight back.
“So that’s it? You’re just gonna throw away your real
friends for… for… the Virgin Mary?” He
gave Jamie another spiteful look, and then added in, “Or is she?”
That was it.
Dean had gone too far this time.
I thought maybe he’d get the idea that I was in love with Jamie without
me having to spell it out to him letter by letter, but I guess I was
wrong. I dropped our stuff on the
ground, and walked over to stand face-to-face with Dean. Jamie tried to stop me, but this had to
stop. I was tired of it, and I was sure
that even Jamie would get tired of being bullied around sooner or later.
“My real friends?” I questioned Dean, staring
right into his eyes. I hoped he could
feel my glare burning into him, because this was something I wanted him to remember. “That’s what you think you are?”
I glared around the room, daring someone to
speak up. I stopped when I got to
Eric. He had this look on his face… he
looked really shocked, confused even. I
kind of felt sorry for the guy. I knew
that he never really started trouble; he just followed along with the
crowd. I wanted to forgive him, but I
couldn’t tell if he had the guts to stop following the crowd. I didn’t know what to do for him at the moment.
“If you were my real friends then you’d accept
her and me. You’d accept the fact that
I love her and want to be with her.”
After I had finished, I kept thinking to myself ‘Come on Eric. Say something. Do something. Don’t just
stand there like the rest of them.
You’re better than that, come on man!’
But he didn’t say anything. And neither did the rest of them. I guess there wasn’t much more I could do to make Eric budge. He’d just have to come to it on his own.
“Yeah… that’s what I thought.” I picked up our bags, took Jamie’s hand, and
walked out of the cafeteria into the schoolyard.
“I’m so sorry about that Jamie,” I said to her
after we got outside. “Those guys are a
bunch of jerks. I guess Lunch Table
Seven is going to be empty for awhile.”
“It’s alright, Landon. I’m used to stuff like this. Besides, the weather out here is really
nice. We can always find a different
place to eat.” That’s my Jamie. Always optimistic about everything.
“Yeah, I just hope they
leave you alone from now on. I’d like
to be there for ya all day, but … well unfortunately we don’t have every class
together like I had thought.”
“I’ll be fine, Landon,” she said to me with a
smile. “I think you made the point in
there.”
The bell rang as we were walking along on the
grass. Looking over my shoulder back to
the school, I said to Jamie “Well I guess it’s time to go to English lit. We can always look for a new place to eat
lunch tomorrow.” I bent down and kissed
her before continuing.
“Are you ready to go back in there Landon?” she
asked.
“As long as
you’re with me, yeah – let’s go.”