Fight Club

The new student was.. something. That’s the only word Dina would use to try to describe the mysterious girl. And trouble. She was trouble. The way she responded when being asked about the rumors.. it was the equivalent to putting a sign on her back with the words ‘I’M ONLY TROUBLE AND DRAMA’ to Dina. But.. when she uttered those four words, ‘and if they are?’, Dina couldn’t help but feel pure fucking attraction to the girl’s voice. It was rough, low, and confident. She was trouble.

“..na-. Dina!” An elbow was nudged into her ribs and she looked over, being pulled from her thoughts immediately. Sitting next to her in the lunch room was one of her all time best friends, Maddie.

“Sorry, sorry.” The black haired girl mumbled, rubbing her eyes with a yawn. She didn’t get much sleep last night. She spent most of her night staring up at the ceiling with a certain new student in mind, who’s name she only got today. Ellie Williams. How can someone’s name even be attractive?

“Did you even sleep last night? You look like dog shit. Seriously, like the fucking circles under your eyes make you look like you just crawled out of a trash can like the raccoon you are.” Maddie deadpanned, giving Dina a look. Dina had always been grateful for her friend’s brutal honesty, but this was one of many times that it was a little too much.

“Just-.. shush.” She rolled her eyes, looking down at her lunch tray.

“What do you guys think of the new girl?” Jesse asked, snaking his arm around Dina’s shoulders.

“I think.. I’m gonna ask her out. She’s kinda hot.” Trevor, an absolute idiot and jock who sat on the other side of Jesse, mumbled sheepishly.

“Dude! No way! Have you heard the rumors?!” Jesse practically gasped, completely taken off guard by his friend’s suggestion.

“And she’s gay.” Dina and Maddie deadpanned in unison, looked at each other, then proceeded to burst into a large fit of giggles for no other reason than speaking at the same time.

“What!? No way. How do you even know that? Did you talk to her again without me or something?” Jesse looked at Dina with interest, trying to gauge her knowledge of Ellie.

Dina scoffed with a short laugh.

“No. And I don’t need to. Look at what she’s wearing, dude. A flannel? With the T-shirt underneath? The knee rips on her jeans that obviously weren’t bought like that? The Converse?”

And she was right. Sitting a few tables down from the group was Ellie, wearing her gay ass flannel. It was a red flannel that was buttoned, except for four on the top, with the collar of a black T-shirt sticking out. This girl was not straight.

“Looks aside,” Maddie interjected, “five guys asked her out today. Five. Like, the hottest guys in the school and she said no. To every. Single. One.”

“See? Totally gay.” Dina hummed, giving Trevor a ‘told you so’ look.

“You know what? Watch this. I’ll show you who’s gay.” Trevor grumbled angrily and stood up, walking down the row of tables until he was in front of Ellie’s and cleared his throat.

“What do you want?” Ellie put her book down, ‘Space Cadets’, with clear annoyance and looked up at Trevor.

“So, you like space, huh? Well, you’re the center of my universe.” Trevor stated with a satisfied smirk and overconfident tone.

“Do you even know what’s at the center of the universe?”

“Uh.. mm.. the.. sun?” He scratched the back of his neck, all confidence lost.

“There is no center. Get the fuck outta here.” Ellie scoffed, picking her book back up.

The table was bursting out in laughter was Trevor walked back with his head down, arms crossed over his chest. Jesse’s face was bright red, tears streaming down his face as he practically wheezed. Most of the table looked the same, including Dina.

“Trevor! You’re an idiot!” Jesse said between laughs, gasping for breath.

“What the fuck even was that?! ‘You’re the center of my universe’, that’s so stupid!” Maddie teased the boy as he sat back down, the group finally starting to catch their breath again.

“Shut up.” He grumbled angrily, a scowl on his face. “This isn’t over, Williams.”

-

After lunch, Dina found Ellie in the hall, staring down at a phone in her hands with earbuds in. She looked like she was in her own world. And Dina would kill to be part of that world.

Carefully, she approached Ellie and the wall she was leaning against and lightly tapped the taller girl’s shoulder. Her eyes snapped up form her phone and onto Dina’s, carefully pulling an earbud out.

“Can I help you?” She asked, raising a scarred eyebrow.

Fuck. She should’ve at least thought about what she wanted to say.

“Hey.” Dina started nervously, which was weird because Dina was never nervous.

“Hi.”

“Just- uh.. what you said to Trevor at lunch. It was pretty funny. And I heard about the way you shut down the other guys who asked. You’re pretty funny.” Dina gave her a smile.

“Yeah?” Ellie grinned. Dina swore it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. “Well, I kinda have a talent in turning guys down.”

The black haired girl took a small step closer.

“And what about girls?” She asked, her voice a little lower than before.

Ellie’s face turned to a bright red and it was clear she was trying to compose herself before responding.

“Not so much.” She said with a shy grin.

“Good.” And Dina didn’t know why she said that. She was straight. Right?

Ellie almost choked, having to advert her eyes for a moment.

“I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself before, but, I’m Dina.” She held her hand out in front of her for a handshake.

“Ellie.” The girl slowly reached up, taking Dina’s hand in her own in a firm grip. Dina almost swooned. Handshakes are not allowed to be attractive.

“You should sit with us tomorrow at lunch. Maybe educate Trevor a bit more about space.” Dina gave her a small smile.

“Yeah. I’d like that.” Ellie returned the smile before the next bell rung through the halls.

“I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah.” Ellie waved before jogging down the hall so she wasn’t late.

Dina could only stand there for a moment, thinking back to her nervous grin and the way she confidently carried herself. And it was at that moment Dina decided that there was no way any of the rumors were true.