All discussion ceased as Gina and Karyn followed Lucy to Sarah's lunch table. Sarah gave a non-verbal command upon seeing the two girls, and everyone at the table fell silent. Another glance, and everyone moved over to make room for Gina and Karyn directly across the table from Sarah.
"So," Sarah clasped her hands and placed her elbows on the table, "how long have you been dating?
At the middle school, right at that moment, Jon felt words welling up from inside of him, outside of his control: "I think Mikey and I started dating today." Lizzy, Paige, and Ashley froze, sporks in mid-air. Then they let out a synchronized squeal.
Upon hearing Gina's answer, Sarah continued: "How far have you taken it? Have you gone all the way?"
Jon continued his own explanation a moment later, seemingly without any prompting. The three girls with him were mesmerized by his narrative. "All I've done is give him a kiss on the cheek, but I think there's a connection there."
"How do you know she's the one for you?" Sarah asked Gina.
"I just get this fluttering in my belly when I talk to him," Jon answered a question that wasn't asked of him.
On went lunch period, with Sarah gently prodding Gina and Karyn, the two giving guarded answers that slowly became more open as they understood that Sarah wasn't, in fact, being malicious. Meanwhile, Jon unwittingly held court, finding himself weaving a story of puppy-love romance for the most popular girls at his middle school. At some point his words began to feel less forced and more natural. Like this was a story he wanted to tell, not one that was being magically compelled by his link to Gina, and the questions that Sarah kept asking.
As lunch period ended, Gina and Sarah got up together and shot each other glances as if to say "did that really happen? Did Sarah really just take a genuine interest in their love lives?" It didn't feel like Sarah was plotting anything. But even if she was, they both knew they could handle it as long as they had each other. And, maybe just a little bit, it even felt kind of good to be the center of attention.
And for his part, Jon felt almost the same camaraderie as he left the middle school lunch room arm-in-arm with Lizzy, Paige, and Ashley. He was now fully integrated: he wasn't just with the popular girls, he was one of the popular girls. And furthermore, the other three kept gushing about how cool it was that Jon had a boyfriend, and chattering about all the details he had spilled across the lunch table. And, maybe it was because he didn't have any suspicious of foul play, maybe it was because it was clearly Jon taking attention as opposed to Gina who had been given attention by Sarah, but Jon found that it felt very good to be the center of attention.
