Inviting Faith

I hadn’t forgotten about my promise with Paige about asking Faith to move tables at lunch. It’s that I needed a few days to enjoy some calm and peaceful days before potentially jumping headfirst into a new source of drama. Paige hadn’t been overly pushy, but she was reminding me on a daily basis that I promised to help her out. Normally, that sort of thing would piss me off but this wasn’t something she was selfishly asking me to do. She honestly believed her friend was in trouble and wanted to help her out.

Today I’d be leaving right after lunch with the team. Mom had called the school to give me permission to check out early and their coach didn’t mind me tagging along like normal. All that was left now was to figure out a way to pull Faith away from her group and get her to sit with us.

As I approached the table she sat at, I realized I should have discussed things with the others before doing this. Shit. It was too late to go back now. My eyes quickly swept the table and found an eerily familiar situation. The boys were laughing and having a good time while Faith politely smiled and followed along. It looked a lot like the situation I’d experienced when I sat with Kaylee.

“Hey, Faith. Guys,” I said as cheerfully as I could manage. Their attentions turned to me as my mind threatened to lock up. While their gazes weren’t necessarily hostile, I could tell the guys weren’t exactly happy to see me. Good thing William wasn’t here. I didn’t know if he was in another lunch period or just not here. Still, it was clear that my standing was quite low—if it had even been high in the first place.

Faith was the only one remotely glad to see me, though that was mostly shock. She looked about as nervous as I felt. “Liam and I have some things we wanted to ask about your trip next week. Mind if I steal you for a bit?”

“I—um—” She looked back at the group before back to me. “Sure,” she said with a smile. “See you all later?” Gathering her lunch, she quickly rushed to me. Giving me a shy smile, she followed after me as I led the way. Glancing over at her, she was giving me sideways looks before shifting her gaze down. There was a light blush as she brushed her long black hair from her face.

Man, had I been this obvious when I was around Kaylee? I felt bad. It was awkward as hell.

“Really sorry,” I said softly as we approached the table. Liam was doing something, his arms in the air as he made some impression that had the girls in stitches.

“What?”

“I lied about Liam and I having some questions for you.” She looked up at me in surprise. Then a hurt expression crossed her face as she looked away.

“Paige asked you to do this, didn’t she?”

Rubbing the back of my neck, I nodded. “Yeah.” I could tell she was about to turn around and leave. Reaching out, I rested a hand on her shoulder. “I get this isn’t any of my business and I don’t know the full situation, but putting all that aside, I do want to invite you to sit with us. Yes, Paige asked me to separate you from the guys you hang out with, but this isn’t about her. I recently discovered that a change of atmosphere can do wonders.” She said nothing, not meeting my eye. “At least give me the rest of lunch. If you don’t feel comfortable sitting with us, you can go back to sitting with your friends next week.”

After a few moments, her eyes met mine. “Okay.”

“Great!” I surprised her when I put my arm over her shoulders and pulled her along. Reaching the table, I missed what Liam was doing as he did a double-take. The girls were too busy laughing to notice we had a guest.

“Faith!”

“Liam,” she said before giving me a nervous glance. Pulling out a seat for her, she took it before I slid into the empty one beside her.

“I take it introductions aren’t necessary?”

“Nope!” Ally said, managing to calm herself enough to wipe the tears from her eyes. “Hey, Faith.”

Faith gave a small wave.

“Something up?” Liam asked, leaning forward to look past me at his sister.

“I invited her to join us.” His attention turned to me with an inquisitive look. “That a problem?”

“None from me!” Ally said cheerfully.

“You’re always welcome here,” Sam said with her normal calm presence. The warm smile was a nice touch.

Liam clicked his tongue and sat back. “Man, now I can’t tell the juicy stories.”

Faith didn’t miss a beat. “No one wants to listen to your masturbation fantasies.”

I found myself flabbergasted. The ease of which she shot that out surprised me. It completely flipped what I thought about her. Ally was snorting in laughter and even Sam had her hand over her mouth to hide her chuckle. Liam was pretending to be hurt by his sister's comment, launching into a, ‘woe is me’ speech that was focused on making the girls across from us laugh. My attention didn’t leave Faith as I saw her in a new light. Seeing my stare, she physically retreated inward. Blushing, she glanced away and shrunk in her seat and I knew that if I didn’t do anything, she would clam up.

“Making fun of Liam first thing?” I asked as I lightly bumped shoulders with her. “You already fit in.”

She gave me a shy smile. I could tell she was still nervous, but she wasn’t physically trying to make herself as small as possible anymore. Progress.

I made small talk as I did my best to make her feel welcome. It helped that Ally and Sam already knew her. It didn’t take long for Faith to latch onto the conversation between Ally and Liam. They were arguing which character was more powerful lore-wise in the superhero universe. Again. Liam was firmly in the Powerman camp while Ally stood against him in the Star Raven camp. Personally, they were both full of shit. The real power in the universe was Omega Girl. She was completely OP, which is why she was rarely used in the movies. She trivialized all the fighting against whatever villain was causing chaos. I wasn’t a fan for that reason, but I had to admit the woman they cast to play her was incredibly hot.

“They are both wrong,” Faith muttered, listening in as the argument turned heated. Sam was already stepping in trying to pour water on the situation. All it did was cause steam as the two pulled out the finger-pointing to show how serious they were. While that happened, my attention went to Faith. “Omega Girl is the most powerful. There is a reason they always spend at least five minutes of every film explaining why she isn’t going to be in it.”

I found myself grinning. “Right? I don’t even know why they introduced her in the first place if all they are going to do is find ways to write her out of every movie.”

Faith turned to me, looking a bit surprised. She quickly recovered. “That’s because they need her character whenever they write themselves in a corner and need an ass-pull miracle to save them. Remember the fight with Comrade Ivan?”

I made a look of disgust. “Worst. Fight. Ever.”

She gave a little laugh, holding her hand up to cover her mouth. Not expecting to get hit by the realization of how cute she was when she was smiling like that. “I know! They were doing such a good job building tension and then they just have Omega Girl pop into existence and… punch him. Punch him! One hit and he goes down. Boom. End of movie. So lame.”

Finding someone who shared a mutual respect-hate of my least favorite superhero was not something I expected today. Faith and I spent the rest of lunch going back and forth over how the character was ruining the franchise as the writers constantly relied on her to deus ex machina their increasingly bad writing. Before I knew it, the bell rang and lunch was over. Neither Ally nor Liam won their argument, again. It was put on the back burner to flare up at a later date. Sam walked with the two, doing her best to soothe the tense atmosphere between them. I wasn’t worried. Despite the passionate exchange, I think they liked arguing for the sake of arguing and had no ill-will about it.

Faith walked me to the tray return area as I tossed my trash in the bin and set it with all the others. We were back to the awkwardness I guess. She brushed at her hair, hooking it around her ear as her gaze flitted to mine before going back to something else.

“Had a lot of fun,” I said, unable to stand the awkward silence anymore.

“I did too,” she said softly, giving me a dangerous smile. Dangerous because I didn’t like the little twinge in my chest when I saw it.

“I know this whole thing started because of Paige, but I’m glad she asked me to do this. Never would have met a fellow Omega Girl hater if she hadn’t.” With a soft giggle, she nodded. “You know, you are always welcome to join us during lunch.”

“I… might,” she said as a blush began to form. “You were right. A change of pace was just what I needed.”

“Say, you wouldn’t happen to be interested in watching Oslo and the Glyph Masters would you? Liam and the girls are coming over tomorrow to watch it with Kaylee and me. I have a feeling you might enjoy it.”

Excitement danced over her features before things flipped as her shoulders slumped. “That sounds amazing, but Paige and I already have plans. She wants to introduce me to the new group of people she’s hanging around with.” Her head lowered. Poor girl looked like someone ran over her favorite pet. “Sorry.”

“Hey, no worries! Just thought I’d offer. Maybe next time.”

She brightened at that.

Shooting me a smile, she gave me a small wave before heading off. Shoving my hands in my pocket, I watched her walk away. A deep breath filling my lungs, I released it slowly. That had gone better than I thought. I’d known Faith for a long time, but today was probably the most we ever talked. Wish I’d talked with her more sooner. We might have a lot more in common than I thought considering she was best friends with my sister. If things went well, maybe she’d be another addition to the lunch table. I hoped so.