The Last Lunch Table

Maya straightened her fedora—yeah, she actually wore a fedora to school, whatever—and scanned the cafeteria like it was hostile territory. The first week of sophomore year at Northwood High felt like walking through a minefield of social cliques she'd somehow navigated last year but suddenly couldn't crack.

She spotted Jason at their usual table, alone. That was weird. Jason was never alone. He was the kind of guy who collected friends like some people collected bottle caps. But there he was, picking at his cafeteria pizza like it had personally offended him.

Maya slid into the seat across from him. "What's the deal? You look like someone stole your dog."

Jason glanced up, then back at his tray. "Just thinking about how everything changed over summer."

"No kidding," Maya said. "Sarah's emo now, which—who saw that coming? And Marcus got stupid tall. Like, what did they feed him?"

"Not that kind of change." Jason leaned in. "I found out something about Mike. You know how everyone thinks he's just this quiet, normal guy?"

Maya nodded slowly. Mike Chen sat two tables over, buried in a book like always.

"He told me he's been bull-riding at his uncle's ranch every weekend since seventh grade. Like, actual bulls. With horns."

Maya stared. "That's the most random thing I've ever heard. Mike? The guy who looks like he'd apologize to a door if he bumped into it?"

"I know! And that's not even the crazy part." Jason dropped his voice to a whisper. "I think my parents are getting divorced."

The words hit Maya like a physical weight. She'd known Jason since forever, and this was the first she was hearing about it.

"Jason—"

"It's fine," he said, but it clearly wasn't. "Anyway, I've been kind of spying on their conversations. Not like creepy spying, just... listening when they think I'm not. They're talking about selling the house."

Maya didn't know what to say. She wanted to fix it, make it better, but she couldn't. So she did the only thing she could think of.

"Wanna get out of here?" she asked, standing up. "We can walk to the park. I'll even let you make fun of my hat the whole way."

Jason actually smiled. It was small, but it was there. "Deal. That hat is terrible by the way."

"Yeah, yeah." She adjusted the fedora. "Let's go be somewhere that isn't this cafeteria."

They walked out together, and for the first time that week, Maya didn't feel like she was navigating minefield. She just felt like she was with her friend, and that was enough.