It's Like Running Away

"It only works with bears if you're running a certain way on a hill, doesn't it?" Aiden thought about it for a moment before deciding he didn't care. "How about you run and I walk? That way I don't look ridiculous when you zoom away."

Dodge shrugged. "I don't know how to outrun a bear, but if he catches you first, he'll stop to eat you. That's good enough for me." He bumps Aiden's side a little and laughs to show he's joking, at least a little bit. Pondering for a moment, he shakes his head. "No, you'll actually look more ridiculous walking. Like you did something so awful that I'm running to get away from you."

"Or you'll look silly for running away for no apparently reason," Ai reasoned smiling just a little. "And we're almost there anyway, so the point of running has been completely lost and is now pointless. Well, assuming the goal was to get there quickly anyway."

"When have I ever looked silly for running? It's all most of these people ever see me do." Dodge countered as they approached the doors to the cafeteria. "Fine, you win for now, but we're definitely racing sometime. I like competitions that I already know the outcome of." He pushed the door open and held it, waiting for Aiden to walk in ahead of him.

"That has got to be some form of cheating," Ai commented as he walked through the doorway. Then he froze.

"I never cheat. I just...win unfairly," Dodge countered, moving to walk in behind Aiden. Instead, however, he nearly ended up falling backwards. Luckily, he had more grace of motion than that and caught himself despite having bumped pretty solidly into Aiden, who wasn't moving. "What's wrong?"

"Motherfucker," Ai muttered mostly to himself, not even hearing Dodge's question as his attention was locked on the person seated across the room among some other adults.

Weirded out, Dodge followed Aiden's line of sight to a table where more adults than usual were huddled up. He noticed faculty and staff among them, but noticed a face he didn't recognize. Jumping to conclusions as usual, Dodge's face turned into a determined scowl. "Is that your father?"

"Of course it is," Ai said turning around to look at Dodge. "Don't I look just like him?" He then proceeded to copy the older man's expression that he'd seen from across the room. Then he replaced it with a more normal one for him since he was nowhere near as stern looking. "Ugh. I thought he was leaving!"

Dodge grimaced. "Ugh, don't do that again," he pleaded, shaking his head in disgust at the face. "You don't really look all that much alike. Maybe I can just see he's a jackass the way I can see you're not." He shrugged, still upset that the man had this much power to affect Aiden. "Why do you think he's still here? Should we leave?"

"He probably got caught up in some business and decided to stay around for lunch like the asshole he is," Aiden muttered. Then he sighed. "We're staying. I'm not going to let this bother me. I'm going to pretend he's not over there."

Dodge hesitated, glancing between the lunch line and the door. "Um. Maybe you can stay and I can just go up to my dorm. If he sees you, fine, but it's not gonna be cute if he sees us sitting together. Am I right?"

Aiden just shrugged. "He'll more than likely assume I've finally made a friend," he answered. "And that would hopefully be the end of it."

Dodge wasn't the type to dwell too long on things. He shrugged and walked over to the lunch line, observing the things being offered up for his bottomless stomach today. He wrinkled his nose at the steamed asparagus and bypassed it for a good helping of mac and cheese, followed by a mound of green peas. There were hamburgers...but really, that didn't go with everything else he already had. He finally settled on piling a giant mountain of fried fish on his plate and grabbed two Powerades, all set to go back to the table, knowing Aiden would come back with a much lighter plate.

Aiden got some food and went to the table, but Tsuki isn't going into detail because she's very hungry and that would only serve to make it worse.

Dodge smiled as Aiden sat down across from him, trying to put behind the shock and upset of noticing that Mr. Hartland was still here at the school. He bit into the crunchy fish and took a swig of his drink before he thought of anything to say. "So, zombies again sometime soon?"

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