We get to the cafeteria. We walk over to the checkout to order Yuri Okabe's juice and, on our way, we passed the only occupied table.
Yuri Okabe's friends are sitting there.
We stop and, for a momento, they stare at us surprisedly and viceversa; it seems we are unlucky enough to find ourselves just after that classroom incident—but, if we think about it, it make sense that they, as ourselves, ended up here; they probably weren't allowed into class either, and the only places open at this time are the cafeteria and the library, and the library is on the other side of the school, so spending time in the cafeteria seems the most feasible option.
"Fumi-chan, Eri-chan," Yuri Okabe sits in their table, "I'm sorry for—but, before she could finish, they, without saying a single word, stand up and sit in a table far away.
Yuri Okabe remains motionless and silent.
I sit next to her.
"Shall we get your juice?" I ask her.
"I don't want anything anymore," she says apathetically, she crosses her arms and looks away from where her friends sat.
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Yuri Okabe's friends are glaring at us. Don't they know that staring ot glaring at someone could be considered rude, and people under this gaze tend to feel uncomfortable and/or intimidated?
Maybe they do, and that's why they do it.
They seem very upset with Yuri Okabe.
And maybe with me too.
I should investigate more about it.
"Why are they so angry?" I ask Yuri Okabe.
"Because they're like fuckin' drama queens," she answers me dryly.
"And what does that have to do with being angry?" I ask her.
Yuri Okabe sighs.
"Don't worry about them."
"But they look angry. Shouldn't you reconcile or something?"
"That's what I wanted to do, but they fuckin' ignored me and left me here."
"And why did they do that? That doesn't solve anything."
"No, but they are fuckin' drama queens, I told you. And, whatever, I don't care anymore," she says.
So are they going to lose their friendship just because of that? I don't know much about friendships but it seems to me that if they stop being friends because of something so simple, they were never friends in the first place.
Well, that's something between them, so I shouldn't get involved.
Although I think that Hamano-san, Izumi-san, Ino-san and I are already quite involved.
In that case, should you try to solve it? If I succeed, we won't have this problem anymore, and if not, nothing would change.
All right, then I stand up and:
"No, leave them." Yuri Okabe grabs my sweater sleeve with both hands and pulls me slightly towards her.
"Staying here is clearly not solving anything," I say
And I approach them.
They look away.
"Hi," I tell them.
But they don't answer me.
"May I sit with you?" I ask them.
But they don't answer me. They just get up and go to another table.
And I follow them.
"Hey, I just want to solve this," I tell them. "Isn't Yuri Okabe her friend?"
They don't answer me.
"Well, apparently not because they're not interested in reconcile with her," I tell them.
They turn towards me.
They look quite annoyed.
"Shut up, this is all your fault!" One of them yells at me. I think Yuri Okabe calls her Eri-chan. "You and your fucking friends—
"Who?" I interrupt them.
Both she, Fumi-chan and Yuri Okabe look at me confusedly.
"What u mean by 'who'? Those losers from ANIME LIFE," Eri-chan tells me.
"Ah, they are not my friends," I tell them. "Or maybe they are. I do not know. I don't know how this friendship thing works."
"So you don't have any friends?" Eri-chan asks.
And she and Fumi-chan laugh.
"So you hang out with them all day and they're not even your friends. Man, that's sad."
"Maybe they're tired af of u, but they don't dare to tell u," says Fumi-chan with a laugh.
And they both laugh.
"Hey, leave her alone," Yuri Okabe says unnecessarily—I don't mind being told that; it's the truth, after all—although she does it to defend me so I appreciate it.
Then she gets up from his place and runs towards us.
"Defending those losers again!" Fumi-chan yells and starts sobbing. "Why are you doing this to me?! Why don't you care about me?!"
"They're not my friends!" Yuri Okabe yells. "And what if they were?! Can't I have more friends?!"
"But why u always defend 'em?!" Why you always take their side?!"
"Because you are such bitches every time you're around them, just leave 'em alone!"
"No! You are the bitch!" Eri-chan yells.
"Hey." I stand in the middle of them and intervene. They are just talking in circles.
"Why are you meddlin', bitch?!" Eri-chan yells at me. Can't you see this is you and your friends' fault?!"
"But they are not here," I reply. "So there should be no problem for you to resolve your differences, right? Or is it that you don't want to reconcile? Aren't you friends?"
"Of course we are!" Fumi-chan yells at me. "But you took her from us! Before Yuri-chan was very happy with us!"
"And how do you know?" I ask her. "Did she tell you? "
"No, but it was obvious ..."
"How can you say it was obvious if she never told you? Maybe because that line of thought seems very convenient for you."
"No, that ain't true; I always worry about her, but she never said anything to me!"
"And did you ever ask her?"
"No but…"
"You clearly never cared about her."
"No, I do care about her, but you're making me look bad!"
"Whether I make you look bad or not is irrelevant. The point here is that you never showed concern towards Yuri Okabe."
"But I do care about her!" Tears begin to run down Fumi-chan's cheeks.
"So tell me how you can care about someone and not show any interest in him or her at the same time. It seems like a contradiction to me, but I can be wrong."
"Leave her alone!" Eri-chan yells at me. "You just want to confuse her!"
"What do I gain by confusing her?"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP NOW!" Fumi-chan yells at me.
"Ok, I'll shut up, but you girls reconcile, talk about it, and apologize."
"Why?! It wasn't our fault!" Eri-chan yells.
"That's irrelevant. If your priority is to reconcile with Yuri Okabe then accepting the blame, whether it was your fault or not, shouldn't be a problem."
The school bell rings. It's time for recess.
But apparently neither of them cares—and why would they?
"But it wasn't our fault!" Eri-chan yells once again. "And why doesn't she apologize?!"
"I DID!" Yuri Okabe yells. "When we got here I apologized, but you just got up and like left me alone!"
"Well, how do you want us to forgive you if you abandoned us!" Fumi-chan yells.
"I DIDN'T LEAVE YOU!" Yuri Okabe yells.
"So you don't want to apologize nor accept Yuri Okabe's apology," I said. Do they want to reconcile with her or not?
"You shut up!" Eri-chan yells at me. "And apologizing won't change anything, though! She replaced us for some losers like you! Because of her the whole school's makin' fun of us!"
"That's irrelevant." Why don't you tell me if you want to reconcile with her or not?"
"You shut up!" Eri-chan yells at me again. "And how are we going to forgive her if the whole room saw how she defended you?! What will people say, that we're so fuckin' desperate to forgive her even though she's the 'fallen queen?!'"
"What?" I ask and look at Yuri Okabe.
She looks down and remains silent.
"Yes," Eri-chan says, "and people call her that because she obviously fell from grace. She's already a worthless loser."
"Really?" I ask. "I've never heard of any of that."
"Of course not!" Eri-chan replies. "They suspended you, and you're a loser. How you gonna be finding out about things?"
"Well, that's irrelevant. But maybe we are not understanding each other, so I will put it in a simpler way: Do you prefer to maintain your pride than reconcile with her friend?"
"We forgave 'er enough," Fumi-chan shouts, "but she keeps betraying me!" Why are you playing with my feelings?!"
Suddenly, several students arrive at the cafeteria and, as soon as they are aware of our presence, they approach us and stop around us.
They seem excited and expectant.
But what do they expect from us? And what do they not know that staring at someone is considered rude, and people under said gaze often feel uncomfortable and/or intimidated?
Or maybe they just don't care.
"I don't play with anyone's feelings!" Yuri Okabe yells. "I only defended these girls because I am not a bitch!"
"Of course you are!" Eri-chan yells. "You are always surrounded by boys! You are as a bitch as Hamano-san!"
"Leave Hamano-san alone! And it's not my fault that they follow me around even though I don't care about them! And you know who doesn't care about you, but is flirting with me every time he can?! Mao-kun! HEYM EVERYONE: ERI-CHAN LIKES MAO-KUN, AND HE IS NEVER GONNA GIVE A FUCK ABOUT HER BECAUSE HE IS TOO BUSY FUCKING AI-CHAN AND FUMI-CHAN!"
Eri-chan and many others seem quite surprised at that statement. For Eri-chan is understandable, but the others? Such information should be irrelevant to everyone except Eri-chan and Mao-kun and Ai-chan and Fumi-chan.
Wait, was Yuri Okabe she referring to the Fumi-chan in front of us?
Maybe it is because the Fumi-chan in front of us is very nervous and is avoiding Eri-chan's glare.
Anyway.
"No, that's a lie! A lie, a fuckin' lie!" Eri-chan yells. Tears of rage begin to run down her cheeks.
"No, it's not, and if I gave him a chance—as if, lol—he'd be fucking everyone except you! And you know what's the funniest about this?! That, of all the gossip you hear about, you never heard this one!"
"SHUT UP!" Eri-chan runs furiously towards Yuri Okabe, and I get in the way. They were supposed to reconcile. What went wrong? "Fuck off, bitch! It's all your fault!"
"That's irrelevant. Violence is not going to solve anything; you saw what happened to Ai-chan."
"Don't you dare call her Ai-chan, you bitch!" Fumi-chan yells at me. "And Yuri-chan, if u want us to forgive u, then kick her ass, yell at her, tell her not to speak to u again!"
"What?!" Yuri Okabe asks, and her question makes a lot of sense, since I don't understand how that is going to make them reconcile, although, if it does, everything would go back to the way it was before, and they wouldn't have problems with Yuri Okabe as much as ANIME LIFE.
"Do it," I tell her. "If that's what it takes you to reconcile, go ahead. It does not bother me that much."
"What? No, what is wrong with you?" Yuri Okabe asks.
"Just kick her ass," people around us seem increasingly excited about the possibility of a fight.
"I bet on the tall one."
"I'm betting on my queen, Yuri-chan."
"Nah, bro, she's already fallen out of grace."
"Yeah, she's hanging out with Nuki-chan."
"What a dumb-ass, really."
"Dude, then she's also hanging out with Hamano-san."
"The two queens finally together."
"Although Hamano-san is cuter, really."
"What? Yuri-chan's my waifu."
"Fucking nerd."
"You know what?" Yuri Okabe asks. Tears start to run down her cheeks. "I really wanted us to forgive each other and stuff. I tried to talk to you guys, I apologized—although I didn't abandon you or anything, but, well, okay, it was my fault, it's always my fault, so what does it matter? As long as we become friends again—but you never gave a fuck about me. You just wanted me to help you study or train on the soccer team, to hear you complain about stupid shit or criticize each other BECAUSE YOU HATE EACH OTHER SO FUCKIN' MUCH—it's fuckin' crazy—or to lend you my house for parties or introduce you to guys who are never gonna give two fucks about you. And I'm tired of it. You were never my friends, and I'm so fuckin' tired of you; you're just some bitches who believe they deserve everything, and that everyone is there to serve them. So no. No, thanks. You girls are not worth it. If someone cares or even cared about you it's because you're popular, but without that you're nobody!"
And, with that, Yuri Okabe runs out of the cafeteria.
And I follow her.