Alan's Pov

I invited Bob to our table. My friends were already at the table. They would have come with me but I didn't want to weird Bob out. Bob seemed to already be suspicious of my invitation so it was a good thing they didn't come. He eventually accepted it with a sigh. I kept glancing at him when we walked together to the table. I saw his body seem to stiffen as we got closer. Guess he noticed the familiar faces. I sat down at the table but he stood there for a while before taking a seat next to me.

"Heyo....what's your name?" Landon asked trying to be friendly while grinning.

"You can call me Bob," Bob said looking down at his tray and begin to eat slowly.

"Um...cool name," Landon said glancing at Bob then me and I shrugged.

"That's a common name." Kaden finally spoke and Bob nodded while chewing.

"Well, this is awkward," I said as silence filled the space around us.

"No shit," Kaden said rolling his eyes and glanced at Bob. "Sorry that we are making things awkward," he said looking at Bob apologetically.

"Oh no, its okay," Bob said after swallowing. "I'm always awkward."

"As awkward as Alan?" Landon asked motioning to me earning a glare from me and a punch in the arm from Kaden. "Ow," he grumbled rubbing where Kaden hit him.

"Be nice," Kaden ordered making Landon huff.

"Alan? Awkward?" Bob asked glancing at me and I groaned.

"I'm not awkward," I answered.

"You are too, at least around Sta-" Landon was cut off by the devil herself, or more so an angel.

"Hey Alan," Stacie smiled sitting at our table and my eyes went wide as she took the seat next to Landon.

"O-Oh uh hey," I said and cleared my throat. "So what are you doing here?" I asked trying to start a conversation.

"Sorry was someone supposed to sit here?" she asked grabbing her tray about to get up from the seat.

"No no no, not at all," I said shaking my head and laughed awkwardly. "I was just curious since you haven't sat here before," I said picking at my food without realizing it, I kept getting glances from Bob and Kaden as Landon snickered.

"Oh okay," she said with a smile as she settled down then glanced around the table. "Hello everyone."

Bob and Kaden muttered a greeting while Landon did a flirtatious greeting. I shot him a glare before kicking him under the table. He pressed his lips together tightly to not let out a noise then shot me a glare. Kaden glanced at the two of us disapprovingly as Bob shook his head at us. Stacie looked at the four us of confused but cleared her throat.

"So are you all coming to the Halloween Dance? I already know Alan is," she said making my shoulders drop with my mood.

So she just came to advertise for the dance. I guess I should have known she didn't come for me. Grumbling to myself I started eating. The three of them glanced at me curiously before looking back at Stacie.

"Duke has his own party for the holidays so I'll be going to that like I did the years before," Landon says making Stacie frown.

"Well I can assure you the dance might just be better," she said looking down at her food and I frowned swallowing.

"Um yeah, the dance will be great," I said looking at Landon who rolled his eyes.

"Alan has already asked me if I was going to go and I guess I will." I heard Bob say and I turned to him.

He didn't look at me though. He ate like I wasn't here next to him. But I was very thankful. I mumbled a thank you to him and he finally glanced at me. He didn't reply but I just wanted him to know it meant a lot to me.

"We'll come by and take a look," Kaden said and Landon gasped turning towards him in shock but Kaden ignored him.

Now I knew I owed the three. They knew how much this meant to Stacie. And if it meant a lot to her then it meant a lot to me. They really had your back when you needed it. But Bob always seemed to be of some help.

"Okay," Stacie said before eating but her tone seemed to have lifted up from before making me smile a bit before I ate some food myself.

I'm sure my friends were giving me weird looks. Bob was giving me a weird look too. I guess Bob was also kind of my friend. What else could he be?

Stacie didn't just talk about the dance during lunch though. I was a bit surprised. But the conversation did mostly involve with school so Landon most of the time stayed out of it. All of us talked with Stacie though, Bob especially. That wasn't surprising since I guess they both had something in common which was that they were heavily invested in school. Kaden was more invested in school than me but then again he seemed more logical and smarter than Landon and I in the first place. The bell soon rang.

"Finally," Landon grunted as he got up from the table dumping his tray in the trash and Kaden rolled his eyes which I did the same as Landon walked off without us.

"Does he not like me?" Stacie whispered to me and I scoffed.

"Don't mind Landon," I said and she nodded then smiled.

"I'll text you later," she said waving as she walked off and I waved back at her smiling.

"So how is this going to go?" Kaden asked as we walked out of the cafeteria, Bob was near me but not exactly by my side.

"What do you mean?" I asked as Bob brushed past me.

"Have to go," Bob said to me and I nodded at him before he waddled a bit faster but still we were close behind him.

"I mean the Halloween Dance, what about Duke's party?" Kaden asked and I waved my hand.

"Don't worry about it. We can just go back and forth." I said and he rolled his eyes walking ahead of me.