My friends were looking at me in curiosity when I stopped in front of them.

“Guys – this is Sky,” I said, pointing at him.

They muttered hello and returned to their conversations. Troy peered at me with a questioning look on his face, while Luke was clearly angry at me for inviting Sky.

“Sit down,” I told Sky, and pointed at an empty seat on my left.

Sky hurried to sit down at the end of the table. I sat right next to him, hoping he wasn’t feeling bad about the situation. My friends weren’t going to say anything bad about him, but they weren’t too happy about him sitting with us, either.

It probably had something to do with Luke, though. It never was a good thing to piss him off. Everyone knew he didn’t like Sky, but they also knew I liked him. It was like a battle between the two of us, but I had a plan.

It was true that Luke didn’t speak much about what was going on at home, but I knew one thing about his life outside the school. Something he really loved to talk about.

“Hey Luke – why don’t you tell Sky about your puppy,” I said innocently. “Sky loves dogs.”

“You have a puppy? What’s his name?” Sky turned to look at Luke.

Luke glared at me angrily for a second, like he was trying to determine if I was mocking him or something, but then he turned his attention to Sky. Sky, on the other hand, looked suddenly timid when Luke stared at him.

“Her name is Bella,” he said in an annoyed tone.

I was sure he thought he could scare Sky away with his hostile appearance. It was obvious he didn’t like talking with Sky, and everyone else was looking at me like I had gone crazy. They didn’t believe it was a wise move from me to make Luke talk with Sky.

“She has a pretty name,” Sky said quietly, and hesitated for a moment before he continued, “How old is she?”

Luke squinted his eyes in irritation and glared at me when he said, “She’s seven months old.”

Oh, Luke hated my guts, but I knew something my friends didn’t: Sky was really awesome to talk to, and I was sure Luke would warm up to him eventually.

“Do you have a picture of her?” Sky asked with a tiny voice, like he was scared to talk to him, but at the same time too intrigued to pass on the opportunity to talk about dogs.

Luke’s expression trembled a little. He had tons of pictures of Bella on his phone. I knew he was dying to show them all to Sky, but he had his reputation to protect. He knew I had mentioned Bella on purpose. He knew everyone else knew that, too. They were all watching him closely, eager to see what he would do next.

“Come on, Luke – show him that video you have of her. The one with the beach ball. That was hilarious,” Troy said to him, and then turned to talk to Sky. “She really is a cute little puppy.”

I wanted to hug Troy at that moment. He always seemed to know exactly when to step in and what to say to break the ice.

“Can I see it?” Sky asked, looking like he was too excited to even sit still in his seat now. His fear of Luke seemed to be already gone.

Luke stared at him for a few seconds before he hesitantly took his phone from his pocket and searched the video. Then he gave his phone to Sky, who had a big smile on his face while he watched the screen.

“She’s a Boxer!” Sky almost yelped. “She’s really pretty too. I love that color.”

Luke seemed to have forgotten he wasn’t supposed to be friendly to Sky, when he spoke, “Yeah, the color is called brindle, or more commonly–”

“–tiger stripes!” Sky finished his sentence with a cheerful nod. “She really is a pretty dog. You are really lucky,” he continued, giving back the phone.

Luke looked at it shortly before putting it away. He looked at Sky, but then he remembered he disliked the guy. He turned away from him, and the annoyed look returned on his face.

Sky looked at me timidly, like asking if he had said something wrong. I shook my head with a smile and patted his arm encouragingly. I knew Luke had started warming up to him, even if he was too stubborn to admit it yet.

We ate in silence for a moment. The atmosphere was tense around the table, and my friends kept peeking at Sky and Luke like they expected something to happen. I changed looks with Troy, but he just shrugged, like saying I shouldn’t worry about anything.

“I’m sorry,” Luke suddenly muttered, and looked at Sky for a brief second. “About... You know...”

Sky smiled at him. “It’s all right. No hard feelings.”

Luke tried to smile, too, but it looked more like a forced, ugly grin. Luke wasn’t the kind of person to ask forgiveness, so I knew he was being genuine. I wondered if something had happened between them, but I assumed Luke was just apologizing for his behavior.

“Does she know any tricks yet?” Sky asked, leaning closer to Luke.

“Yeah,” Luke said with a natural smile, “she does.”

“Here we go again...” Troy chuckled when Luke and Sky started talking about Bella.

I patted Sky on his back before I started eating my lunch. He sure knew how to charm everyone. Even the grumpy Luke found a reason to like him.

And I was falling for Sky harder than ever.