I sat between my two friends - Eliza and Susanne - at lunch. They were my only friends, and while I couldn’t call us close, they were really the only two people who gave me the time of day. I brought my lunch from home, as always. Eliza remarked on the frost that speckled my lunchbox’s surface: “Is that new? It looks shiny.”

I was caught off guard, and after a moment’s pause I answered “Yes. My mom got it for me, since my old one got eaten by the dog.”

“It looks exactly the same.” Said Susanne.

“But it’s shinier.” Eliza insisted. “Look!” She took it from me, before I could open it and hide my lie.

I really shouldn’t have lied at all. I could’ve just said I left it outside and it got frosty. But the fact that I did meant I was hiding something. So when she touched it and felt how cold it was, she immediately knew something was off. And she brushed my fingers. By the warmth of her skin, I could tell my own was deathly cold. She stared at me for a moment, confused more than anything. There were plenty of other explanations. A cold lunchbox didn’t make it obvious I was an Heiress. But my lie did.

“Now that I touch it,” she mused, “it does feel rather similar to the old one.”

“Same kind and everything.” I said. “My mother knew how much I liked the old one. But doesn’t it just look newer?”

“I guess.” Susanne agreed, even though she clearly did not guess.

Eliza excused herself to the bathroom, probably to go look up on her phone whether the previous holder of the Chill died or not, in a discreet location. She was my friend of course, but in that moment I didn’t trust her. But what could I do?

I began to pull foodstuffs out of my lunchbox. The first order of business was a frozen-solid orange that I could not envision opening. Susanne, confused why we were being sketchy, tried to involve herself in the friendship by making polite conversation. “What you got there? Surely it’s better than this slop.” The slop was whatever the school was serving. Today, cardboard pizza and mystery beans.

“A tangerine.” I answered, even though it was a navel orange. I really couldn’t help lying, most of the time.

“Pretty large for a tangerine.”

“Yeah.” I agreed.

I don’t think she liked me either, but it’s not like she had people lining up to hang out with her. Ugly girls and social rejects only had each other for company. There were pockets of us, scattered and scant, hanging out in groups of two or three. Three was a stable size for a friend group, but if one friend became the mutually most desired between the other two, it could spell enmity and dissolution. The other way for a group of three to fall apart is of course for one person to vanish.

Eliza came back from the bathroom, or wherever it was she actually went, looking battered. I knew my time with them was over as soon as she sat down, but she didn’t say anything for a long time, and when she finally did, it wasn’t about anything important.

“It’s weirdly cold in here today.” Susanne said eventually. “Usually the lunch room is hot, since there’s so many people in here.”

The sound of cracking ice came from my uneaten orange.