Chapter 58
"Hey Babs" Dick said as he sat across from Barbara in the lunch room
"Hey Dick" Barbara said looking up from her lunch. Behind Dick, she saw Lily coming out of the lunch line, look over at her and Dick, then immediately turn and go sit somewhere else, "from the way that Lily just fled at the sight of you I'm going to guess you guys haven't made up."
"Can we not talk about this" Dick sighed
"Uh no Grayson we can't just, not talk about this, you need to put aside your pride and go make up with that girl."
"Barbara it's none of your business what I do" Dick said poking at his lunch with his fork
"Actually it is my business when my two best friends won't even be near each other, and you guys are supposed to go to the dance together, you guys were so cute together…"
Barbara continued to rant about the many reasons why they should make up, while Dick sat staring down at his lunch. Until he suddenly looked up with fire in his ice blue eyes and almost shouted, "Well what if I just don't want to make up with her." He grabbed his lunch tray that he had hardly touched and tossed it in the trash as he stormed out of the cafeteria.
Barbara sat stunned at what just happened. Dick was one of the most levelheaded people she knew, and here he was being completely unreasonable and storming out of the lunchroom, usually that was her move. She was pulled out of her state of shock when Luke sat next to her.
"Hey Barb, what's with the look" Luke asked
"Umm it's nothing," she said shaking her head and poking at her lunch
"Yeah and your friend storming out of the room was nothing too" Luke scoffed "I'm not as dumb as I look you know"
"It's nothing, just that Dick and my other friend Lily, started seeing each other, and now they had a fight and they won't talk to each other, and now Dick is refusing to go make up with her. He said he didn't want to make up, which just doesn't make sense."
"Well I'm sure the guy has his reasons, he seems like a level headed dude, just give him some time, he'll come around." Luke assured her
"But he's never been like this before," Barbara countered, "We usually share everything with each other."
"He's a guy barb, he's bound to not tell you things every once in a while, give him some space and time to think and he'll get it worked out." Said Luke standing up from his seat at the lunch table, "well ive got to get going, I promised coach I would get some more time in at the weight room."
"Alright I'll see you around" Barbara said smiling up at him from her seat. Luke flashed her smile then left the cafeteria and headed for the gym.
Luke changed in to his Gym clothes and headed in to the weight room, too his surprise he was not the only one there. Dick Grayson was there and doing quite a number on the punching bag.
"What's got you so riled up" Luke said approaching Dick
Dick had not even noticed that he was not alone any more; he spun around in surprise his fists still up.
"Whoa there slugger, didn't mean to scare you" Luke said Putting his hands up, he also noticed that Dick wasn't wearing boxing gloves and his fists were bright red
"Sorry man" Dick said lowering his fists and settling in to a more relaxed stance "I'm just a bit tense is all, needed to get some time to myself to think."
"And you do that by beating on a punching bag?" Luke looked at him skeptically "you don't seem the type"
"Yeah well everyone had there quirks" Dick said turning back around to the punching bag and began his routine again
Luke walked around to the other side of the bag and braced himself against it so that Dick could get a more solid hit. "You know you should really wear gloves, you're going to rip your hands open at this rate… Jeez you are a lot stronger than you look," he said, as he had to brace himself harder
"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Dick said smirking; he stopped his assault, grabbed some gauze from his bag, and wrapped his fists to give himself some protection "happy now" he said looking at Luke.
"No, but that's a bit better" Luke countered as Dick started punching again. "So are you here because of your fight with Barbara?"
The look on Dicks face darkened and he started to punch a bit harder, between punches he said "I'm here because… I don't want … To talk"
"Ok, Ok I'll leave it be, but I feel obligated to tell you that Barb was super confused when you left, for her sanity, and your safety, I suggest to sort things out with that Lily chick."
"See the thing is," Dick began "I don't really want to sort things out with her, she's not the person I thought she was, and I don't really want to be around her right now."
"Well what changed your mind about her" Luke asked, "you guys seemed pretty tight before"
"It's just that during the crisis I saw a different side of her that I didn't really like"
"Well then just drop her," Luke said shrugging
"I can't really just do that, she is one of Barbara's best friends, if I want to be around barb ill have to be around her."
"Maybe you should try a change in scenery"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why you don't come hang out with me and the guys, being around other dudes might do you some good."
"Yeah I don't really know how well that would go over, I'm not very welcome in the jock scene."
"Don't worry about it" Luke laughed, "with a left hook like that, you'll be fine"
