Grinded

chapter XII.

"Please remember to walk home in groups of three or more," came the booming voice of Principal St. John over the school's megaphone as students eagerly raced away from the high school campus in a blur.

There was an air of unspoken gratitude towards the recent tragic events; without the murders, school would still be going ahead as usual. And while most of the students recognised how terrifying the events were, that still wasn't stopping some of them from proudly celebrating.

At the edge of the school campus, Lily sat with her friends by one of the several picnic benches scattered across the emerald, velvety grass. She sprawled herself out across on top of it as her friends bickered over the fact that the school's football game had also been cancelled in light of recent events. Something she really couldn't care less about.

"It's not like this guy's gonna attack a high school football game," Thomas defended his stance, edging forward from the seat, the rays of sun catching the veins of biceps nicely.

"Nice, Thomas," Lily said, looking over at her friend with a stern glare. "I thought you said you were hoping for it to be postponed anyways?"

Propping herself up, Lily scooted her feet to the seat beside August. A heavy breath left her lungs; the humidity felt like it was only growing that much more intense with each passing second, pushing the air right out of the atmosphere. Lily may have loved summertime, but not when it got to this point - she only hoped that her hair wouldn't react like it usually would.

"Yeah, weren't you worn out from practise?" Freddie pointed out, gesturing towards the small patches of purple shading on Thomas' shoulder.

Lily knew she had nothing to worry about. She knew she probably shouldn't have even went there to begin with. However she couldn't help but ponder the question, even for a just a split second - could it be Thomas?

The doubtful thought, however, quickly dissipated as quickly as it had materialized. Lily knew he wasn't moonlighting as a bloodthirsty serial killer. He could be a pain in the ass to them all, but picking off the student body? Not likely.

Her head was starting to hurt at the amount of obsessive thinking she was doing over the whole ordeal. She kept promising herself that she'd try to not think about, to just distract herself and go along with her life as normally as she possibly could.

But it was easier said than done. Especially when the entire town was gripped by the murders, with every news station talking about it nonstop, almost glamorizing the tragedy as if it was going to be their claim to fame.

Lily hadn't even realised she'd zoned out until she felt August tapping at her shin, staring up at her with a wide-eyed, concerned glance. After snapping out of the harrowing thoughts that clawed their way up from her subconscious, she heard the distant sound of hollering and loud, borderline aggravating laughing. Her eyes flew over to the source of the obnoxious shouting and immediately rolled them with a scoff when she found those responsible: the school's basketball team.

The careless grins on their faces. The way they jumped around, waving their arms in a celebratory manner, like they'd just won a game. The clear lack of care and respect to the two guys that had their lives taken away from them.

Despite how flustered their behavior got her, Lily couldn't say she was surprised at it. A majority of the guys in any of their school's sports teams were pricks. Inconsiderate, intimidating pricks.

"What's everyone doing tonight, then?" August proceeded to ask, once again pulling Lily free from the shackles of her thoughts.

Not wanting anymore concerned looks, Lily pulled herself down to sit by August, leaning into him playfully. She chuckled when he shot her a look of confusion at first, not expecting her to stumble into his territory so suddenly. But he made no effort to tell her to move, which made Lily smile warmly to herself, feeling comforted from leaning into August's welcoming embrace.